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ARTICLE:
Trade Show Tips
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Determining if, when and how to exhibit at a trade show may appear a tad tricky, but using our basic guidelines and tips in this article can make the process easier than ever. OUT THERE PRODUCTIONS is experienced in the nuances of trade show production, exhibit design, stategy planning and sales followup. Contact us if you have questions or would like to learn more about how we can help.

SHOULD you Exhibit?

The biggest question you need to evaluate is whether the trade show in question is the right venue for your business. While the difficulty of making this decision may be the prime reason why some companies do not exhibit at any tradeshows, it’s a fairly straightforward issue to determine once you have the facts. Gain as much information as you can about the show, and determine if competitors exhibit there. Consider the attending audience, location, and history of the exhibiting organization, as well as the success of past shows. Contact customers and other colleagues, and solicit their impression of the show's value. Assess the possible expense of your presence at this show, and be sure to include any advertising and media attention that will be generated by the exhibiting organization, as well as by you. Each of these factors is important in deciding whether the show is a prime venue for your exhibit.

WHAT Should you Exhibit?

Determining WHAT you should exhibit depends on WHAT your goals are. In most cases your primary objective will be to gather leads for post-show followup. Secondary goals can also be set. For example, you can:

  • Introduce new products or services
  • Attract media attention
  • Strengthen brand identity
  • Gain media attention
  • Hold customer meetings
  • Recruit employees
  • Connect with buyers, dealers, resellers and manufacturers' representatives

As simple as these goals may seem, try not to aim too high. Consider the length of the show, and either limit your show-floor objectives accordingly OR hold related events before and after show hours.

All too often, exhibitors leave a tradeshow feeling that it was not successful because nothing was sold. Keep in mind that, unless you're selling low-cost retail, most products and services are simply not purchased directly on show floors.

Business-to-business trade shows are quite different: studies reveal that most businesspeople attend tradeshows merely to make contacts and discover more about new products and services. OUT THERE PRODUCTIONS suggests that you focus on making contacts for future followup. Should sales occur at the booth on show day, even better!

HOW Should you Exhibit?

The third thing to decide is how you will be exhibiting in your booth space, and which items you’ll need to support your show goals.

The exhibiting organization is responsible for filling the aisles with a large audience of potential customers, but YOU have the job of attracting them into your booth. Thus, whatever you place in your booth should be for this specific purpose.

To get an idea for how much space you have, measure it on an open space and mark it with masking tape. Mark out and arrange your potential exhibit items, then allow four quare feet per person. If you can’t find room for a few customers, either consider other ways to showcase your products and services with lesser space, or add more space.

To a potential customer, WHAT your company does is often more important than WHO your company is. This is important to remember when designing graphics and determining what to bring. Concentrate on products and services, specifically with the point of showcasing how they will make the customer’s job easer.

With your objectives in mind, prepare a list of all items needed. For example:

  • Goals to generate leads for later followup will require a mechanism to collect and store information. This can be as simple as a folder or bowl for business cards, or as sophisticated as an electronic card reader. Contact the exhibiting organization to determine any optionsthey provide, as well as their cost.
  • Goals to introduce products may require the product itself and space for a demonstration, or may only require supporting photos or other graphics that depict its function or application.
  • Goals to recruit resellers or employees will require a list of positions available.

Designing your Booth

Here are some quick guidelines to consider when designing and decorating your trade show exhibit:

Avoid chairs. On large showfloors, the tired will seek them out and listen to anyone so long as they can sit. If you find seating absolutely necessary, consider their need and then design a private area within larger booths for relxation or private customer meetings, based on your requirements.

Factor in a minimum of eight square feet next to each major exhibit area in your booth; four are needed for your representative and four more are needed for at least one potential customer.

If you're considering greenage, order only dry or artificial plants and arrangements. Allergies may be a possible reason for some people bypassing your booth.

Music is generally not recommended, as it prevents or distracts from conversation you’ll want to have in your booth.

Identify Barriers and Eliminate Them. Barriers are either physical or psychological elements that get between you and your prospects. This can be a table that discourages people from entering your booth, or a conversation between you and your booth mate that a prospect may not want to interrupt. Be on the lookout for these barriers and remove them right away.

Scents, including perfume, candles, incense, cleaning products, and anything that produces an aroma, is generally a bad idea. Large numbers of people have allergies to these items, and often the most tantalizing aromas are either distracting or in many cases unpleasant. Unless you're selling baked goodies, avoid intentional aromas and scents.

Beverages and Food. While offering cookies, candy or refreshments at your booth will drive traffic into your booth, be wary; these individuals may be there only for the free stuff. Not all traffic is good traffic. Unless these freebies are actual samples of your product, we wouldn’t recommend anything other than a bowl of mints… and make sure your company name is on them!

