How You Can Run An Awesome Trade Show Or Exhibition Booth
If you’re giving away a t-shirt or something cool, it’s guaranteed that you’ll give it away, but it’s not guaranteed that someone will actually pay attention to it. I’ve been to conventions where exhibitors paid $5,000 or more to have their booth, only to suffer the same demise most exhibitors go through with no interested lead generation or new customers. This article is intended to help those who present their company or services through a trade show or exhibition.
The most important thing you need to do is convey your company’s message! This is not just having a nice banner or a nice gift; you have to get people’s attention. One strategy is the time of the gift. Gift time is when you deliver a nice gift at a certain time of the event; tell everyone at the show when you’re giving it away, and tell them you have to be there to win. At a recent real estate investing expo, I gave away three Ipods at three different times. At three different points in the event I had a captive audience huddled around my booth. I had three different moments in front of 60-70 people to give my 5 minute presentation for my company. This is kind of like bribing, but it works. While other positions around me were generating one or two people in their position at any given time, he had 60-70 people at three different times! This is a great option if you will only have one person at the booth.
Another strategy is to use some type of game. Everyone likes to play and this is a great way, especially if you have more than one person running the booth, to really get your message across and get a lot of attention. Unlike the timing of freebies, freebies and prizes are not that important. This is cheaper than giving away time and generates a lot of energy and fun. At a recent real estate agent trade show, we hung our banner in the middle of the booth and put three target boards on the left and right sides of the banner. Then we had two foam suction dart guns that the participants would use to hit the targets. Again, where every other booth had one or two people at any given time, we had two lines of 20+ people waiting to play! While they waited, one of our staff members who worked at the booth handed out flyers and told them about our company. As the founder of the Forever Wealth Club (www.ForeverWealthClub.com), we provide meeting passes (no cost), T-shirts ($5 cost), and DVDs ($1 cost).
Finally, one thing that drives me crazy is when companies have a great looking booth, a nice expensive gift, but they can’t keep track of people. A lot of it comes down to who manages the booth at the expo or trade show. This is NOT the time for business owners to put hourly employees in the booth. Hourly people with no commission usually don’t care if they get business cards or talk to people since they get paid the same amount anyway. You want to be there as an owner or put someone who is commission based in the place and you will have a much better chance of getting more customers. Remember, it is extremely rare to get a new client at a trade show or expo, but simply following up can get you more clients than you might imagine since very few people follow up.
