The Exhibitor's Resource – Trade Show Marketing Blog

When preparing yourself or your booth staff for an upcoming trade show, it is important to consider what questions you should be asking visitors when they enter your space. Here are some tips to help you prepare:

• Come up with several direct, but open-ended questions to ask of booth visitors that will first qualify them, and then engage them if they’re your target.
• Encourage qualified visitors to tell you what’s on their minds and ask them what business problems they have that your offering could address.
• Stay away from opening questions like “May I help you?” “How is the show treating you?” and “What do you do?”
• Ask good follow-up or probing questions to find out more.
• Make sure your answers to attendee questions intrigue and feed the conversation. A conversation is about getting information as well as giving information.
• Rehearse your booth presence with some role playing with your colleagues, you’ll be surprised how much better-prepared you’ll be after a dry run.

Popularity: 19% [?]

A very popular feature within trade show display spaces is the product demo. Depending on the product being demonstrated, this could be computer-based or a hands-on demo with the actual product that the exhibitor is introducing to show attendees. Either way, booth staff will benefit from rehearsing their presentation. Even seasoned veteran sales staff who know the product inside and out need to put the time into demonstrating its features and functions in front of an audience to ensure that everything goes smoothly at the show. A test audience can also give feedback about how clear the demo was, suggest changes to help comprehension, and give feedback about what details might benefit from call-outs on supplemental graphics or handouts. Does putting the product in the hands of the audience to pass around help, or is it a distraction? Should audience members be invited to “drive” the computer-based demo? If AV is involved, will it be visible to all of the expected crowd? Run-throughs will help staff answer these questions ahead of the show, and help them get comfortable with their time “on stage.”

Popularity: 9% [?]

No Sitting!
There is no reason for booth staff to sit while in the exhibit space, unless your exhibit space has a lounge area or conference are and you’re having a productive conversation with a prospect or client. Booth staff need to be up and actively reaching out to potential visitors. Sitting behind a table creates a barrier between booth staff and visitors. Booth staff should wear the most comfortable professional looking shoes they have. And schedule your staff so that they can take regular breaks to rest those legs and feet.

Absolutely No Eating or Drinking!
Schedule breaks and lunches for you and your staff so that staffers can have snacks or meals somewhere else other than in the booth space. And leave the coffee cups and soda cans in the food court, you’ll be able to get more at the next break. And think twice about that stick of gum, a mint might be the better option.

No mobile phone usage or texting.
Of course these days it’s very easy to quickly check your email or txt messages on a smart phone, but while you’re representing your company in your booth space, you shouldn’t reply to those messages or receive or place calls. Set your email outgoing message to let your clients know that you’ll be at the show, and will return their calls ASAP if you happen to be unavailable when they call. Adhering to this rule will ensure that you are available to make eye contact with show attendees and effectively engage them in conversation when there is interest.

Never leave an booth unattended.
Be sure to schedule booth staff so that breaks and meals are accommodated. It’s wise to try and have two staffers in even the smallest booth space, just so that there is some overlap in case one person must leave. An unattended booth during show hours is the just like a store being closed during the posted “open” hours. Again, you’ve spent enough money to reserve the booth space, design and set up your display, get staff to the show, so get the most our of ever expo hour with a staffed booth.

Don’t neglect housekeeping.
All booth staffers, no matter how much of a super-star they may be, need to be vigilant about keeping the booth space neat and tidy. Keep trash cans out of sight, personal belongings in storage areas, pick up any trash that appears in the booth, place furniture back into the default locations when visitors leave, replace any light bulbs that may burn out, vacuum the carpet at the beginning of expo hours, and generally do whatever you can to keep your space looking its best.

Popularity: 20% [?]

Exhibitors benefit in many ways from the shows that they exhibit at, but their post-show process can really be a factor in success, now and for future events.

Here are some of the post-show activities that should be planned to maximize the effectiveness of the show:

• Has a daily debriefing meeting among booth staff been planned?
• How will show leads be processed and followed-up on?
• Has a system been put into place to handle the fulfillment of visitor requests for literature, samples and other follow-up materials?
• How will conversions and sales resulting from the show be tracked?

