If your trade show goals are to build awareness & collect sales leads – stay home. Smarter companies will eat your lunch. You can make money at trade shows.

The first trade show I attended was over 30 years ago. The latest one was about a month ago. Do you want to know what’s changed? Very, very little. Trade shows are marketing and sales at their most basic forms. What can you do to attract potential customers, earn their time and attention, and actually earn bucks at your next show? Here are some things you have to realize, accept and change if you want to be successful.

Go to the Right Shows and Not Just the Same as Last Year

Deciding which shows to attend is a combination of voodoo and mindreading. It’s easy to be tempted by giant numbers of attendees, thousands of decision-makers and the lure of discounted marketing. “We’ve always exhibited there” is the worst basis for your choice. What you need is to take the guesswork out of your selection.

Here’s a strategy that’s worked for me for years. Ask your customers what shows they attend and where they exhibit – and then go there. Just pick up the phone and call 20% of your major clients and ask where they go and why. No, you don’t send a mass email to everyone. No, you don’t call your 2-3 biggest customers. No, you don’t assume you know. Get off your butt and do some work.

A few years ago, the top execs at a large medical equipment manufacturer used my strategy before they set their event calendar. In one week they discovered that the majority of their customers didn’t go to most of the shows where the manufacturer had exhibited for years. The company adjusted the strategy, focused on different shows and significantly increased its results.

Who You Are and Why You’re There

One of the biggest benefits of a trade show to your company is that it’s the most efficient way to bring a group of potential customers together in a single place. You don’t spend days, weeks and months chasing them … they come to you. But you have to do your homework. First thing is to forget all the old measurements.

Activity Versus Results

The traditional focus in planning trade shows and events has become centered on activity vs. results. It’s old math. “The more people I attract to my area, the greater chance I have of selling something.” So you run giveaways, promotions, and spend a ton of money to bring anyone and everyone to your booth.

Okay, here’s the reality. The average success rate of finding qualified prospects using a “just fill up the booth” strategy is about 1-3%. Here’s the math:

•  The event attracts 6,000 people.

•  420 – These the 7% who might be interested in your product and/or service.

•  13 – These are the 3% of the potential customers/buyers who will come to your booth.

•  Can you justify the cost and make money with 13 potential customers?

•  With a typical close rate of 10%, that’s about 2 sales.

Forget filling up the booth. Drill down and do enough research to find 250 prospects on the attendee list that are very well-suited to your business. Then use social media to locate information and contacts that would allow you to get introductions and referrals to most on that pared-down list. Experience tells me this approach is likely to turn up 75-120 qualified prospects willing to discuss your ideas further.

Sure it’s going to take time and persistence. But here’s how the math changes.

1.  Target your efforts on the most valuable prospects who are the most motivated to discuss your solutions.

2.  Create a booth experience that is designed to dramatize the benefits of your product or service.

3.  Your success rate will climb to 40% and even higher. That’s ROI math you can take to the bank.

The Most Important Thing to Remember

If you get nothing out of this article but this next point, then you will significantly increase your chances of making money at trade shows.

No One Reads a Trade Show Booth

Okay, time for some tough love. Think about your trade show booth.

•  Does it talk about your company?

•  Does it talk about your product or service?

•  Does it explain what you do?

•  Does it feature pictures and lots of things to read?

•  Is the largest image in the booth your logo?

Your Booth is Boring, Not Effective

All those things are symptoms of a bad booth design. People don’t come to a trade show to read. Ninety percent of the time they completely ignore all the words, diagrams, quotes and slice-of-life people photos. If your booth is all about your company … you are wasting the opportunity.

Trade shows are about the people in the aisles and not in the booths. No one really cares about the name of your product or service or what you do. All they care about is the value you offer them and what it means to them. Let me repeat that: All potential customers care about is the value you offer and what it means to them.

The job of the booth is not just to explain who you are and what you sell. The job of the booth is to slow people down, interest them and bring them inside the booth so your team can explain who you are, what you sell and the benefits. So make your booth about the customers you want to attract.

Make Value the Headline

If you have a choice between showcasing the product or showcasing the big, compelling benefit – go with the benefit. Highlight your biggest value … your showstopper. Forget graphics that show what your product does – focus on what’s in it for the customer. Potential customer want you to help them make money.

Would you stop at a booth where the big message was?

“Slash Your Overhead by 50%”

“Close More Business in 90 Days”

“Approved Customer Financing in 60 Seconds”

If you’ve done some targeted pre-show marketing, your potential customers will already be familiar with your company, what you sell and where you are on the show floor. So make value the headline and go big with what’s in it for them.

Location is More Important than Size

A smaller booth in a great location is better than a larger booth in a bad location. You want to be seen and to be easy to find. Look for a corner location on a main aisle. Please don’t be by the bathrooms or near the food. I know it might seem like a good idea to be across the aisle from a big booth that’s going to attract a lot of people, but please don’t. All attention will be on them, and they’ll suck the life out of the area.

Collecting Business Cards is Lazy and Useless

The goal isn’t to gather new leads; it’s to create new customers. Collecting business cards is what companies did 30-40 years ago in the name of lead generation. They are useless and a waste of everyone’s time. By the time you actually follow up, the customer has forgotten you. Be prepared to do business right there. Research shows that the majority of business generated at a trade show … is done at the trade show.

Be honest with yourself: What can you do in a sales call that you can’t do on a show floor? Unless you’ve demoing giant construction machinery, the answer is “nothing.” Demonstrate, sell, sign contracts, take orders – create new business.

Don’t Give Away Crap

If your idea of a booth give-away is an ink pen, then it better be one hell of a pen. Most giveaways are booth dandruff. They end up in the trashcan or in the hands of a 4 year old. Unless toddlers are your target audience, invest the time to find a premium that is relevant to your booth message. And please don’t go cheap. It’s better to spend $400 on 10s gifts that reward potential customer who can give you some real income, than scatter 400 junky $1 gifts on people who won’t remember you for five minutes.

Make Money Now

Okay, let’s wrap things up. Just having a team of people standing around waiting to talk to whoever shows up isn’t a smart trade show strategy. It’s like the receiving line at a funeral. Instead, take a step back and take a long, hard look at your booth and the experience it offers your potential customers.

Develop a booth plan and experience that showcases the value of your company. Train your people so they can be prepared, proactive and productive. Just because someone is a success calling on clients doesn’t automatically mean they know how to work a trade show booth.

The main goal is to drive more business!

1. Know who you must speak with to achieve your goal.

2. You are there to create new customers and to make money – not to gather leads.

3. Remember that a great location is more important than a big booth.

4. If you are relying on “passing traffic,” just stay home. There are too many distractions to plan on having potential customers or clients “discover” your booth.

5. Make sure the headline of your booth doesn’t describe who you are or what you sell. It should showcase what you mean to potential customers. You booth is all about the value you provide.

6. Don’t offer chairs, couches or lounging areas. Not now – never. The booth team doesn’t sit. Your job isn’t to give strangers a comfortable place to check email and return calls.

7. Speaking with potential customers isn’t a sales presentation, it’s a need/solution conversation. Your goal is to listen more than you talk.

8. If the booth team isn’t actively speaking with prospects, they need to be at the edge of the booth, working the aisle and speaking to people passing by.

In the end, you will actually have clear measurable ROI because you did business. You made money. Hey, I bet that also would make the next trade show much more fun!

Let’s spend 15 minutes talking about your next project or challenge. Just click on CONTACT US or send an email to andy@ideagroupatlanta.com and get in touch.

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