You’ve probably spent lots of time putting together and executing on your trade show plan and you’re now back at the office with that “post trade show glow”.  You’ve got tons of leads, met some really interesting business development prospects, and are really excited about the outcome of your show.

 That’s the good news.  The bad news is that work has piled up in the office while you were away and you’re really tempted to switch gears and put the trade show leads on the back burner.

 Although you’ll certainly need to address the most burning issues in the office, it’s also critical to capitalize on all the great leads you generated at the show and turn them into sales!  So here are a few tips to help get through the crisis:

 PREPARE.  By pre-writing a follow-up letter and email and having fullfillment packets (if any) ready to go, you can make the initial follow-up step really easy!  This is even easier if you’ve paid the small fee for a lead collection system at the show and have a comma delimited file you can input into your database system for tracking and mailing.  You should check with the lead collection system supplier ahead of time to understand the file format and make sure you know exactly how to upload the leads into whatever lead tracking and email system your using.  This will also save a lot of time after the show.

 TAKE NOTES.  If you take detailed notes regarding follow-up actions and priorities at the show, then you’ll be organized and ready to go when you get home.  I recommend categorizing leads as “hot”, “warm”, “long term”, “discard” to ensure that you give them the proper priority.

MOVE FAST.  The faster you get back in contact with your prospects, the more likely you are to win their future business.   So, above all, be sure to contact those “hot” prospects within two days of your return, and the “warm” and “long term” within 1 week max. 

OUTSOURCE.  If you absolutely know you won’t be able to handle the follow-up yourself when you return, then make sure you have a plan in place BEFORE the show, to have someone else take on the follow-up and tracking tasks after the show ends.

OK.  Having just returned from the “trade show for the trade show display industry” out in Las Vegas I have to add one more major “Don’t” to my list.  Which is…  don’t interrupt an interested prospect to talk to someone from your office on your cell phone.  I know it’s hard to believe, but a sales rep actually did this to myself and a colleague while we were inquiring about a new product that was being introduced.  We waited around a couple of minutes, but after that I said enough is enough and we excused ourselves. 

 Not surprisingly we never did make it back to their booth.

One of my favorite sources of marketing “best practices” is the Marketing Sherpa group.  If you subscribe to their newsletter you can get all sorts of great advice that’s actually backed up by solid market research and best practice studies. 

 They recently published a very interesting and relevant case study entitled “How Simple & Inexpensive trade show Souvenir got 430% ROI“.  This great case study is one of many available on their site.  And best of all, many of their articles and case studies are free if you download them quickly.

Just go to www.marketingsherpa.com for more information. 

As promised, here is the fun corollary to “Top 10 tips for a successful trade show”.  I’ve seen lots of major blunders over the years, and here are my top 10.  To enhance your reading experience, I’ve listed the items in reverse order (with #1 being the biggest blunder). 

#10  Cluttered and messy trade show booth.  You’ve all seen the booth that’s filled with empty food containers, empty bottles, notebooks, giveways from other booths, and other miscellaneous junk.  Usually these same booths have staff that’s busy talking to each other, emailing, and text messaging.  It basically says to the audience “I’m not professional, very busy, and not focused on you”. 

#9  No pre-show marketing.  The best evidence of this is usually a booth with little traffic and no buzz.  Great booth traffic doesn’t happen by chance (at least not usually), so be sure to take advantage of all the great pre-show marketing opportunities listed in my previous blog post 

#8  No post-show marketing.  This is probably one of the most common mistakes that exhibitors make since they’re generally exhausted and behind on their “regular job” by the time they get back to the office.  But, this is a huge mistake which is akin to forgetting to tag the bases after you’ve hit a home run.  The fact is that the faster you get back to your prospects the more likely you are to close a sale.  If possible, try to send out emails each night to at least the more qualified prospects you’ve met, and follow up within a week to schedule a meeting to answer follow-on questions. 

#7  Untrained personnel.  One step better than having no staff, or unfriendly staff, is a set of staff people who know nothing about the company or product you’re interested in discussing.   This raises questions in your customer/prospect’s mind about the company’s dedication to the product or service and whether they’ll be able to get support when they need it. 

#6  Going to the wrong show.  The definition of “the wrong show” can vary widely, but basically it’s a show that doesn’t match the company’s target markethas very few qualified buyers (i.e. lots of consultants, job seekers, and other people trying to sell to you rather than vice versa)has a high cost per qualified prospect (i.e. the total exhibition cost including booth space, booth services, shipping, travel, other overhead, is very high and the turnout of qualified prospects is very low).  

