Let’s not drag this out, it’s simple:
Get noticed
Qualify your visitors
Ensure you are remembered

Easy right? So, let’s take a look at the details.

Get noticed

This may come as a surprise to you – but most folk walking the isles at trade shows DON’T want to give you eye contact, let alone get into a conversation with you, and so it’s your job to break down these barriers and get them to notice you, and then engage with you. How?

It’s easier to tell you what NOT to do.

1: DON’T do what everyone else is doing.

2: DON’T leave Branded Merchandise on your stand and just let visitors grab it. Worse, DON’T just hand out goody bags.

All of these things cost money and should be reserved for visitors who at the very least ENGAGE with you, or better still, who you have qualified into a prospect. If you have this level of engagement going on, then the perfect scenario would be to reserve a lovely item of branded merchandise for true prospects. Nobody else can get this item, they certainly can’t just stroll up and grab it – they have to engage, and you have to qualify.

My clients ask me this question a lot, and I’m more than happy to engage and offer tangible examples of how you can make this work for you business – I’ve recently worked with clients and given them simple ideas that have stopped visitors in their tracks. Folks who otherwise would have walked on by, now looked up, smiled, and then asked a question – Now that’s what I call ENGAGEMENT – go on, ask me how.

Qualify Your Visitors

Not all of the visitors visiting your stand will ‘make the grade’ to be a client, and so it’s YOUR job to filter them out – in the car industry, these folk are called ‘tyre kickers’ – they’re very unlikely to purchase, and are just dreamers. You only have xyz hours to do your work, you’re not on the stand for PR, so HOW can you filter out the time wasters from the prospects?

Think about the reality of that statement for a moment and reflect on what is the criteria you look for to qualify a visitor into a prospective client. For example, if you are selling something for a car, wouldn’t it make sense to ask if they’re a car driver? If you’re aiming for the multiple car/person (a fleet purchaser) then this still applies, but you’d structure the question differently.

I once went to a trade show as a visitor and took an interest in a stand selling scented candles. Their ideal visitor was someone who owned or operated at least ONE Gift Shop, better yet, a chain of them. It was an obvious question to ask, and if they’d done so, they’d have quickly realized that I was NEVER going to become a prospective customer. Instead, they just talked at me for 10 – 15 mins, promoting the features of their wares – and all the time, gift shop owners wandering around the same stand, were ignored.

Ensure You Are Remembered

Although you may well want to ‘sell’ today, the chances are that your prospective clients DON’T necessarily want to purchase today. So the trick is to make sure you are remembered, long after the show has come and gone, until the time comes when they are ready to purchase. How?

2: ask their permission to add them to your marketing e-shot list. Let them know that this only gets sent out once a month and that it always has the very latest in news and/or offers.

1: You’ve qualified them, and had a good conversation with them. Better yet, you may understand their buying criteria/pattern, so give them some memorable branded merchandise. It needs to be a ‘keeper’, useful, and a constant daily reminder of your business. My clients often ask me this very question – that’s what I do – give you promotional gift ideas to make you stand out!!