Shop For Displays

Having success in your trade show marketing plan, is not as simple as it looks, sometimes the plan does not exactly go according to schedule or expectation.  That is why it is your job to prepare your staff for every possible scenario and educate them on what is most important.  Training your staff to approach trade show attendees in an appropriate way, is key to qualifying leads at the shows you attend.  People do not want to feel obligated to stay and hang out in your display booth, if your products and services do not interest them.  But if you are too threatening and abrasive in your approach, people can tend to feel cornered and trapped.  All exhibit booth visitors should be greeted in a way that opens the door to a healthy casual conversation where know strings are attached.  

Make the visitor open up to you and continue in conversation, because sometimes the longer the conversation means, the more likely for a sale.  Using this technique and the other ones mentioned in this series will help your team follow out the trade show marketing plan with success and a good reputation on top of that.  You must train your staff to approach visitors and qualify them at the same time.  It is a skill that must be learned and once it is mastered, the possibilities for success are endless.

A great way to approach a potential customer, is to make them not only think, but to truly believe that they are important to you, and that they have a place in your company.  You must make them think that your products and services are what is really missing in their lives.   The most effective salespeople, tend to listen more than they talk; they guide and lead consumers into conclusions about what they are providing.  This is also how your trade show exhibit staff should approach attendees.  Train your booth staff to focus on what the attendee wants and most importantly, what the attendee needs, to figure out what would work best for them.  Once you have figured that out, it will be less difficult to lead them into the next step of the sales process.

Focusing on trade show attendees needs is such a crucial step in the process that many salespeople tend to skip over because they get too excited.  They become to eager to sell, sell, sell, that they forget that without a relationship or a connection of some sort, the sale is very difficult to get.  Approaching the situation with care and concern for each potential customer, is good for your company’s reputation, and also gives you a better chance in the future to develop and establish a long-term relationship with consumers that will benefit you greatly in the future.

Your company’s ability to have trade show marketing success is dependent upon many crucial factors, that are all equal in importance and should be paid attention to by all.  One of those many factors is to make sure that you follow through with your trade show plan for the pre-show, during the show, and also post-show.  This will help ensure that all of your marketing techniques and efforts are going to be used to their fullest potential.  One of the most important factors included in this partnership, is your trade show booth staff, and how they handle the marketing plan behind the exhibit display.

Your booth staff should be able to successfully approach attendees and exhibit visitors in order to build a relationship or connection, and to eventually turn those connections into qualified leads.  These leads are what will make your trade show marketing plan, what it is supposed to be.  Due to the importance of this factor, it is crucial that you take the time to stress this skill to your staff before every trade show.  You must train them to understand how to do this most effectively.  If you are able to help your staff learn how to qualify leads in the most effective way, you will surely get the pay off you deserve from your marketing plan, at every exhibit you attend.

Now that we have been through all the stages of preparation that are necessary for a successful show, I would like to talk about how to tie up all the loose ends and wrap things up in time to put on a great trade show event.  By the time you do your last big review, it should be about one month from the big show, and all of your staff should be trained, your customer base and the public will be informed about the upcoming event, and your display stands will be designed and ready to go.

After all of this is done, you should finalize all planning details with your booth staff.  The point of being overly prepared is so that you can make sure that everything is going to run smoothly once the show begins.  It is much easier to fix something before the actual event begins, then to have to fix it during the chaos of the trade show.  So much is going on, and everyone is tired and stressed out, so it is much harder to get things taken care of when you are having to be in a million different places at once.  Too often, exhibiting teams will set aside details and plans that need to be finalized until the last minute, thinking they will have enough time to get it all done.  It is almost as if it feel irrelevant because it is not happening right now.  Well, the problem with this mentality is that most of the time, you are not able to go back and catch up, because too many other things come up at the last minute that take over your life.  In the end, your team and staff are unprepared and stressed out.  Following the steps of preparation as explained in the past articles will help you to stay ahead of the game and plan for a successful show    

After you have completed the last three stages described in earlier posts, it is now time to hit the ground running and pull together all the unfinished details so that by the time the trade show event begins, you are fully prepared and ready to tackle the task at hand.  A few months before the event, you should really make the final decision on the complete event staff.  Who is going to be on location at the exhibit displays making all of the action happen.  Once you have decided who the staff members are going to be, it is important to train them with the appropriate material needed for that particular trade show.  This includes developing tentative scripts for them to follow loosely when trying to approach qualified leads and attendees passing by the display stand.  This would also be a good time to review the exhibitor’s manual to make sure that your staff is willing to comply with the rules of the event, and know what those rules are so there are no surprises.

Once your staff has been briefed on all the details, they will begin to anticipate the upcoming event and hopefully prepare themselves accordingly.  It is usually a good idea to choose event attire at this time as well.  Look back at the theme of your event and also what the goals and objectives are for this particular event; then gather all team members around for a quick brainstorming session on colors and design logo for your t-shirts or polo shirts, etc.  Once you have decided what they are going to look like, make sure to put your order in for them, so that they have arrived before you leave for the event.  If your staff knows what they are expected to do, and why it is necessary for them to follow these goals and objectives, you will be much more likely to be successful.  Your event staff will look qualified and seem professional which is always a good reflection for attendees to see.

