You will see our booth just as you enter the exhibit hall.

Skyline would love to see you in our booth, #1325, at EXHIBITOR2012, March 5 to 7, 2012 at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.  It promises to be an excellent show.

Many exhibit marketers have renewed their strong trade show schedules, and are looking to expand their booth spaces to take advantage of the face-to-face nature of trade shows.

But because our industry tends to lag the economic cycle, there are also exhibit marketers attending EXHIBITOR2012 who are in expansion mode, just now making up for the reductions they made during the downturn.

But all exhibitors have adjusted to the new reality:  They need a responsive exhibit partner who can augment their smaller team, boost their trade show results, all the while maximizing their highly scrutinized budget.

We look forward to meeting with exhibit marketers who attend the show, to demonstrate how we can help enhance their exhibiting success.  If you need a free pass to the exhibit hall, click here, and enter in promo code 4206 when registering.

5 Reasons To Visit Skyline At EXHIBITOR2012:

Free Trade Show Seminars

Skyline will host 12 “bite-sized” seminars in our booth.  You can get the best nuggets on insights about 6 popular trade show topics such as promotions, social media, booth staffing, exhibit design, and more.  We will present each 10-minute session twice during the show, every hour on the hour that the show hall is open.

Here’s our free seminar schedule (you may want to print it and take it with you to the show):

Expert Advice
After each seminar we will take Q&A from the audience, answering questions about the session topic or any trade show or marketing questions you have. You can also visit the booth at any time to talk with our experienced staff.

Useful, Elegant Gifts
Attendees to our seminars will receive a cool, aluminum-clad notebook.  The elegant notebooks give you a place to jot ideas and reactions to our seminars.  The aluminum covers also evoke the clean, elegant look of our metal exhibit systems.

Chocolate
To complement our “bite-sized” seminars we’re offering bite-sized chocolates.  Stop by anytime during the show when you need a boost, and get a crunchy, creamy nugget of Ferrero Rocher chocolate.

Meet With A Trusted Exhibiting Partner
Whether you are an existing Skyline customer wanting to see what’s new, or an exhibit marketer looking for new ways to achieve trade show success, you can request a meeting with us.  Just click here to ask for a date and time to meet, or stop by to visit us in booth 1325.

Trade shows are a valuable marketing medium.   But they’re also hard work.  You need help you can depend on to succeed.  We hope to see you at our booth at EXHIBITOR2012.

Again, if you need a free pass to the exhibit hall, click here, and enter in promo code 4206.

Imagine this:  You had a great show, with a flood of booth visitors and a pile of leads.  And yet after the show, your fine effort fizzled into nothing because your hard-earned leads sat gathering dust atop someone else’s desk.

Lead management is the least visible, yet most important final stage of your trade show marketing.  To help you bring this essential step into the light, here are the 10 best tips that I’ve gleaned over the last two decades:

• Seek to get not just leads, but qualified leads, so that your field sales force will value them and follow up.
• Train your staffers to qualify leads at the show according to high, medium, and low qualified levels, and then label them as A, B, or C leads.
• Do more lead follow up!  Have a lead fulfillment plan prepared before the show starts.
• Don’t rely on just a business card from trade show booth visitors: Have a lead card or electronic lead retrieval system so you have enough space to record details on your booth visitors’ wants and needs.
• Do more lead follow up!  Get your sales and marketing management to stress the importance of lead follow up — and even put some teeth into repercussions if they aren’t.
• Have one person responsible for lead fulfillment, data entry into your CRM database, and lead transfer to sales.
• Do more lead follow up!  Build more frequent touches with leads after the show (via calls, emails, or mailers).
• Prepare before the show to be able to quickly send fulfillment right after the show — even during the show. Include in the process the ability to customize fulfillment to include what the visitor specifically asked for.
• Do more lead follow up!  Check in regularly with your reps to report on lead progress.
• Watch out for the critical link that is too often broken:  What booth visitors reveal to your booth staffer and what your booth staffer responds is not passed on to the field sales rep, which causes lack of motivation for lead follow up and frustration with the booth visitor.

