Your trade show plan can help you achieve sales and marketing goals. To do this, you have to eliminate what’s not working and add in what is. This could be something like developing new custom trade show displays.
First, let’s go over the least effective strategies. One of the worst things you can do for a trade show is to do the same things for a year. You don’t want to fall in a rut and have your presentation or exhibit be like groundhog day– the same day over and over again. If you’re bringing the same staff and you have the same promotions, you’re probably going to get the same results. If those have not been working, you’re out of luck.
When it comes to new shows and exhibits and new results even, they are only going to happen if you wake up and take action. Logistics over your trade show can be a lot, so it’s tough to deal with the so-called creative side of it when there is so much business to be done. If you are organizing the event, try to make time early to make decisions about your trade booth exhibit. Whether you want to make more leads or create a marketing campaign, take the time out to put energy into it before it all gets caught up in travel and more.
The best thing you can do at a trade show is to increase awareness of your company and generate leads. If you are hitting that target, great. If not, it’s time to make some changes in order to hit your primary business goal. Not having a goal is a HUGE mistake as you have nothing to work toward and nothing to shape your actions to reach that goal. If you’re in a rut, now is the time to wake up and get on out of it or our company will suffer (or at least not grow as much as it could).
Some common goals that you might take inspiration from are generating leads, strengthening relationships (with clients, dealers, etc.), and increasing awareness for your company, product, and industry. Develop a strategy and then begin adapting actions to it.
Generate More Leads
- Pursue quite a bit of promotion
- Put effort into an attractive exhibit
- Interactive staffers
- Free things
- Visual impact
- Engagement
Increase awareness of your company for more leads. Make your company visible– hire an entertainer, give away things, provide an activity, offer a great promotion. At the end of the day it’s up to you to boost your effort, whether with free totes or ads run in the paper. Remember that a positive person is always going to sell more than a timid or negative one, so be sure you can do everything you can to boost your exhibit and have a great show.
Launching a new project can be promoted with special floor areas or contests that will boost not only leads, but awareness. Awareness of your company means there is potential for follow ups and more business. There are plenty of ways to get more business but you have to build a smaller audience into a bigger one. This can mean a lot of things, but just as in life, relationships matter. Either way, doing your best means having a strategy and sticking to it.
This means being your best self, having great promotions, and yes, having a little fun! It’s not too tough to bring in great clients and future business. You just have to believe that it is possible, and trade shows are the place and the way to do it. Think about all of this as you go to sleep and then come up with a plan to do better. You will be happy that you did and certainly it will pay off. Just go out there and start developing your strategy and looking at how you can achieve your goal, and then do it!