Achieving Trade Show Excellence – Part 2

By William Russell
June 9, 2014

In part one of “Achieving Trade Show Excellence”, we covered the front-end planning involved with a trade show.  For part two, we will highlight the components that address team preparation, engaging booth visitors, networking and follow-up plans for a successful event.

Create a winning team that represents your company well

Putting the right team together with the right people to represent your company is just as important as selecting the right show and creating an appropriate presence for your business at the event.  Too often companies will default to their sales people to staff their trade shows – and that’s normally a good move.  However, balance out your team with those that have good customer service skills, technical acumen and an ability to interact well with visitors. 

When you assemble your team, clearly define the roles and responsibilities of each team member so that everyone knows exactly what is expected of them.   This includes outlining the characteristics of good booth behavior:  make eye contact with visitors and greet them with a smile.  You’ll also want to avoid bad booth behavior such as eating in the exhibit area, sitting around chatting with one another or isolated activity on your smart phone.   

Sending people to an event isn’t a free vacation as it requires preparation, work and alertness to properly represent your business.  Once your team gathers at your exhibit, have a pep rally to boost the energy levels of each participant and get them excited about meeting new prospects and enthusiastically telling them about your solution offering. 

Pinpoint the prospects and invite others to move on

At most trade shows, aisle traffic can be heavy and scheduled times for exhibit hall openings can result in a flurry of activity that is short lived.  Because of this, you will want to be fully prepared and ready to engage with visitors to determine who is a prospect and who needs to be encouraged to keep moving.  Wasting time on non-prospects means you are missing opportunities to spend time with those who need your solution offering or product.  To avoid this scenario, quickly assess a visitor through a few qualifying questions to determine what to do next.  Do it professionally and with courtesy as some visitors may represent partnership opportunities, become future prospects or result in good media contacts who can provide unbiased coverage of your presence at the event in post-show editorials. 

For those you meet that pass your qualifying criteria, have an action plan in place on next steps.  Clearly indicate what should happen after the event and when it will occur.  Capture this in your CRM system so that follow-up plans are properly executed.  You’ll want to do this for all of your visitors so that your CRM status codes indicate whether a visitor is a non-lead, prospect, partner, media contact, etc.

It’s more than a trade show – harvest the opportunities

Take advantage of the entire event beyond your exhibit.  Trade shows normally coincide with a conference that includes educational break-out sessions and many networking opportunities.  These represent great ways to meet those who may not stop by your exhibit.  The food court is another place to mingle with others and introduce yourself while taking a break from your booth responsibilities.  Many times, great conversations take place at break-out sessions, special networking events and in the food court.  Don’t miss these opportunities.  Put together a scheduled plan to attend these as time permits while at the trade show.  Invite those you meet to visit your exhibit and find ways to engage with them that makes sense for your business. 

Follow-up for success and reap the rewards

Nothing kills an opportunity to achieve trade show excellence than a failure to implement a post-show follow-up plan.  An alarming high percentage of trade show leads are never followed up.  It’s very easy to return from an event exhausted with a shifted focus on catching up in the office instead of executing a follow-up plan.  Without a system or plan in place, it’s not hard to understand why this occurs.  But, it doesn’t have to be this way and you should never find yourself in this situation. 

Too much time and effort have already been invested by your company to forsake this process.  This is an area that has to be addressed prior to even attending the event.  A follow-up plan must be developed that clearly indicates what will occur with every contact met at your event – – including who will do it, when and why.  Because you captured your contacts at the event with your CRM, you will already have their statuses and be on your way to implementing an effective follow-up plan.

This activity is where your potential pay-off will occur.  This is where you will determine if your event was worthwhile and if your investment will generate a healthy return.  This is where it all happens to ensure you achieve trade show excellence.