So much of good lead management starts with proper preparation of your booth staffers.  Yet what happens after the show is just as important — but gets less attention once the urgency of the show is over.

I hope you enact some of these 10 tips and get even more value from your trade show leads.  Your company has invested so much to get them — make sure you succeed at this critical final step.

This article is one of a series on Top 10 Tips for various key trade show topics:

> Top 10 Tips For Trade Show Promotions

> Top 10 Tips For Trade Show Exhibit Design

> Top 10 Tips For Trade Show Booth Staffing

Lead management is just one piece of the puzzle for successful trade shows.  Read the What’s Working In Exhibiting white paper to find out more tips and tricks to get the most out of your exhibiting experience.  Click here to request your free copy. 

Ah, the good intentions of New Year Resolutions!  People resolve to start doing things that they know they should be doing, but don’t, either because they’re too difficult or dull.  Well, there are some essential trade show activities that fall into those categories!

Trade Show Marketer’s New Year Resolution #1: Follow Up On Your Leads

The first and foremost resolution you can make is to simply follow up on your leads.  Following up on leads is almost like flossing your teeth or doing maintenance on your house: you know you need to do it, but are still reluctant.  Following up on the leads gets overshadowed by all the other parts of your job that were neglected while you concentrated on organizing and going to the show.

Trade Show Marketer’s New Year Resolution #2: Measure Your Results

Measuring your trade show results is another worthwhile activity to choose as a New Year’s resolution.  Measuring your trade show results can be complicated when you have a long sales cycle, have multiple lead sources to allocate credit for any sales to, or you can’t easily get access to the data you need.  So it is both difficult and (compared to exhibit design and creating cool pre-show and at-show promotions) kind of dull.  Yet without demonstrable results, your entire trade show program is in jeopardy.

Trade Show Marketer’s New Year Resolution #3: Update Your Trade Show Exhibit Graphics

With so many logistics to take care of, it’s easy to put much of our trade show program on autopilot and avoid the grief of getting new exhibit graphics. Yet, over time your marketing messages changes.  Is the message on your trade show displays still relevant to the message that you’re using in your other marketing programs?  What message is currently on your website, direct mail, print ads, and your blog?  When all your messages reinforce each other, you are much more likely to be remembered. And when you exhibit at trade shows that serve different vertical market industries, do you take the time to adapt your graphics to better appeal to the different audiences?

How do you make resolutions stick?

These three are worthwhile trade show New Year’s resolutions.  Yet, like all resolutions, they are easy to start, yet much harder to maintain.  How do we maintain them?

“One challenge with New Year’s resolutions is that people often set unrealistic goals. They can quickly become frustrated and give up,” says Dr. Linda Nebeling, an expert in behavioral change and nutrition at NIH. “Any resolution to change needs to include small goals that are definable and accompanied by a solid plan on how you’ll get to that goal.”

Here are some ideas to make your resolutions stick:

Make it achievable

 This list has only 3 resolutions, not 30, so it’s more achievable.  You can even just pick one resolution from this list that matters most.  And achieve what you can within your control – for example, if you don’t manage the sales force and can’t get them to cooperate, you can follow up directly with the trade show leads you generated to see if they met with your team or if they bought from you.

Break your bigger goal into smaller activities

For example, if the idea of measuring your results fills you with dread at the size of the task, then break it down into smaller activities.  Make a schedule.  Plan a step for each month, and give yourself a reward for each small step.  So for the first month you outline each step needed to measure your results.  The second month, get the list of all the leads into one place, be it a spreadsheet or a database.  And so on.  Then give yourself rewards for completing each step along the way.

Focus on the benefits

When we focus on the obstacles, we give problems more weight than they deserve.  Put more energy into ways around obstacles, and especially on the benefits you’ll get when you achieve your new goals.  Adopt and continue with these three trade show New Year’s resolutions, and you’ll generate more leads, more sales, enhance your company brand, and make yourself more valuable to your company.  Keep these benefits in mind and the obstacles will look smaller.

