Trade Show Emporium

The foremost reason companies attend trade shows is to maximize sales through lead generations. According to published findings by the Incomm Center for Trade Show Research and Sales Planning, the latest trends in exhibiting include:

• Attendees are doing less browsing and more targeted product evaluation. The ability to conduct multiple meetings in one day is a great benefit to show attendees. They use their time efficiently to compare products in order to make their purchasing decisions.
• Buying decisions are a team effort versus being left up to a single rep. The team strategically visits your trade show booth and that of your competition multiple times to fully evaluate what each has to offer. Then, they meet as a group and collectively make follow-up strategies and, ultimately, purchasing decisions.
• Rather than aggressively selling products and their features to visitors, trade show exhibitors are soft-selling, thus engaging visitors with product success stories and solutions. Research shows that buyers prefer this type of approach versus hard selling.
• More attendees are measuring an event’s success by the number of current customer relationships they fuel, versus just counting new leads. Pre-show marketing and account management help draw booth visits and special meetings with current customers that can yield incremental sales.
• New registration technology with smart cards, bar coding and magnetic strips expedite the registration process, saving attendees and event sponsors time and effort. The other great advantage of this technology is better tracking of prospect data and traffic flow, allowing exhibitors to measure quality as well as quantity.

To make the most of your next trade show, keep these trends in mind when coming up with your trade show marketing strategy.

1. Because we know that potential clients are doing more targeted product evaluation means that you have to design a display that will not only attract their attention but also convince them to go with your product.
2. Design, display and train your staff to manage buying teams and not just the single company representative.
3. Realize that the hard-sell is from the Stone Age. The used car salesman approach can leave a prospective client feeling “slimed.”
4. Make sure you have communicated beforehand with potential clients, advising them that you will be attending and inviting them to stop by your booth. The more pre-show marketing you can do, the better the return on your trade show investment.

Lastly, with all the technology at our fingertips, there is no excuse to not have accurate tracking and statistics on your trade show performance. Use that data to collect a wealth of information about each lead. It will help you track your booth’s effectiveness.