WHO Should Represent your Company?

The question of who should ‘man’ your booth is important. Consider the following when making this decision:

  • Booth sizes vary, but often are as small as 100 square feet. The general recommendation is that no more than two company representatives should man a booth of this size at any given time, since space must be available for potential customers to enter your booth.
  • Carefully review your show goals before determining which individuals should pull booth duty. For example, while it's possible that sales people will always be need, an HR representative may also be necessary if you are seeking new employees, or a loan officer if you want to sell mortgages.

How do you Exhibit a SERVICE?

Product displays and demonstrations are by far the most common exhibits seen at trade shows. However, services are sometimes not as readily ‘demonstrated.’ This is often the pitfall of companies such as accountants, dentists, bankers, software developers, etc. However, your service may not be as important in your exhibit as the result of your service. For example:

  • An accountant could attract attention by making use of the tax deadline on April 15th. Graphics with high visual appeal that ask the question IS YOUR BUSINESS READY or a standing floor sign denoting the number of days left until tax day may lure attendees in with financial questions.
  • Insurance agents often find success with photos of fires or other disasters at businesses, with a tag line reading ARE YOU PREPARED FOR THE WORST.
  • A masseuse or chiropractor could bring along a massage chair and offer five-minute neck rubs.
  • A computer or software expert can exhibit laptops and offer demonstrations of their past projects (be sure to get your clients’ permission before displaying anything with potential copyright violation, however).
  • Dentists, cosmetologists, plastic surgeons or interior decorators make terrific progress with large photographs of before-and-after shots.
  • Dry cleaners can attract attention with a sign the reads WE DELIVER TO YOUR BUSINESS.

Here are some ideas for showcasing services at booths:

  • A short presentation of an open-loop (self-repeating) video or multimedia presentation displayed on a large monitor allows prospects to get a feel for your service, and salespeople to gauge the interest of prospects by how long they watch the tape. The ones that stay are likely candidates for a sales pitch. (Here’s an important note about video presentations: always remember the importance of being a good booth neighbor. The volume for your presentation should never interrupt their booth business! We generally recommend video presentations that need not rely on any volume, but merely supply visual appeal.)
  • Large graphics on your booth’s walls that show your service in use, and the resulting benefits of its use is a good way to stop people along the aisle. Make these graphics highly visual and attention-grabbing.
  • Loyal customers from well-known industries or companies in your booth offering testimonials, along with this company’s name displayed in your booth) can draw the attention of aisle walkers.

Do you need LITERATURE?

The biggest mistake that trade show exhibitors make with literature is assuming that it will be costly to prepare. In fact, trade show literature can be very inexpensive. It’s not necessary to print glossy four-color brochures. Most potential customers merely want a list of your products and services, an overview of sales or seasonal specials, a price list, and sometimes more detailed information specific to a particular product. In many cases, this information can be printed for far less than you think.

Get at least two quotes from reputable printers, and be clear with them about your goals and needs; they often have ideas on printing your literature so that it looks better for less. In fact, this might be a good time to review your company’s web site; if the literature you hand out is on the web, you can get away with simply handing them a ‘special invitation’ to review the materials there.

The second biggest mistake made with literature is bringing too much of it. Provide only general literature at your booth. Contacts who need more detailed information can be sent it in a day or two after the show, and it’s the perfect excuse for dropping by their office or making that important followup call. In addition, always remember that today’s trade show literature is tomorrow’s garbage. Don’t offer two-inch-thick folders of paper to anyone other than a hot prospect. Anyone else will toss the packet as soon as they return to their office – plan on it. Finally, consider a businesscard-sized CD that is custom-designed to hold all product literature and doubles as your actually businesscard. (For more information on multimedia CDs, click HERE.)

Here’s the third biggest mistake: placing your literature at the entrance to your booth and allowing people to walk in, take it, and leave. Remember that the entire purpose of having a booth is to generate sales leads. If people walk away without so much as an introduction, you will never know who you need to follow up with. The solution to this problem is simple: never surrender literature – or a giveaway – without first getting a businesscard or some contact information. Always note what the contact was interested in, and if more information is needed, on the back of their card, and store these cards in a safe location.

An interesting point about literature is that people are quick to toss paper into the trash heap without hesitation, but will often hang onto other types of media. This includes floppy disks, videotapes and CDs. These can contain presentations, files describing your product literature, audio, video and links to your web site. As a result, you may want to strongly consider providing hot prospects with these types of items.