Make yourself accountable

It’s harder to shirk from your New Year’s resolution when you’ve told someone else.  “I tell my clients to have a trade show team and hold each other accountable, just like you have a workout buddy,” said Michael Flavin, account executive, Skyline St. Louis.  Tell your boss you want to do this as part of your job improvement.  Then your boss will hold you accountable.  Even writing down your resolutions makes them more real.

It takes time to build a new habit.  Give yourself time to turn wishes into actions into habits.  I hope this will be a happy new year for you!

This blog post was sparked by Michael Flavin, account executive at Skyline Exhibits in St. Louis, who interviewed me about trade show New Year’s resolutions for his blog. 

For more help achieving your goals in 2012, read the What’s Working In Exhibiting white paper.  This 32 page book will give you insight to the most effective strategies and tactics exhibitors are using today to boost their results and stretch their budgets.  Click here to request your free copy. 

The difference between a good booth staffer and a bad one can make the difference between a trade show that profitably boosts your brand and sales, and a tragic waste of your company’s time and money.  What can you do to ensure that you assemble a team of booth staffers that will get the job done right?

To help you find and prepare a winning booth staffer team, here are the 10 best ideas on booth staffing that I’ve collected over the years, and now share with you:

1. Choose staffers who actually want to staff your trade show booth and have the right attitude.  Then, train chosen staffers for product, company, and customer knowledge as needed.
2. Your booth staffers will be more motivated when they understand clearly just how much you are investing at each show, what are the company’s goals and your goals for them at the show.
3. A staffer that is able to stay focused on aisle traffic, watch attendees walking down the aisle for the right moment, and engage with them can get double, triple, or more leads than a booth staffer who is distracted or too shy.
4. Your booth staffers don’t have time to tell your entire company history.  So train staffers to ask what matters most to your booth visitors, and then share only the relevant part of your story.
5. Tell your booth staffers it’s essential they take a minute after each visitor conversation to write down a few sentences about what that lead said and wants, before going on to the next lead.
6. Spend enough time training your booth staffers to give them the chance to succeed.  A half hour just before the show starts is not nearly enough.  For example, can staffers all smoothly demontrate your newest products?
7. New booth staffers benefit enormously by doing practice booth staff role playing before the trade show.  It gets them over their fears and engrains the training much more memorably.
8. Invest in bringing enough staffers so they can maximize the investment you’ve already spent in booth space, trade show exhibits, show expenses and services, and promotions.
9. Surprisingly, introverted booth staffers can outperform extroverted booth staffers, because they can be more focused on engaging attendees and may listen more to your booth visitors’ needs.
10. Offer prizes and/or recognition for the staffers who gather the highest quantity of qualified leads.

Your booth staffers are the ambassadors of your brand.  What they say and do matters.  A lot.  Use these 10 tips to ensure that your staff performs at a higher level and gets more from your trade show investment.

I’m sure you’ve learned your own booth staffing secrets while gracing the ailes of your trade show booth.  We’d love to hear your best ideas in the comment box below.

This article is one of a series on Top 10 Tips for various key trade show topics:
> Top 10 Tips For Trade Show Promotions

> Top 10 Tips For Trade Show Exhibit Design

>Top 10 Tips For Trade Show Lead Management

Booth staffing is just one part of effective exhibiting.  To see what else makes exhibitors successful, read the What’s Working In Exhibiting white paper. To request this guidebook full of tips and ideas, click here. 

What kind of Skyline Trade Show Tips blog posts got the most attention in 2011?  Funny posts?  Informative posts?  Insightful posts?  Useful posts?  Why, yes!

Of the 80 blog posts we’ve published so far this year, these are the 10 that most caught your eye, and then made such an impact that many of you told your friends to read them, too.