#5  Missing a critical trade show.  As someone once said, the first step to accomplishing anything in life is to “just show up” (http://thinkexist.com/quotes/with/keyword/show_up/ ).  If you aren’t at the show, and your competitors are there, you’re missing out on customer meetings and new prospect demos, and, most importantly, the chance to build relationships. 

#4  Really bad body language.  Some booth staffers almost shout “leave me alone!” with their body language.  Here are a few of my favorites:everyone is standing around talking to each other with their backs to you so you feel like it’s rude to ask a question.  Usually these are the really big booths with lots of people “working” and no customers there (I wonder why?)everyone is standing like security guards with arms folded and mad looks on their facesThe one guy in the booth is working away on his email (or web surfing) with his back to you. 

#3  No booth personnel.  I’m always amazed that companies let this happen.  It basically says that you aren’t capable of managing your company well enough to properly staff your booth.  And if you can’t staff a trade show booth are you really ready to handle my business??  You never know when that one “big fish” is going to stop by and you better be there when she does!  One of our customers, BabyCubes, had the President of Whole Foods stop by her booth at a recent trade show and tell her that her product was the best organic baby food product he’d seen at the show.   Just think if nobody was there to talk to him! 

#2  Really lousy trade show display.  I’m sure you’ve all seen the company with a desk, chair, and a schlocky looking sign that has the company name, and, maybe, some low resolution photo that’s been blow up way above the 4×6 inches that it was shot at.  This just screams out to the audience that “I’m a one may show, don’t have any resources, and probably won’t do a better job with your project than I did with my booth display”. 

#1  No exhibit booth.  I’m sure you’ve all seen it as well.  The totally empty 10×10 display space with the black drape in back and a small black and white with the poor company’s name on it.  This, of course, is much worse than not being at the show.  It basically says that you’ve gone out of business.  My advice – buy your display from a company that’s been around for awhile and has good references, give yourself plenty of time, and use a reputable shipping company.

After 20 years of exhibiting at trade shows I’ve learned a few things about what works and what doesn’t.  This post lists my top 10 tips for a successful trade show.  My next post will talk about the 10 biggest mistakes you don’t want to make.  So what should you do?

1.  Pick the best tradeshow(s).   The starting point is the show itself.  If your target audience isn’t attending, then no amount of great show marketing will give you the results you’re looking for.  So do your homework and make sure you’re at the right show.  If you’re looking to get into a new market segment, then a show is a great way to learn more about the market and announce your entry.

 2.  Get a good booth location.  If you can’t get a decent location then you may want to re-consider whether it’s worth the time/expense to atend.  That said, if you do enough pre-show and on-site marketing, you can still drive traffic to your trade show exhibit.  So, if you end up in the far corner near the loading dock, be sure to re-double your show marketing efforts.

3. Have a great looking trade show display.  Today’s trade show exhibits are much much better than what was available 10 years ago.  There are a variety of great looking, portable, and easy to setup trade show displays on the market today.  A mural graphic pop-up display sets up in about 15 minutes and gives you a huge (8 foot tall by 10 or 20 foot wide) graphic display are for your messages and branding.  The mural panels ship in the same case as the frame, and hang directly onto the frame itself (i.e. no velcro) so you get great alignment and easy setup.  A fabric display provides a unique look and is very lightweight.  In this case you’re hanging a fabric directly onto the frame.  Fabric graphics can also be folded for very cheap shipping (just bring a steamer with you to get rid of any wrinkles) and can often be dropped into the washing machine if they get dirty.!

 4.  Have sufficient staff.  I occasionally see booths with no staff in them.  What a huge waste (or worse).  Even if it’s a small local show you may want to think twice about sending a single local sales rep who has other priorities beyond staffing the booth.  He or she may be happy to go out to lunch with her favorite customer, but, in the meantime, you’re looking like a small company that can’t manage their trade show efforts and thus probably will be messing up their orders as well.

Also be sure to prepare and distribute a show schedule well ahead of time so that everyone can arrange their transportation and schedules prior to the show.  Have handouts at the show as well so everyone knows when they need to be at the booth.

5.  Train your staff carefully.  A couple of basic rules are: no food or drinks in the booth, talk to customers — not each other.  Also be sure to train people carefully - especially about new products, new services, and anything that’s being launched or announced at the show.  Make sure everyone can deliver the 20 second “elevator pitch” and create a shortlist of frequently asked questions (FAQ’s) that everyone can answer

6. Follow-up on those leads!  Follow-up is critical.  Don’t assume that prospects will get back to you.  Most people are overwhelmed at a show and forgot to take notes about much of what they saw.  A follow-up call, email, and/or letter (all three would be a plus), is welcomed since they initiated the conversation at the show.  A lack of follow-up shows a lack of interest on the exhibitor’s part.

