31 Jan Tradeshow Time: 3 Tips for Making the Most of Your Time on the Floor

Trade shows offer a unique and increasingly hard to find chance to interact with potential clients and customers in real life.  In an increasingly digital world trade shows remain a place were handshakes are still powerful.  An entire industry might be gathered in the same place for two to three days! But trade shows can get expensive, fast. To make it worth your while, you need a plan.

And like any good plan, it starts well before the show.

Book Your Booth

You know where you’ll be and you know what clients you really want to meet.  Why not work ahead of time to set up meetings?  This helps ensure that there will be clients and activity and makes sure your most important leads are not missed.  When you reach out, make it about networking, not selling. You want to hear about what they do more than what you do. It can also be valuable to review emails and phone numbers of past attendees.  This is a rich source of warm leads and great way to set up planned connections.

Prep the Team

Who is attending the show with you and how good are they at engaging with strangers?  Set up time for role-plays and even consider some scripts.  This is particularly helpful for new members of the team.  Another consideration is the uniform.  Last year’s t-shirt may be available, but do you really want to spend all the money for an entire team to work the show and wear faded or out of date clothes?  You’ve invested in the show, make sure to invest in your team with new uniforms.  And enough for each day of the show.  While we have a number of items that can be turned around quickly the sooner you start, the more choice you’ll have.

Extend Your Reach

Finally, consider how to extend the reach of the event.  Promotional giveaways are great but if it’s just a gift and done, they can be forgotten.  Hand out big stickers, wearables, light up trinkets, etc. and turn it into a game. Offer a chance to win something big at the end of the show for those wearing your item.  It’s also a great way to get a returnee.