Just click on the article headlines to view these 10 most popular posts of 2011:

#1.  19 Chuck Norris Exhibitor Jokes

Chuck Norris jokes are not only popular on the Internet; they are apparently tops for trade show exhibitors, too.  Chuck did a round-house kick to readers’ funny bones, and they shared several of their own Chuck Norris jokes, too.  This blog post from August 2011 will finish the year with over 10,000 views, and hopefully almost 200,000 laughs.

#2.  Don’t Be “That Guy” At Trade Shows              

Trade shows allow us to meet our clients and prospects face to face, which helps us build stronger relationships with the people we do business with.  But what if that person just doesn’t seem to get it?  This June 2011 article showed all the ways “that guy” could bungle his trade show marketing, from what he says, how his booth looks, what he does in his tradeshow exhibit, and more.

#3.  Are QR Codes Worth Putting On Your Trade Show Displays?

One of the most-talked about new technologies for trade show exhibitors are QR codes.  They are 2-dimensional bar codes that, when scanned with a properly outfitted smart phone, can take you to a web page.  Skyline tested QR codes in our Exhibitor Show 2011 booth, tracked the less-than-inspiring results, and reported the experience in this April 2011 article.

#4.  Why Didn’t That Attendee Stop In My Trade Show Booth?

For all you do at trade shows, getting attendees to stop in your booth is the key first step.  But what if they don’t?  This September 2011 article outlines 8 possible reasons attendees don’t stop in your tradeshow displays, and what the main actions exhibitors can take to get attendees to visit them, and thus start the process for a successful show.

#5.  Will Your Trade Show Booth Staffers Make This Elephant-Sized Mistake?

After visiting the Fancy Foods Show, Scott Price was surprised at the treatment he received at one of the trade show booths.   He felt that one booth staffer was too focused on saving a little money on a giveaway and missed the mark on building their brand.  This June 2011 article stirred the most heated conversation of any blog post this year.

#6.  10 Ways To Use Social Media To Get Attention At Trade Shows         

Guest blogger Nate Riggs gave a presentation about Social Media for trade show exhibitors at the Skyline Central Ohio office, and this April 2011 blog post summarized his popular session.  It’s filled with practical, accessible tips on using social media.  It was popular with your fellow readers, who shared it a lot with their own peers via Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites.

#7.  5 Quick Measurements To Improve Your Trade Show Results

While most exhibitors feel the pressure to measure their trade show results, many don’t know where to start.  While it’s best to measure the metrics most important to your bosses, it’s also possible to measure things that will provide insights into significant improvements in your trade show program.  So this April 2011 article gave exhibitors 5 fast items they can measure to drive positive change.

#8.  23 Trade Show LOL Cats Make Exhibitors Laugh Out Loud

On the Internet there are “memes” – topics or ideas that take hold and spread because they are funny or unique.  One of the most endearing — and enduring — memes is the LOL cats.  These are pictures of cats doing cute and wacky things, with photo captions that are written in a style reminiscent of Tweety Bird.  This September 2011 blog post featured 23 images that combined the absurdity of LOL cats with the absurdity of trade shows.

#9.  Get Better Trade Show Results By Leaving Your Brochures At Home

Because they are often overwhelmed by the mountain of logistical tasks required, trade show exhibitors can default to doing the same thing repeatedly rather than try new approaches.  In this January 2011 article, Judy Fairbanks advocates trying something new by leaving your brochures at home.  She gives 6 reasons why this change will be for the better and help you boost your results while lowering your costs.

#10.  19 Made-Up Trade Show Statistics

While there is a wealth of statistics about the value of trade shows, there are certain gaps that I felt needed filling.  Such as, what percent of U.S. booth staffers only speak one language?  What percent of booth staffers were hired by their company in the past month?  Since I couldn’t find stats like those, I made them up.  But while they are fictional, they still retain a ring of truth.  Readers added their own made-up trade show statistics to this March 2011 article, too.

I hope you enjoyed reading these top articles during 2011, and look forward to proving you with more informative, insightful, helpful, and occasionally funny tips in 2012.

