Five More Ways To Attract Visitors to your Trade Show Booth
I hate to break it to you, but as a trade show exhibitor, you’re not unique. In fact, all of the trade show booths are full of exhibitors that are at the show for the same basic reason you are: they want to generate customer interest, get leads and make sales. They also want to leave a lasting impact on visitors to their trade show displays that outlives the show itself. Sound familiar?
Since all of the other trade show booths are trying to do exactly what you’re trying to do, that means you have to be strategic in the ways you’ll draw customers to your display stand without overwhelming them.
Here are five ways you can turn trade show booth visitors into potential customers.
1) Place Your Most Important Products Front and Center
You probably sell a number of products, but you can’t showcase every single one. So it’s best to feature the most popular (or most profitable) ones in the front of your trade show booth, where customers can see them. If the prospect doesn’t see what they’re looking for, you can lead them to a secondary area (a lower shelf, for example), where other products are displayed.
What you absolutely don’t want is a booth display that’s cluttered with far too many products.
You might think it’s showing your prospects everything you have to offer. But what it’s really doing is overwhelming them.
Too many choices will lead many attendees to make a simpler choice and move on to where they can find what they’re looking for in an uncluttered environment.
And it’s not just your display of products that can be cluttered. Your signs and banners, too, can be overwhelming to those walking past your display booth. They don’t have time to read what amounts to your entire product catalog, posted onto signs and graphics.
Instead, when creating your graphics, focus on what matters most to the greatest number of prospects. The biggest thing to remember when deciding what goes on your signage is what’s on every prospect’s mind: “What’s in it for me?”
When your graphics promise what your prospects are looking for, you’ll be welcoming them into your trade show booth in droves.
2) Create a Compelling Offer
If you’re the type of exhibitor that showcases a large number of products in your trade show exhibits, with the intention of writing orders on the show floor, you already know that you’ll have to pack up those products and take them back home if they don’t sell.
So consider creating a “Buy Me Out” offer, where customers can purchase the products in your display stand (and pick them up when the show closes) and essentially take those display products off your hands!
Even if you don’t exhibit at order-taking shows, you’ve got to make display booth visitors want to buy now, rather than later. That comes down to the offer you make.
Can you give a lower-than-retail price, a trade show discount, a bulk-buy rate, interest-free financing or some other attractive terms that make prospects more likely to decide to buy now?
It may be beneficial to sell more at a lower price than to sell little or nothing at the regular price—particularly when your trade show neighbors are competing for those same sales.
3) Have A Convincing Argument Ready
Prospects at a trade show hear sales pitches all day long. You really can’t get away from that, since that’s what tradeshows are for. But when someone in your tradeshow booth seems interested and just not quite ready to commit to a purchase, you should have a few effective rebuttals ready to help turn the “no” into a “yes.”
You’ve been to enough shows to know what reasons booth visitors give for delaying a purchasing decision. So get together with co-workers before the show and plan your responses to each scenario.
It may even help to role-play with a fellow booth staffer before the show, so you’ll all have a convincing response that you can present, without being argumentative.
4) Keep The Five Senses in Mind
Think for a moment about what happens when you cut open a lemon: you see the bright yellow of the pulp, the sweet, pungent smell fills the air, and you can almost taste the sourness. Got it? Now try the same thing in your trade show exhibits.
No, I’m not suggesting you cut lemons! I’m talking about creating sensory experiences. People love anything that engages their eyes, ears, nose, taste and touch. The more senses you can engage, the better the outcome.
Visual and aromatic displays will draw attendees to your booth, so choose colors that aren’t too brash and harmonize well. If your product has (or creates) a unique sound or smell, showcase that. Think about highlighting the texture or your product or what it produces, too.
5) Don’t Ask “Yes” or “No” Questions
Never ask, “Do you need a new widget?” Why? Your chances of getting shut down are two out of three. Some people might answer “Yes,” but the majority of attendees will probably tell you “No,” or that they’re “Just browsing.” So two-thirds of the time, you’ll strike out.
If you incorporate multiple choice or open-ended questions, you’ve got a better chance of finding an opening to make your pitch. For instance, if you are selling books, consider asking, “Who’s the reader in your life?” or “Do you prefer paper books or ebooks?”
These questions work better than “Do you like to read?” That question gives the attendee an escape hatch. You don’t want to be the one providing that.
While it’s unethical to sell something to someone that they genuinely don’t want, there’s nothing wrong with securing a sale from a prospect who really likes your product, but has been overwhelmed with scores of sales pitches from other exhibitors. Your goal here is to turn a potential sale into an actual sale, creating a win-win for you and your trade show booth visitor.
If you need help creating an exhibit design that draws attendees in so you can make your pitch, call us. American Image Displays represents all major trade show booth displays manufacturers, and we can even show you what your new booth design will look like before you buy, with a beautiful, full-color computer rendering. For more information, call us at (425) 556-9511 or email [email protected].