Leveraging Trade Shows for Your Pipeline!

Trade Show. When you broach this subject does your staff get excited or groan with antipathy?

I'm here to tell you if your not using trade shows to boost your marketing and prospecting efforts you are really missing out!

Oh; you've participated before and felt it was a waste of time?

Here's a quick list for trade show selection to ensure you're attending the right events:

1. Relative to your core market (Attending Health Expos if you market junk food is not a good fit)
2. Your competition is attending (Do I have to explain this?)
3. Paid Attendance (If they paid money to get in they're looking for what you have and want you there, free shows attract bus loads of kids and retirees looking for your free stuff)

So you've selected the right event and you've got your staff on board. Make sure you have a few things in order before the big day. Be prepared!

Most important is your presentation. You'll need a display that is professional and branded properly. You do not want people approaching you only to ask who you are and what you offer. Your display should "say" all that before they reach you.

You'll also need materials that that do all of the above. This will include brochures in any medium and perhaps a tote bag. My favorite? Thumb drives that contain your message and can be used again and again by the prospect! Once your display and collateral are aligned, ensure staff apparel reflects a connection.

In considering these things make sure you truly understand who your prospects are.

Once outlined, it's time to reach out to your base contact list and invite them to stop by your space at the show. This is a great touch point and says, "We're thinking of you." To add more value to this contact, see below.

Consider some type of incentive to encourage attendees to commit, to anything! Offer a "day of" discount, first month free, newsletter. Anything that asks them to allow you to follow up. This goes way beyond the engagement items I'll discuss deeper in this post. Make no mistake this is a blatant (no matter how subtle your offer) closing tool and as far as I'm concerned will make your event successful.

In one industry show we offered a "day of" discount and landed thousands in credit card orders in a couple of days. This despite the fact that we were attending one of the largest events in the world with nearly a thousand exhibitors and over a billion dollars of product on display! No one had ever heard of the company and we were over 1,600 miles from the home office. WIN!

Lastly, in your preparation, make sure your staff is sufficient so that the booth is never empty or overwhelmed. If your display is swamped with people stop and think about how many decision makers just walk on by? Striking the right staffing balance may take a couple of tries, just keep in mind that it matters.

Preparing your staff is also key. Make sure they know why they are there. Here are my key staff goals:

1. Always be keep busy as the doldrums will betray you every time (Neaten up collateral, make sure your display is neat and clean, anything)
2. Engage everyone that comes by even if you think they are not a prospect (The decision maker may be right behind them and stop as well)
3. Collect business cards and badge scans from everyone you talk to and make notes regarding your conversation (this allows you to customize your follow up later on)
4. Take time to walk the show, engage other companies and your competition (You'll be surprised what you can learn and repeat #3 above)

Following up. You invested a ton of money in space, materials, logistics, and payroll so make sure you follow up in a timely manner! This I could have mentioned early on because this effort wants to be DONE before the event. It's not what at this point, it's who... Your new contact list.

A pre-loaded follow-up campaign only needs to be generic and should be executed within a day of event closing (badge scans make this easy as you don't have to manage the data). This will put your company and offerings top of mind while they still may remember you.

Secondary follow up would be all those notes and incentive contacts (unless you got an order, handle these under 24 business hours to assure your new customer that we're on track) where a more personalized contact is required.

Even if you made a casual contact leverage the above approaches and you'll be amazed at the impression you'll make and the results it may nurture. I once had a new customer contact after two years of our first connection. They had made up their mind to do business with that first impression, they just were not in a position to do so until later.

I hope this post brings inspiration and value to your efforts. For more about me and/ or to connect professionally please find me via LinkedIn