2 important Tradeshow "MUST DOs"

After 30 years in the event business, I have attended as well as produced a lot of exhibits and trade shows, talked with a lot of exhibitors as well as interviewed participants. Two very critical "MUST DOs" have continuously stood out to me.

• Trade show attendees usually do not have a lot of time to spend on filtering out what is valuable and what is a waste of time. They are always trolling for pertinent information, ideas, suggestions and potential connections to enhance their business.
• You should ask yourself, "Out of all these people, am I appealing to the small percentage who would actually buy my product/service?" Unless you know the details of who actually has bought from you in the past, you cannot answer the first half of this question.
• Unless you know how your industry is changing, you will not be able to answer the second half of this question, "From where are my new customers going to come?"
• If, however, you do know your customer base and the changing needs of your prospective customers, you can improve the odds of winning at the game of tradeshow marketing.
• The first MUST DO is to design, produce and display extremely appealing and readable booth signage which passersby can read in less time than it takes to walk by your booth!
• Look at this signage as a filter that removes disinterested attendees from your sales funnel. The ones that remain, can be dealt with by your well trained booth sales force.
• If you do this effectively, you can increase your sales efficiency due to the high concentration of potential buyers at a tradeshow.
• Now comes the second MUST DO. Training your sales force to sell in a non-threatening manner. Just think of how many times you have walked into a retail store only to be approached by a smiling person who asks, "Can I help you?"
• Interestingly enough, this rather positive phrase can be interpreted as a threat! If you are typical, you answer, "Thanks, I am only looking." You don't want to be sold!
• Now imagine what would happen if that same person approached you smiling and said, "Welcome to our store, my name is Mike. Please feel free to look around. If you have any questions, I'll be over next to the counter."
• You would likely drop your guard because they have effectively given you free reign to the store, You are going to feel great about them and if you do have a question will probably call them over.
• By having reduced your buyer caution and personalized themselves to you, they have developed immediate rapport. This is what ultimately leads to satisfaction for both parties.

By simply doing these two MUST DOs at your future trade shows, you can increase your results by a signifcant amount.