7. Use pre-show mailers to drive traffic to your booth.  Many exhibitors “just show up” at their trade show and count on walk-by traffic.  While this is OK if you’re Microsoft and have the marquee location, it’s not OK for “the rest of us”.   Send pre-show mailers to existing customers and new prospects.  Most shows will provide free direct mail pieces to exhibitors — take advantage of this!  Get your sales team involved as well and have them personally email and call key customers to invite them to your booth.  One of the software companies I worked at, OnTime software, had an outstanding sales force and this was a key tactic that we used.  The result was an always packed booth (with corresponding “buzz” to drive new booth traffic), and very loyal, repeat, customers.

8. Take advantage of the myriad of PR opportunities at trade shows to launch a new product or service.  Trade shows are loaded with press people and are very supportive of press activities with free press rooms and published lists of press attendees.  By launching a new product or service at a trade show you can meet with all the key trade press in a single location.   Just be sure to avoid a launch at a major trade show like CES or AAPEX unless you’re also a major player who won’t get lost in the barrage of announcements that occurs at a very large show.

9.  Use on-site marketing to drive traffic.  There are lots of things you can do to drive booth traffic. The key tactics I recommend are:

• advertisements in the show guide
• sponsorship banners to get your brand noticed (this is especially good for brand building since it positions you as a “mover and shaker”)
• fun promotional handouts — although these can also bring lots of unwanted traffic as well (especially late on the last day).
• Create scripted demos with a “theater” and a posted schedule.  Good loudspeaker systems and music also help drive traffic to theater style demos.
• Consider outside advertising on hotel channels, buses, and local billboards
• Consider hiring a magician.  I know it sounds tacky, but they really do draw a crowd, and they also stick in prospects memories — especially if you can somehow tie the show into your product offering.

10. Show up : )  If you aren’t there, you’re missing out.  It’s guaranteed that one or more of your competitors is at the show and talking to your potential new customers (or existing customers).  So pick the top shows, buy a great booth, do pre-show and onsite marketing, create a buzz, get those leads, and follow up !

Back in the crazy “dot com” days, one of the many (really wrong) prevailing wisdoms was that trade shows were going the way of the dinosaurs since there were these great new web meeting services around like WebEx.  The prevailing wisdom was that technology would eliminate the need to travel and actually meet face to face (heaven forbid) with other people.

As with most of the dot-com hyperbole, this was a very shortsited conclusion.  The fact is that meeting face-to-face with people is much more than a way to convey words, it’s actually a critical element to successful business relationships and creates something that no “virtual meeting” can accomplish.   Just a few of the advantages of “real” (vs. virtual) meetings are:

• face-to-face interactions build lasting relationships between people
• face-to-face interactions provide a much higher degree of credibility and comfort than virtual meetings
• face-to-face interactions show that your business partner has a strong interest in the relationship (i.e. activities that actually take some effort show committment!)
• face-to-face interactions are much better at selling tangible products

In addition, trade shows have many unique benefits that are uniquely powerful:

• They provide instant credibility to any business (if you do a professional job)
• They allow you to meet with many new prospects in a very small amount of time
• They allow you to meet with hundreds or thousands of exisiting customers face-to-face with only one roundtrip plane ticket
• They provide a venue for sales meetings,  new product trainings, and other company meetings
• They provide a great way to get feedback on new products and services in a very small amount of time
• They’re a great way to meet with trade press
• They provide a great networking opportunity with suppliers and other potential partners
• Just a few closed deals can usually pay for your trade shows and your ROI can be in the 300% ++ range if you carefully track leads all the way to closure.

These reasons, among others, are why the trade show industry has rebounded so strongly from the dot-com crash.  In fact, attendance at tradeshows continues to grow.  According to the Center for Exhibition Industry Research (CEIR), attendance at exhibitions increased 13.5% in 2Q07 compared with 2Q06. 

So don’t miss out on your next industry show.  Your customers are there and you should be too!

 p.s.  Interesting insider note:  WebEx, which was historically one of the better technology marketing companies out there,  actually exhibited at a lot of trade shows - which is probably one of the reasons they acheived market dominance in their sector.

Hello and welcome to my trade show marketing blog.  This blog is designed to share what I’ve learned in my 25+ years in various Marketing positions at companies both very large (HP, Xerox) and fairly small (OnTime software, Vibrance Networks).  Although the focus of this blog is trade show marketing, I’ll cover the complete marketing mix including product marketing, strategic marketing, and other areas of outbound marketing and lead generation.

I hope that by sharing my experiences I can help you avoid mistakes and do some things better than your competitors and maybe impress some customers and your boss (if applicable) along the way.

Best regards,

Mike Weimar
President
Impact Displays