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Use New Technology to Easily Create a Very Profitable Trade Show

If you haven’t done so yet, a word of advice: “Just get over it already – adopt new technology in your trade show booth and marketing techniques, or you’ll be left in the dust by your competitors.”

Okay, admittedly, that was a bit of tough love. But if that’s what we have to do to make some of you die-hard old-schoolers sit up and take note, then by-God that’s what we’ll do.

Technology can be overwhelming and scary to adopt, and it’s easy to try and convince ourselves that in the trade show business, one that is predicated on good ol’ fashioned face-to-face salesmanship, digital anything has no real place.

But that thinking is holding your business back.

The truth is technology has the ability to elevate the impact of trade shows and step up your sales game in a major way. You’re most likely already doing a lot of things right: you might have a perfectly-designed booth, a well-trained, knowledgeable and engaging staff, and the ability to build great rapport with attendees.

But if you’re still writing orders on paper and neglecting the use of sales management software, you’re most likely leaving sales on the table.

Think about it, the pace of trade shows is hectic and you’ve got to be able to keep up. The slow and rather tedious process of writing an order down on paper can and often does result in lost sales because of long wait time and distracted buyers.

But, with sales order management software loaded into your smartphone that allows you to store your product information along with order history and customer details, your orders can be placed within literal seconds.

Quicker sales = more sales. Click To Tweet

If that idea got you a little excited, read on to find out other ways technology can boost your trade show business.

Antiquated Product Catalogs are a Thing of the Past

Sure, they were glossy and they smelled kind of nice – but any sales rep will tell you that flipping through a product catalog isn’t the most efficient use of time when trying to make a sale. Not only is it time-consuming, but it can easily overwhelm and scare off a prospect.

But imagine if your entire catalog were digitally available on an iPad and organized in such a way that you could easily navigate through thousands of products and zoom in on high-resolution images in just a few swipes. With one or two taps, you can add products to an order and place it.

Existing Customer Information is at Your Fingertips – Literally

You most likely do a lot of business at the events with existing customers. How invaluable to be able to have all of their information already available and forms already filled out. No one likes to be asked multiple times what their shipping address or phone number is.

By having these contact details already in your software’s database as well as order history and payment preferences, you can pull up a customer’s record in seconds, look over their past orders and preferred products, and quickly start writing up a new order.

And, when it comes to new customers, to save time and maybe even impress them, you can simply snap a photo of their business card and input their contact details later. Very James Bond indeed.

Time Saved Allows You to Introduce New items of Potential Interest

As we mentioned earlier, many of your orders will be reorders. Since technology is allowing you to place these reorders in mere seconds, you can use the saved time to introduce your loyal customers to new products and that has the potential to increase the order you just placed!

Up-to-Date Inventory Information is Always Available

Besides comfortable shoes, up-to-date inventory information is the next most valuable thing you can have on the trade show floor. When a prospect or repeat customer comes to you and asks about the availability of certain products, the last thing you want to do is have to place a call to your back office and take time to get the answer.

Order management software allows your reps to get real-time inventory information. Having this information at their disposal gives them sales strategy. If inventory is low, they can steer the customer in a different direction and still get the sale instead of placing the order and then having to notify the buyer in a week that their items aren’t available.

Forget about Customer-Specific Discount Nightmares

Your sales reps don’t need the hassle of trying to remember customer-specific pricing on the trade show floor. With management software and mobile order writing, your reps can easily pull up customer-specific discounts and the correct pricing will be automatically applied.

Easy Lead Follow Ups

Yes, there’s an app for that. Lead tracking apps are customizable and easily integrate with badge and card scanning procedures which streamline your lead follow ups.

Event Planners Accelerate the Sales Process

Event planners allow you to keep track of attendee interests so you can tailor their experience as much as possible. A better experience for prospects means an accelerated sales process for you.

Advertise Your Booth

Many trade shows are now offering apps which allow you to advertise your booth. This is a great way to get connected with the right prospects.

Technology Can Make Your Exhibit Memorable

Gone are the days of wowing attendees with PowerPoint presentations or projectors. Today’s vendors are using tablets for demonstrations and interactive segments, and video walls and 3D Holography are engaging audiences and making exhibits far more memorable.

Digital Tools Offer a Great Ability to Interact with trade show attendees on many levels

From pre-show marketing all the way through to post-show follow up, you’ll want to be able to interact with attendees on various levels. There are many digital tools available that will to do everything in the way of planning and execution, registration, email marketing, budgeting, lead retrieval and more. For SEO, check out our article on Google’s updates and trade show marketing.

Adopting new technology may at first seem like a “pain in the booth” Click To Tweet

Trying to adopt new technology may at first seem like a “pain in the <trade show> booth”, but it will inevitably help make your sales flow more efficient by allowing you to have more engaging conversations with prospects, and this will ultimately increase your return on investment at each and every show you attend.

Let us know if we can help you customize your booth to incorporate new technology and digital display tools!

 

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