As we finish the spring trade show season, take the to think about a few things before we enter the fall trade show season. Are you maximizing your trade show INVESTMENT? As you can see, the key word here is investment. All too often companies do not have a significant return on their trade show exhibit investment. Why? Because they neglect to create a proper trade show exhibit strategy, which results in their trade shows becoming just a huge expense rather than a giant profit center. Here are three tips to help you with your strategy and help maximize your trade show return on investment.

1. Set goals & expectations:
Over the years as a trade show consultant, I have found that many companies go into exhibiting at trade show blindly, with little to no goals or expectations. Exhibiting merely for market visibility and because other companies are exhibiting, are not acceptable answers. The most important goal or expectation you should set pertains to qualified leads at the show. What type of person do you want to meet at the show and how many you should be able to stop? To answer this, create a lead criteria, so that you and your staff members understand what constitutes a QUALIFIED lead. After this, find out from the show organizers, how many of these leads will be attending the show or have in the past.

This will give you two things:

1. It will provide you the information needed to justify whether or not you should exhibit at the show.

2. It will give you an idea of how many potential leads there are, which gives you something to measure your results up against.

Note: Although in this economy trade show attendance is down, the attendees that do go to the shows are more qualified. This is because they are doing something right by being able to attend, and are most likely looking for opportunities.

2. Booth Attraction:
Once you have chosen the right trade show to exhibit at and determined how many qualified leads you would like to generate at the show, a new question arises. How do we get them in the booth? There are lead generators who specialize in attracting people to a booth; most typical are the booth models. Another option that is often used is the raffle, “Drop your card in the fishbowl for your chance to win!” Both of these methods can be effective or they can be another way to WASTE money. The reason they can be a waste of money is because they may not be attracting the right people. You don’t want to waste your time following up on unqualified leads. Two ways to make sure they are effective for you: 1. If you choose to use a lead generator, make sure they are good and do more than just attract people. A good lead generator will become educated on your business and what determines a qualified lead for you. This will allow them to filter through only the qualified leads to you. 2. If you use a raffle, raffle off something that only your qualified leads would want. This could be a product or maybe a discount on a product or service you offer? This way you know that anyone who enters the raffle is interested in your product, thus a qualified lead.

3. Booth Layout:
Your booth layout can attract or repel people. Have your booth laid out in a way that is open and inviting. If you have a table, put it in the back or on the side of the booth, never in the front as it can act as a barrier. Make sure your messaging in your booth is extremely clear and quickly sums up what you do. The messaging should also appeal to those qualified leads walking the isle.  Avoid chairs in the booth because you don’t want your staff to use them.  I understand working the trade show floor and standing for an extended period of time, but if you staff sits down, attendees are less likely to approach them.

Tip: In order to help with the comfort of spending a day on your feet, double up your socks, use the shoe gels for padding, and take a couple advil before the show. I have found these help.

Recap:
Don’t settle for “it was a good show because it paid for itself!” Maximize your Investment.

How? Set Expectations & create strategy on how you are going to reach them.

Happy exhibiting.

Tags: attendance, attendees, expectation, organizers, profit center, return on investment, set goals, staff members, trade show exhibit

This entry was posted on Friday, February 12th, 2010 at 11:06 am and is filed under Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.