While these are the top 10 tips from 2011, what was the most-requested white paper?  Hands-down, it was the What’s Working In Exhibiting white paper, which you can get for yourself by clicking here.

Design your trade show exhibit well, and you’ll build your brand, attract new leads, and help generate sales.  Miss the mark, and you’ll have an oversized lump that gets ignored and overlooked.

To help you get the trade show exhibit you need, here are the 10 best ideas on exhibit design that I’ve seen — and experienced — since the days when Ronald Reagan was still president:

1. Ensure your exhibit clearly says who you are, what you do, and why someone should buy from you.
2. Be true to your brand and create greater recognition and memorability by integrating your exhibit design with your other marketing mediums, such as web, brochures, email, print ads, and direct mail.
3. Create visual impact with a booth that has bright, bold colors (as brand appropriate), big images that matter to your audiences, and easy to read text that says the right messages.
4. Design your trade show booth space so it best fits your specific marketing objectives — spaces for brand-building graphics, lead stations, demo areas, meetings, etc.  While many exhibitors find they get more leads with an open and inviting space, others find they need more mass for impact or walls for meeting areas.  Just focus on your top objectives, because you don’t have room for all of them!
5. Choose an exhibit that balances your need for marketing impact with your desire to save money on shipping, drayage, I&D and storage costs.
6. Put fewer words on your exhibit graphics, but make each word bigger.  A single, clearly stated benefits statement is better than long list of bulleted points that gets ignored.
7. Plan your exhibit design around your trade show schedule for the next year, two, or three, to minimize your expenses for various booth sizes, marketing messages, and show locations.
8. Give yourself enough time to get new exhibits designed, and include the time it takes to get agreement within your management team on marketing direction.
9. Focus on displaying your most popular and new products, rather than trying to cram all your products into a limited booth space.
10. Decide whatever technology you will use in your exhibit, so you can design it into the exhibit from the start.

Effective trade show exhibit design shapes your intangible marketing messages into a solid presence that increases company visibility, attracts prospects, and hosts your customers.   I hope these ten tips will give you usable ideas to enhance your trade show exhibit.

What insight have you to share about exhibit design?  We’d love to hear your tips in the comment box below.

This article is one of a series on Top 10 Tips for various key trade show topics:
>Top 10 Tips For Trade Show Promotions

>Top 10 Tips For Trade Show Booth Staffing

>Top 10 Tips For Trade Show Lead Management

Find even more of the best ideas and tips for designing your trade show exhibit by reading the What’s Working In Exhibiting white paper. Click here to request your free copy. 

Trade show promotions drive more traffic to your booth.  Yet, there are nearly an infinite number of promos and giveaways, and almost as many ideas about how to do promotions better, too.  So what should you do first?

These 10 tips are the hidden gems, secrets, and guideposts that I’ve uncovered in the 20-plus years I’ve been doing, reading, and researching trade show promotions.  Follow these best practices to ensure your trade show booth a hub of meaningful activity:

1. Invent a great product demo to do in your booth, to pull in attendees, get them involved, and start valuable conversations.
2. Giveaways are worthwhile because they get more people to enter your trade show exhibit and help you be remembered after the show, but can attract the wrong people if their appeal is too broad and beyond your target market.
3. Set client and top prospect meetings in advance if at all possible, by offering them something of value such as a gift, access to decision makers, or exclusive information.
4. Promotions are great conversation starters — but your booth staffers have to keep the conversation going, rather than let the prospect walk off.
5. Discounts and show specials help you close the deal when you get rare face-to-face time with hard-to-reach prospects.
6. It’s a guy thing: Choose giveaways and promotions that appeal to the demographics of your target audience.
7. Assertive, friendly, and persistent crowd gatherers are worth their weight in gold-dipped foam stress balls.
8. Before the show, reach out to attendees at minimum with email that offers something of value, potentially with direct mail, and for top prospects, by personal telephone calls.
9. Put more effort into social media for trade show promotions — but only when you are already maximizing traditional pre-show and at-show promotions.  Your social media efforts should be proportionate to the social-media adaption rate of your target audience.
10. Giveaways that tie into your marketing message are much more memorable after the show.

