As the economy firms up a lot of small businesses will be switching gears – from cost cutting to growing revenues. One of the best ways to do this is – even in a web economy –is to engage in face to face promotion and selling. This means showroom events (if you have a showroom), lobby promotions and trade shows.

A lot of companies have not been thinking about trade shows and events for a while and to get in front of this change, we put together this list of To Do’s to make your life easier:

• Plan ahead. Make a go/no go decision on the show(s) you’re thinking about early. It will allow you enough time to get ready and will always cost less.

• Get your strategy or message straight. Open a new location? Have a new product or service to tell customers about? Make sure all of the attendees know by making these elements 50% or more of your messaging.

• Define your booth type early. It doesn’t matter if you’re going with a pop up or a modular exhibit, deciding your display format allows you to make a lot of other important decisions.

• Work with vendors that have strong reputations. Everyone in the display industry is cutting price to get business. Of course, you don’t want to spend more than you have to. But don’t obsess about the last $50 and spend hours scouring the web for the best deals. Remember – you get what you pay for and the cheapest offering may end up costing more if it’s poor quality, late or looks cheap. Make sure you know what you’re buying and that you are buying from a company with a strong reputation.

• Get your artwork ready early. Or if your vendor is doing your graphic layout, get the images and direction to them early. Graphics are usually the long lead time on any job – the sooner you have an approved layout, the sooner you’re done.

• Coordinate shipping, logistics and setup. If you just bought a new display, make sure the vendor sends set up instructions – including graphics installation instructions. Make sure you know who is handling the display at every step from the time it leaves your company to the time it returns.

• Give your sales people a refresher. Focus on managing booth traffic, working with collateral and capturing lead information.

• Follow up. And then follow up, follow up and follow up some more.

It’s a lot of fun to get back into selling mode after hunkering down for a few years. But like time away from anything, you may be a bit rusty, so give yourself an opportunity to warm up and get your head around selling again.

Impact Displays offers a family of trade show displays and graphics for exhibitors and event promoters. We hope this list was helpful – we have more tips on our website.

Impact Displays is located at 1934 Junction Ave San Jose CA 95131. The company can be reached at 877-217-2681 or @info@impact-displays.com.

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We’ve talked in past posts about the value of trade shows and face to face marketing. Briefly, face to face experiences offer companies advantages over other types of promotions:

• Live engagement with customers and real-time opportunities to move the sale forward.
• Interactive product demonstration
• Qualified customers (not information gatherers) are at the event

When the economy is down it’s harder to find the budget to go to shows - whether you’re using banner stands and a pop up or a modular display. But now that the economy has started to rise again, now is the best time to get to a trade show, particularly if you are a small company. Why now?

• Your larger competitors can’t react quickly - they may not attend or will have a reduced presence.
• A climate of pent up consumer demand and deferred business investment make sales more like than just a few months ago.
• With bookings low, trade show organizers and travel partners may be offering deals on booth space, displays and travel/lodging.

If your company held off exhibiting at a show or scaled back its presence because times were tight, it’s time to re-think that strategy. Because attending a trade show now – or increasing your presence with a larger booth – may actually make more sense as the economy rebounds than when it’s going full steam. Think about it – do you want to exhibit when your competitors are stronger or weaker?

If you haven’t attended in the past trade show cycle, think about getting a booth. Don’t worry if you only have a pop up - 90% of success is showing up! If you’ve used a pop up and can get a bigger booth, think about a modular display, a truss or a hanging display. They’ll improve your presence, your customers’ perception of your company and they won’t break your budget.

Draft a plan to maximize your face to face budget – you’ll benefit by being nimble and aggressive!

Impact Displays offers a full range of trade show displays and graphics for all types of face to face events and trade shows. And check out our trade show tips and booth buying guide to read the latest!

If your company is small, chances are you’ve felt intimated when you go to trade shows or exhibits. The large companies in your industry can afford large booth spaces and trade show displays, offer giveaways and have other attractions to pull traffic in to their trade show booth.

But you don’t have to have a huge trade show budget to make your presence felt – and being small actually can be an advantage if you play to your small company’s strengths: being nimble, responsive, un-bureaucratic. These are the characteristics that make customers want to work with small companies – why not make them elements of your trade show success too? Here’s how you can be different than your larger competitors.

1. Be flexible. Start with a clean sheet of paper and decide which show or shows make the most sense for your company to attend. Large companies have expectations and so they have to follow a schedule of shows, usually planned the year before. Your company can be flexible and exhibit at shows where there will be impact.

2. Be contemporary. As a small company, you don’t have to have an extensive inventory of trade show displays and it can be easier to stay on the cutting edge because your company is small. Think of the millions large companies spent over the past decade on custom displays. Those investments are stranded now that the industry has largely moved to lower cost modular displays.

3. Be relevant. Large companies have difficulty finding the message to emphasize at a show. They simply have too many messages and too many cooks in the kitchen. As a small company, you can stay relevant by focusing on the few themes that are relevant to your audience and will drive customer engagement.

It’s easy to try to use the same strategies the big guys use, but it may be smarter to emphasize your company’s strengths and use these strengths to have a more effective trade show.

Impact Displays offers a full range of trade show displays and helpful tips to make the most of your trade show investment.