Successful trade show appearances take preparation.

There are six factors that need to be addressed to ensure success.

1. Set goals

What is the purpose of being an exhibitor at the show?

• Develop brand awareness?
• Take orders?
• Develop qualified leads for company products or services?
• Enhance the company image?
• Launch a new product?
• Consumer education?
• Do market research?
• Make a mailing list?
• Make contact with existing customers?

Most company's objectives in attending trade shows is to develop qualified leads. These leads are for future contacts resulting in sales.

Whatever the goal, it must be conveyed to the staff expected to man the booth. Do not assume any of your staff knows anything about manning the booth. Cover everything with them.

2. Make the booth personnel accountable.

Set performance goals and make them accountable to those goals.

Be realistic. Remember that salespeople need success. If their goal is to shake hands with all 25,000 attendees at a one week show then they will have to meet almost 4,000 people in eight hours (4 on, 4 off, 4 on). Know anyone who can do that?

A more realistic goal might be to figure that the salesperson could meet and speak with between 10 or 12 people an hour and qualify two or three as good prospects.

Just showing up and putting in their time should never be acceptable.

We can't emphasize this enough. MAKE SURE THEY KNOW WHY THEY ARE THERE AND WHAT YOU EXPECT.

Let them know how you expect them to dress. Obviously this is different from show to show and where the show takes place. Staffing schedule. Remember after 4 hours productivity, enthusiasm, and attitudes go in the tank. Booth etiquette and attitude.

No chewing gum, no sitting down, no eating or drinking, no smoking, no reading, and no chatting with other booth personnel.
Never ignore a prospect or be overly aggressive. Don't fake it, everyone can see it. Don't wander around or be disinterested.

Know your products and/or services
Know your competition
Show enthusiasm without being phony
Be confidant and work hard Be clean, dress well, brush your teeth.
Your booth should be kept clean and neat. Know where everything is.
Be nice to everyone including "lookers". You never know who they might be.
You should be honest, and be ready to talk about and demonstrate your product.
Know your product's benefits, not just the features.

Booth personnel who are friendly, wide awake, knowledgeable, and technically qualified.
Good literature and displays
No high sales pressure
Benefits, benefits, benefits and less features
Information on new products and services.

4. Sales Techniques

There are 5 steps to good sales techniques.

First is the opening. Make eye contact and ask an open-ended question having nothing to do with your booth, products or services. How are you enjoying the show? What's the weather like outside? Where did you get your pop? Have you been to any of the seminars? The salesperson needs to take control in a non-threatening manner to get the conversation started.

Second is to qualify the prospect. My name is Charley, what's yours? Where are you from? What company are you with? What do you do there? The salesperson needs to determine what is the prospect's need for the products or services you sell? What is the time frame of their purchase?

The third step is the presentation. Can you do demonstrations in your booth? This is always a great way to involve the prospect. Sales people usually want to talk about all the features of their products and services. A better method is to state a feature (something that makes the product special) and then describe the benefit of that feature. Benefits are what prospects want. Remember that benefits are seen differently by every prospect. After describing the benefit ask for a response and listen to it. The response will help you determine your prospects needs.

The "close" is fourth. If your goal is qualifying a lead, then the close is getting all the information required to complete a follow-up call back.

Fifth and last is follow-up. No follow-up can be done if the lead wasn't recorded properly. Use a lead sheet that allows an intelligent follow-up call to be made. Trying to remember what you spoke to a prospect about five days and 250 clients ago is impossible. Keep a notebook in the booth to record call back information in.

If you haven't followed up on your prospects within 2 weeks of the end of the show you might as well throw your leads out because you're kidding yourself if you think it will ever get done. 70 to 80% of exhibitors never follow-up on their leads!

Figure out how much your booth, booth space, payroll, benefits, meals, lodging, travel, literature, display materials, samples, business cards, and other items cost and then you do not follow up on your leads? Are you crazy? Just send us your check for an amount equal to several to many thousands of dollars and save yourself the headaches.

Try a publicity campaign before the show to encourage clients and prospects to visit your booth at the show. Send flyers with invoices and statements. Try a direct mail campaign. Encourage your salespeople to call prospects and invite them.

6. Post-show evaluation

Meet with the booth personnel after the show and solicit their input on what worked and what didn't. They were on the line and can provide good advise. You must be proactive.

Wrap-up ideas

A very important point is choosing the right show for your company. There are websites out there with extensive lists of upcoming shows. Talk to the show management about the purpose, number of attendees, who other exhibitors are, ask for name from previous shows and call them to find out about their experience from the last show.

Gift bags are a waste of time and money. Give-away novelties are not worth anything either.

Fishbowls do not produce qualified leads. Have you ever cold called anyone off a business card with no other information and developed a sale?

Drawings bring people in for a chance at free stuff. Are these prospects? Know who makes a good prospect for your goods and services.

Plan on one sales staff per 50 square feet of booth space. How many people can stand in a 10 foot booth without stepping on each other? Two sales people and two or three clients fill it up completely.

The most dazzling booth in the world is only worth 20% of your success. 80% of your success will come from the professionalism and training of the people you have staffing the booth. Train them and prepare them.

We would appreciate your feedback on this web page. Your experiences for or against anything here will help us refine our information. Please e-mail us.