I hope you get more attendees into your booth eager to engage with your booth staffers thanks to these ideas.  What is your own top tip for trade show promotions?  Please share it with us in the comments box below.

I hope you get more attendees into your booth eager to engage with your booth staffers thanks to these ideas. What is your own top tip for trade show promotions? Please share it with us in the comments box below.

This article is one of a series on Top 10 Tips for various key trade show topics:

>Top 10 Tips For Trade Show Booth Staffing

>Top 10 Tips For Trade Show Lead Management

> Top 10 Tips For Trade Show Exhibit Design

 Find more of the most effective strategies and tactics exhibitors are using today in the What’s Working In Exhibiting white paper. Click here to request your free 32-page copy. 

Exhibiting at trade shows takes a combination of talent, teamwork, and effort to succeed.  That goes double when you expand beyond backwall displays into island trade show booths.  The investment is bigger, the attention is larger, and the stakes are higher, in oh-so-many ways:

1. Greater height

While backwalls are usually about 8 feet tall, that’s rarely the height of an island trade show booth.  Most islands are at least 12 feet tall, and are often 16 feet and taller, and taller still when you hang a sign from the ceiling above your booth space.  That height creates a bigger impression and gets you seen from afar.  And, you can use 100% of that height, unlike backwall exhibitors (in the USA) who can only go to their full 8 foot height when it doesn’t obstruct their next-door neighbors.  However, be careful not to only put your name up in the rafters on a hanging sign 20 feet above your booth, so that people walking closer to your booth won’t know who you are unless they (very unlikely) crane their necks to look up.

2. More aisle frontage

A 20 x 20 foot island exhibit has 80 feet of aisle space, twice the aisle space of an equivalent-sized 10 x 40 backwall.  That gives you twice the opportunity to engage attendees as they walk by your booth.  Just be conscious that since your exhibit doesn’t back up against a pipe-and-drape backwall, it no longer has an automatic front side.  Now your exhibit can be seen from 4 sides.   It’s up to you to decide if all sides should be treated equally from a design standpoint, or if you expect one or two sides to be visible to greater traffic, and thus be designed more as the “storefront” of your exhibit.

3. Greater variety of booth sizes

When you get an island exhibit, it’s usually not one-size-fits-all.  At one show you may only be able to get a 20 x 40 foot space where you want it on the show floor – and then at your next show, have to take a 30 x 30 foot space, and still use the same exhibit components.  Just as likely is the need to peel off parts of your booth for either a smaller island or a 20 foot backwall exhibit.  Your island trade show exhibit needs the flexibility to adapt to all these spaces if you are going to avoid excess spending to fit all those booth sizes.

4. Private meeting space

Whatever you do in a backwall exhibit is there for the world to see.  But island exhibitors can free themselves from that restraint.  With opaque walls and even double decks, island exhibitors can host private meetings that allow them and their guests to converse, negotiate, and make deals with abandon.  Exhibitors can show off their latest new products (especially fashion-driven products) only to their trusted buyers, without tipping their competitors off.

5. More likely to be a rental exhibit

When you have a backwall display going to 5, 10, 15 or more shows a year, it makes perfect sense to own that display.  But when you only go to one or two shows a year where you require a larger presence with an island exhibit, you become more likely to choose exhibit rental.  Rental gives you the ability to change your look, booth size, and message more easily than an owned exhibit does – and at a lower cost if you only do one or two shows a year.

6. More complex design requirements

Not only do island exhibits have greater height, more aisle frontage, and multiple booth spaces to fit, there are other reasons that make their design process even more complex.  Island exhibits will inspire more stakeholders to want a say in the design process.  You’ll have more functionality requested (presentations, product demos, conference rooms, lead stations, storage, and more).  So island exhibits require more of another thing: time to get designed and built.