Once you have picked a location, make a list of goals and objectives, and created a theme and design for the show, you must now start putting together the final touches.  At this time, it is probably a good idea to begin putting together a marketing plan that will lead you and your team up to the event.  Your marketing plan is so much more than just booth design and slogans, etc.  You must develop and create a plan that works with the system of your company and also your event staff.  No one wants to begin a new program six months before a big event that is not normally how they, are used to dong things.  The more familiar something is to your team, the easier it is going to be to get them to do it. 

In this marketing plan it would be a good idea to include how the mailers and e-mails are going to be designed, and even thinking about the smaller details such as what you want the literature to look like that you are going to pass out at the event and in some cases even leave in the hotel you are staying at for advertising.  At the six month stage, it is a little too soon to begin sending out fliers and e-mails, etc. but it is going to take quite some time to create a design, get them printed and have everyone on the team agree to what the final outlook is going to be.  That is why planning ahead is always key. 

After you have guaranteed your company a spot at this years big event and have made all proper travel and hotel accommodations, it is now time to focus on the creative details that will set you and your display stand apart from the crowd.  You want to begin looking at the individual show coming up and develop goals and objectives in particular for that event.  This should begin around six months before, and that will ensure that you and your staff have plenty of time to prepare and plan for a great success.  At this time you want to determine the number of leads you will gather, and the sales you will close.  You can even begin to think of the media you should draw to your booth for more exposure, etc. 

Around the six month mark is also when you want to begin planning the design of your exhibit displays.  You should decide what ideas you have for your pronto banner stands, and where you want them situated and located in regards to the rest of your set up.  You should start to think about what design is going to get you the most attention and exposure and try to plan accordingly.  At this time you should also think of the use of color and how you want the overall theme to tie into every aspect of your tradeshow display booth.  If you can begin to create a theme six months in advance, all the details and loose ends that get tied up at the last minute can all be decided more easily with a theme to compare it too.  Remember, that how you decide to plan for an event is probably how the event is going to play out.  Be organized and prepared, and hopefully it will help lead to trade show success in the future.

Once you have held brainstorming sessions with your staff and decided what your key objectives and goals are going to be for events that you attend, it is then time to pick which trade shows you are going to attend for the year, or even the next 3 year plan, if you want to really get ahead of the game.  Once you pick the events that you are going to attend you must begin planning and preparing immediately.  First, you are going to want to register your company for that event, to make sure that you are able to participate and that you are able to afford the deposit and any other expenses.  You will want one of your team members to make a phone call to the organizers asking them for inside information.  You can inquire about the traffic patterns on the floor at past events and also submit your booth application and deposit at that time to ensure that you are able to reserve your space early. 

After you have made registration arrangements, there are a few immediate plans you have to set up to make sure everyone will be able to get there and also that accommodations are met. This means that if the trade show is in another region that is too far to travel by car or bus, that you must arrange for the event staff to travel by plane and that all the budget requirements are met and everything is accounted for.  After you have set up travel arrangements, you must arrange for hotel accommodations and in some cases rental car arrangements.  If the show is taking place in a convention center, and is a big event, often times those rooms can fill up months in advance so you must make sure to plan ahead.  After all of the immediate arrangements are set up, you then have to begin to research. 

Once you have solidified your spot at the event, you can take a deep breath, but do not relax just yet, there is much more planning ahead.  This is just a good way to make sure you have a spot at the show, before you begin planning.  All in all, the pre-show preparation is so crucial to your success; that it should not be taken lightly.  Remember, that how you plan, is often times how the trade show will turn out.  If you are unorganized and irresponsible, that is probably how the event will turn out for you and your staff.  Stay on top of the ball right from the beginning, it will save you time and energy in the long run, and ensure your success in the future.

Now that you have established as a team what your goals and objectives are going to be for your overall marketing plan at each trade show you attend, you must find those events that you want to participate in and begin planning your immediate course of action for each individual event.  No matter how qualified of a company you are, and how great your event staff is, and how many trade shows you have attended in the past, it is still a lot of work to put forth a good display stand, with a competent, excited staff and to sell your goods and services to attendees day in and day out.  There are so many details involved in the trade show experience as a whole; that if you fail to properly attend to those details ahead of time, could cause you to crash and burn. 

The number one goal of every company and organization is to be successful at trade shows, which entails a lot.  They want to gain qualified leads, gain exposure from the public, introduce new and exciting products and services that will make money, and network and gain a following that will help increase revenue and longevity in the market.  All of this cannot be done without a solid plan of attack.  Because of all the details mentioned earlier that are involved in preparing for an event, it is important to have a schedule and a way to see ahead to make sure goals and objectives are being met according to that timeline.  The next few articles will simply lay out how and when you should plan for the next big event, and why it is so imperative to your success to do so.