• Did the show expenses stay within the budget?
• Does the budget need to be adjusted for the remaining show calendar, or for the same show next year?
• Based on the show results, what other shows should you consider exhibiting at?
• What recognition will the booth staff receive for meeting show goals?
• How will the success of each show be determined?

Popularity: 31% [?]

A significant and potentially hidden expense of exhibiting at trade shows may not seem like a big deal until you run the numbers after a show. That’s right, I’m talking about the costs associated with producing, shipping and dealing with promotional literature, whether it’s company brochures, product catalogs, or white papers. In the planning stages, little thought may be paid to this traditionally mandatory element of exhibiting at trade shows. However, that lack of planning early on might double, triple or quadruple your costs for this increasingly altogether unnecessary expense. Last minute copy or design changes to literature can delay getting your files to the printer, and force you to pay rushed printing fees, and then rush shipping and handling fees to get the literature to your booth before the show starts. Depending on how much literature you’re bringing in, you may be subject to convention hall drayage fees, and “late surcharges” to boot.

These literature-related costs make you wonder where where all of it ends up. Some estimates say that over half of printed literature handed out at trade shows never even makes it back to the attendee’s office.

So what are some strategies for minimizing this expense?
Exhibitors could bring some literature with them on the plane, but smaller pieces that just hit the highlights but still give the visitor something to remind them of them later. Or exhibitors could bring individual sell sheets so that booth staff can provide info on the specific thing that the visitor was interested in, rather than providing an entire catalog.

Exhibitors could bring a small supply of literature, and replenish only what they start running out of with a quick electronic order via a national quick-print chain (you know some popular options). You can even leave your home city while the final tweaks to the design of the new brochure are being made, and have the digital files electronically sent over to the print center in the city your show is in and have them fulfill small batch orders from there.

Or you can be a savvy exhibitor and bring none, but be set up to print on-demand inside your exhibit on the show floor. On-demand printing gives you an extra advantage because it allows for custom-tailored information to be added to the documents being printed. Not only can you provide information specific to the products or services that the prospect is interested in, but you can even include their name for a personalized touch, and the name of their regional representative or local dealer office.

But you could be a real maverick and not just send no literature, but offer digital-only versions of everything. Depending on your industry and how your company does business, this might not be as out-there as it might have once seemed. The literature you once thought to be a requirement might actually be a burden that your contact doesn’t want to carry around the show the rest of the day or weigh their luggage down with. And what better way to follow up with your prospect or client after a show than to email them the product catalog they requested and you promised? Even mailing out select pieces of literature can be a smarter move than providing it on the trade show floor.

Need another good reason to consider alternative lit printing strategies? Here’s one: reduction of your company’s carbon footprint. The less literature you print and ship (especially air ship), the better for the environment it is. Reduce the number of trees required to produce the paper. Reduce the amount of fossil fuels it takes to not only ship bulk literature out to the show, but to ship the left overs back to your home city.

Popularity: 36% [?]

What’s the best way to get prospects to visit you at your office? Set up shop on the trade show floor! Many sales professionals would jump through a lot of hoops to have hundreds of qualified prospects visit their office in just a few days. Yet some sales people are less enthusiastic about staffing their company’s trade show display. Are expo days long? Yes, they are! Are your feet tired by the end? If you’re not gelling, they may be. But look at what you get out of it: lots and lots of leads, many introductions, several good starter conversations, a few really promising business relationships, and a handful of sales or pending sales. Is it worth it? Absolutely! You just need to think of your trade show display as your office away from office. Or showroom away from showroom. Would you show up for your work day without appointments on the calendar? Of course not! Be sure to set appointments at your show just as you would at the office. You need to get on your prospect’s dance card. You need to make time for existing clients. Reach out, be a good host, and make the most of your satellite office!

Office Away from Office

Popularity: 17% [?]