Tips & Trivia
Trade Show Tactics
By
Mar 14, 2005, 14:00

Most companies plan for trade shows as if the exhibition is the only and final event. However, there is crucial planning before the show, and post-show lead follow-up is the most important way to determine your return on investment.

Here are some items to think about when planning your next trade show:

1. Driving traffic to the booth

a. Send pre-show mailings to announce your presence at the show

• All of your prospects should get a mailer
  
• Send to your clients if you are introducing new products that you are showcasing or demonstrating
  
• Rent lists of targeted companies that you would like to
  
• If you can get an advanced list of attendees, send them a mailer as well

• A trinket or coupon is fine. Make it valuable enough to ensure response
  
• Require contact information to be filled out first

• Making it related to your business will act as a prequalification
  
• Non-specific items bring more people into your booth, so have enough staff to handle the crowds

• Determine what collateral and promotional items you will need at the booth
  
• Have general information easily available for the information gatherers
  
• Keep more specific information or more costly materials within your easy reach, but less available to the attendees. That way, you can decide who gets those materials, and hopefully get contact information from them
  
• Having a fishbowl to collect business cards is standardd.
  
• Logo’d promotional items and give-a-ways are expected
  
• Something with staying power is best (ie: a tool rather than a memo pad)

• Determine what type of card readers and how many card readers you will need
  
• Most readers allow you to add your own questions to acquire additional information.
  
• Have a way to capture comments. They give you valuable information that the sales reps can use later on
  
• Collecting names that are not qualified just means more unproductive work and expense later on
  
• Obtain the disk of your leads as well as the paper copies. This makes responding to leads easier.

• Visit other booths to see what your competitors and others in the industry are doing
  
• Seminars are a great place to meet industry leaders that may be unavailable in any other circumstances
  
• If funds permit, secure a hospitality room for entertaining
  
• Otherwise, invite special prospects and/or clients to breakfast, lunch, dinner, or drinks

• Determine ahead of time what information will be sent to the leads collected at the show
  
• Make sure you have enough collateral
  
• Respond within 48 hours of the show
  
• Respect the wishes of the prospect. If they request not to have a salesperson call, don’t call them.
  
• If you don’t have enough collateral or can’t respond in a timely manner, send an e-mail, post card or letter to acknowledge meeting at the show, and that information they requested will arrive shortly
  
• Always personalize your correspondence, using notes gathered at the show if possible
  
• Make sure to add comments to the records sent to the sales reps
  
• Send notifications to the sales reps of who requested what information, along with any comments, for easy follow-up
  
• Hot prospects may buy within 30 days. Warm leads may take six months or longer. Keep following up on a regular basis.
  
• Measure your activity and results to determine ROI.
  
• Reports that show the number of leads and sales that the show generated justifies the cost of the trade show and paves the way for funds for next year.