You Gotta Be In It to Win It

 

 

 

I recently attended and exhibited at the NJBIZ Expo at the New Jersey Convention and Expo Center in Edison, NJ.  I wanted to make it a point to survey a few exhibitors as to, “how successful they thought the show was for their business”.  The comments I got were interesting. Here’s why.

 

One of the comments I received was, “I thought the show was great!  I got at least 4 fantastic leads to follow up on”. I heard this from an exhibit booth that was 2 spaces down from me so I had an opportunity to really watch how this gentleman worked.   Never once during the two day show did I see this person actually “in” his booth space. He was in front of his space, in the isle where people were walking. He greeted every visitor with a genuine “hello” and immediately asked if they had any questions about his organization, please feel free to ask. He allowed time for the visitor to browse his information and then, if there was interest, he spoke further with that individual.  Needless to say, he was properly working his exhibit booth and quite possibly received 4 new clients.

 

I also spoke with another exhibitor, who was working their booth with 2 people.  When asked the same question, their response was, “This show was a waste of time.  We could have been getting so much done in the office or on the road”.  Mind you, this was a large, well-known organization. While spying on their “tradeshow skills” I noticed that they showed up late, each day of the two-day show, they ate breakfast, and lunch in their booth, and spent all of their time sitting behind their exhibit table, chatting with each other, or on their cell phones, or, believe it or not…reading gossip magazines!  On the rare occasion that someone did stop at their booth, I overheard one booth staff member say, “I don’t know.  You’ll have to check our website on that information”.

 

Well, I don’t need to state the obvious but I want to give you just a few tips for how to properly exhibit at a trade show.

 

First you must remember this. A trade show puts hundreds of potential customers in your reach. You don’t have to drive, fly or spend an entire day just meeting with two or three people. Treat it as such. The attendees who visit your booth are your future customers.

 

Prepare. Be sure you are fully stocked with the materials you need for your exhibit. Don’t chance running out of business cards or anything that you use in your exhibit to attract customers.

 

Maintain a minimum of 2 people in your organization’s exhibit booth. This allows for one to be greeting new visitors and one to have more detailed discussions with visitors. However, you do not want to overcrowd your booth so a good rule of thumb is 1 staff member to 15 sq. ft of booth space. 

  

Consider breaks.  You never want an empty booth so be sure to break accordingly. 

This also allows time for the exhibit staff to check out the trade show, attend seminars at the show, etc.

 

Be sure breaks are not taken the booth. Stay professional and allow for breaks in the designated break area. All trade shows have them.

 

Inform current and potential clients of your participation and ask them to bring a colleague to the show.   Use this as a platform not only to generate new business, but to solidify and build on current business.

 

Limit the amount of product on display. Too much product can become overwhelming for the trade show attendee.

 

And finally, a proactive, friendly and well-informed booth staff member is often more effective in attracting attendees than a giveaway. Samples are valuable, but shouldn’t be the only draw to your organization’s booth.

 

There are hundreds more tips I can share with you. These are just a very basic few.   I think you get the general idea.  Working a trade show is a very interactive process. Don’t expect just because your booth is there and you are, “an exhibitor” that people attending the show will flock to your space.  Follow these basic tips and you will definitely see a return on your investment.