7. More booth staffers

You need more booth staffers to cover and work an island exhibit.  That can mean getting staffers from all over the country, or from more departments of your company — which puts even more emphasis on booth staff training.  When the booth staff comes from all over, you’ll either have to train them with teleconferences or video conferences, or set aside enough time at the show site before the show starts.  Staffers who don’t know the products or your clients well will need even more training to shore up their gaps.

8. Hired Installation and Dismantle

Skyline got its start in the 1980s by making it less expensive for exhibitors to install their own 10 foot exhibits with attractive displays that set up in minutes without tools.  However, for over 20 years we have also been making island trade show exhibits that do require tools, ladders, forklifts, and most of all, hired labor.  While some exhibitors are willing to set up our more modular (and less portable) inline exhibits, once you are in an island booth space, it’s all about either labor from the show contractor or from an Exhibitor Appointed Contractor (EAC) that you choose.

9. Higher profile vendor selection

It’s a lot more likely that your CFO will want to be more involved when you purchase an island exhibit than a banner stand.  As island exhibits can cost many times more than a backwall display, the purchasing process involves more people and greater scrutiny.   You will have to justify both your island exhibit’s initial buying (or renting) decision and the total operating costs, compared against the opportunities at trade shows to build your brand awareness, profitably generate sales leads, and meet your other sales, marketing, and operational objectives.

While these 9 things make island exhibits different from backwall displays, no matter what size they are, your exhibits must still get attention and support your booth staff.  That’s something that never changes!

Find out how island exhibitors are shifting towards custom modular exhibits for their expanded design capability, greater flexibility, and lower operating costs, in the free 20-page white paper, The Trend To Custom Modular Exhibits, by clicking here.

The busy season is over and you’ve just exhibited at the same trade shows that you always exhibit at, year after year.  Which can make you too easily fall into the “same old, same-old” mindset: Same competitors, same booth staff, same exhibit, same promotions, same city, same products, same, same, same.

Be careful. That complacency can dangerously slip into irrelevancy.

To keep your edge, try to see trade shows with fresh eyes.  Give yourself some time at your next few shows to get re-inspired.  All you need is your eyes, your feet, and an open mind.

Question everything

When you next walk your show, give yourself permission to question everything.  Put your curiosity on steroids and let it run off the leash.  As you walk down the aisles, ask yourself these key questions – and don’t stop walking until you’ve witnessed the answers for yourself:

• What trade show booths are getting more traffic?  And why?
• Which booths seem to not only attract visitors, but put them at ease to the point they look like they don’t want to leave?
• Look for booth staffers and visitors truly engaged in meaningful conversations — what did they do to get there?
• What at-show activities are generating a crowd, and keeping the right people in the booth?
• What new trade show exhibit designs are you seeing that are catching your eye (and getting more attendees)?  Is it their messaging, shape, color, products, or something else?
• How are booth staffers dressing, more relaxed or more formally?
• Where in the show hall are the hot spots of traffic — and did that change during the day?
• Follow some attendees (at a discreet distance!) and watch what catches their eye, and what they blow right past.

Gain crucial booth staffer insights

I walked a show last week with many of these questions in mind.  Within an hour the difference between good and bad booth staffers was visible; in two hours it was obvious; and by the end of the day it was astonishingly appalling.  Some booth staffers were great and others had me shaking my head asking, who would wreck their entire trade show program by bringing these horrible staffers?

Try it yourself: walk your trade show and see who does a good job engaging you, and who ignores you — even when you walk into their booth!  Who pays attention to all attendees as they walk by, and who is on the phone, even when you reach for a business card on their table?  Who is friendly even at the end of the show, and who looks like they need a trip to the spa?  Who offers a friendly engaging question and turns it into a meaningful conversation, and who says “Hi,” and then shuts up?  By the end of this walk you will have a burning desire to put far greater emphasis on the choosing and training of your booth staff.

