If you’re giving away a t-shirt or something cool, you’re guaranteed to give them away, but it’s not guaranteed that someone will actually pay attention to you. I have been to conventions where exhibitors paid $5,000 or more to have their booth, only to suffer the same demise most exhibitors go through with no generation of interested leads or new customers. This article is intended to help those who present their company or services through a trade show or exhibition.
The most important thing to do is get your company’s message across! This is not just about having a nice banner or a nice gift; you have to get people’s attention. One strategy is the moment of the gift. The moment of gifts is when you deliver a good gift at a certain moment of the event; Tell them all in the exhibition when you will give it away and tell them that you must be present to win. In a recent real estate investment exhibition, I gave three iPods at three different moments. In three different moments of the event I had a hurriedly captive audience around my stand. I had three different moments compared to 60-70 people to give my 5-minute presentation for my company. This is kind of like bribing, but it works. While other stalls around me generated one or two people on their stall at any one time, they had 60-70 people at three different times! This is a great option if you will only have one person in the booth.
Another strategy is to use some kind of game. Everyone likes to play games and this is a great way, especially if you have more than one person in charge of the booth, to really get your message across and get lots of attention. Unlike the synchronization of gifts, gifts and prizes are not so important. This is cheaper than giving away time and generates a lot of energy and fun. At a recent real estate agent trade show, we hung our banner in the middle of the booth and put three goal boards on the left and right sides of the banner. Next, we had two foam suction dart guns that the participants would use to hit the targets. Again, where every other booth had one or two people at any one time, we had two lines of 20+ people waiting to play! While they waited, one of our staff members who worked at the booth handed them flyers and told them about our company. As the founder of the Forever Wealth Club (www.ForeverWealthClub.com), we provide meeting passes ($0), T-shirts ($5) and DVDs ($1).
Finally, one thing that drives me crazy is when companies have a great looking booth, a nice expensive gift, but fail to follow up with people. A lot of this comes down to who manages the booth at the expo or trade show. This is NOT the time for business owners to put hourly employees in the booth. On an hourly basis, no-commissioners generally don’t care if they get business cards or talk to people, since they’re paid the same amount anyway. You want to be there as an owner or put someone who is commission based in place and you will have a much better chance of getting more clients. Remember, it’s extremely rare to get a new customer at a trade show or expo, but simply following up can get you more customers than you might imagine, since so few people follow up.