Booth Duty Tips

Greeting People. Trade Shows are a contact sport. You need to make contact with prospects at all times; otherwise, you needn’t bother exhibiting. Make a point of having an opening line ready for use. Introducing yourself, or asking if you can help are not effective lines. Instead, opt for something that requires a helpful response, such as ‘what caught your interest,’ or what does your company do.’ Take the time to listen to their response, and formulate how your product or service can help them.

Dress. While larger trade show exhibitors sometimes opt for outfits with corporate logos on them to help identify service people, smaller exhibits don’t require this. Until recently, exhibitors generally dressed in business attire, but this trend has migrated to business-casual. The important rule is to dress as you normally would when meeting prospective customers. Whatever you choose, your attire should be clean and comfortable; it's very hard to smile if your feet are killing you! Some strategies do work for attention grabbing, however: one client prepared buttons for their booth people containing the corporate logo and a question for each person pertaining to their purpose at the booth (for example, ASK ME ABOUT OUR FREE SHIPPING or ASK ME ABOUT POSITIONS AVAILABLE). Finally, we recommend that you wear something with pockets… it’s frustrating to realize that you’ve no place to put your business cards.

Name Badges. If you don’t already have them, we recommend a nice name badge made with your name, your company’s name and your logo printed on them. You’ll get a lot of mileage out of this item.

Booth Hosts. It’s important to appoint a host if more than one person will man the booth. This individual would invite people into the booth area and hand them off to the person responsible for the sales pitch.

Sales Pitches and Demonstrations. Remember to keep your presentations, pitches and demos quick. You have only minutes to weed out a serious prospect, and they will lose interest during longer talks.

Rehearsals. Spend time training your staff before the show. Let them know why you're exhibiting and what you hope to accomplish. This includes practicing any product demonstrations beforehand and being totally familiar with all aspects of the product or service. Give your staff specific goals, such as a certain number of contacts, leads or demonstrations. This gives them a tangible objective to strive for. Have them memorize a brief sales pitch to effectively convey your message.

Booth Etiquette. If you can avoid it, don’t sit down; it looks unprofessional. Never eat in your booth, avoid social conversations with your booth mates, and turn your cell phone OFF. Smile, appear warm and approachable, make eye contact, and always present the image that you are enjoying yourself and are happy to be exhibiting. Take time to listen to attendees to discover their needs and learn how your product or service can help them. If the conversation becomes lengthy and you see others waiting to talk with you, ask for a businesscard and make an appointment to discuss their issues further. Better yet, present them with a Cocktail Mixer Ticket and meet with them after the show.

Actively seek out potential customers. Talk to people at the refreshment areas, after-hours events, in the hallways, wherever you can find them. We've found some of our best clients by striking up conversations in elevators and even the ladies room!

Prepare a Booth First-Aid Kit

Always be prepared with a Booth First Aid Kit that includes the following:

  • Duct tape and scissors (duct tape is an all-purpose repair tool!)
  • Electric cords
  • Stapler and note pads
  • Breath mints
  • One regular and one phillips-head screwdriver, and a small box of assorted screws and nuts
  • Several boxes of large binder clips (these will hold up anything in a pinch!)
  • A spare pair of pantyhose (you decide if this is personally necessary)
  • Bottles of water and breath mints
  • Plenty of businesscards
  • Your business calendar, to schedule appointments
  • Lots of pens (these will go fast)
  • Foam inserts for your shoes (no kidding - you'll be glad you brought them)
  • Contact information for your booth provider, the closest 24-hour copy service, and other colleagues who may be needed to help you assist customers.

About Give Aways, Contests and Prizes

Give-aways can be a great form of free publicity. If your item is expensive, avoid offering them to anyone except the more serious prospects. Some exhibitors find that ordering two sets of give-aways often works best (inexpensive pens for everyone to take, and more expensive items for the bigger fish). Finally, tote bags are usually tossed after the show, they are always in high demand during show hours. When you encourage attendees to use the tote bag right away to hold their show items, they become walking billboards for your company or product. For more information about giveaways, click HERE.

People frequently ask about contests and prizes. Pre-show teaser mailings that tell prospects to bring the letter or postcard to your booth to enter a free drawing for a prize (cameras, DVD players and computer software are a few ideas) or to receive a free giveaway is always a good idea to consider. You can also try something creative, like part of a jigsaw puzzle, a key to unlock a treasure chest, a lottery type of ticket (match the winning number at the booth). Studies also show that pre-show mailers accompanied by a giveaway produces substantially higher traffic than a mailer without a giveaway. Don't forget to include the booth number in the mailer!

Need Help?

Contact OUT THERE PRODUCTIONS. We're on hand to give your trade show presence the attention it deserves.