You may also notice, depending on the industry your show is in, how incredibly valuable a simple, yet clear product demo is, in stopping and keeping interested booth visitors.

And what else will you find?  That’s up to you to find out; when you get re-inspired with the fresh set of eyes you’ll get after your walk around your next trade show.  You’ll come away with an overflowing list of new things you want to try next year.  And that sure beats the same old thing any day!

For more tips on what to look for and do at your next trade show, read the What’s Working In Exhibiting white paper. To receive your free copy of this 32 page book, click here.

If you think you are doing a great job following up on your leads, unfortunately, the visitors to your trade show exhibit may not agree.  What you consider good lead fulfillment may look very different to them.

In a blog post on her Trade Show Institute blog, Traci Brown tells a sorry tale about her visit to the AIBTM show, where she happily had lengthy meetings with over 20 exhibitors.   Unfortunately, after the show, only one exhibitor truly followed up with her.  Sure, the other exhibitors followed up with big glossy brochures, email campaigns, and the like.  But they were all generic follow up messages.  Only one exhibitor had specific follow up that answered the specific questions she raised while in their  trade show booths.

Why is that?  Because most exhibitors’ lead fulfillment process is simply not designed for individualized lead fulfillment.

Most exhibitors get leads, and if they are somewhat prepared, they have pre-set fulfillment packets ready to go before the show starts.  Then after the show, they put names on letters and send them out.  It’s all they have time to do.  But at the trade shows, we don’t meet with generic leads, we meet face-to-face with real, live individuals.  Individuals with specific needs, that if you ask and listen, they’ll even tell you right at the show.

The First Missing Link: The Transfer From The Booth Staffer To The Field Sales Rep

The first missing link in most exhibitor’s generic lead fulfillment is passing on to the field sales rep what your trade show visitors told you.  And that all starts with your booth staffer.  Your booth staffers must capture what your visitors said is their situation, and what they were looking to solve.  Your booth staffers must also write down what they promised your booth visitors would be the next step – someone will call to set up an appointment, we’ll send you info and prices on the new products you liked, and so on.  Without knowing what your booth staffer promised, you can’t fulfill on that promise.  And when that conversation is accurately and concisely captured, it must quickly be routed to the appropriate sales rep, so they can take the right actions after the show.

The Second Missing Link: The Fulfillment Package

The second part of fixing trade show lead fulfillment is customizing what you mail or email.  You have to be willing and able to customize what you send to your booth visitors based on what they said to your booth staffers.  At minimum, your cover letter should say that your company “was pleased to meet you at the XYZ show, and that you’ve enclosed your requested items, and that our company representative will soon follow up about your needs discovered in our booth.”  You only send the company brochures related to the products your booth visitor asked for.  You don’t send 10 product brochures, when they only showed interest in one product.  And for sure you send the brochures for that one product!

If you want to truly fix the broken link in your trade show lead fulfillment you tailor each followup letter to directly respond to your booth visitor conversations.  Writing in the letter that your booth staffer learned you ask for ____, and so we will be sending you a price quote/calling for an appointment time/talking with our engineer about your project/gathering up samples to show you, or something else appropriate for the next step.

“We can’t do that, can we?”

Now, I hear your objection to this:  ”We don’t have time for this high level of customized lead fulfillment!  Our booth visitors expect an answer fast!”  Yes, booth visitors do expect a quick answer — but as Traci’s experience shows, even more they want the right answers.

But you can pull this off.  You just need to also qualify your leads while in your booth.  Your “A” leads are your best leads – immediate needs, have a budget, and authority to buy.  So the smaller portion of “A” leads are the first ones you fulfill, with letters and products customized to their requests.

Then, fulfill the “B” leads, which may have a need, but not immediately, and perhaps without an approved budget.  Once those are out the door, then fulfill your “C” leads…which may get the more generic “Thanks for visiting our booth at the XYZ show” letter any how, because that’s how far the conversation went.

More effort?  Certainly.  Worth it?  Definitely.

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