0

Your first trade show? 7 absolutely easy ways to victory!

Well, it’s finally coming up. Your first trade show. Nervous? It’s OK if you are. Maybe you’re even having the pre-trade show nightmare where you dream that you show up a day late, your display is all printed in Chinese and you’re even wearing a black belt with brown shoes.

Fortunately, that scenario rarely ever plays out.

Still, your first visit to the big show could be a complete waste of time and money if you don’t know what to expect, so let’s get you prepared for the big day.

 

Trade Shows Are Definitely Worth It

Attending a trade show involves a lot of work. You may have to travel and pick up plane tickets and a hotel room. Just the booth space you’re renting can be a few thousand dollars, but there’s also the trade show booth display, extra banners, promotional materials and more.

Oh, and a haircut. Get a haircut before you mingle with thousands of people.

The point is that you may look at your trade show budget and get buyer’s remorse before you even spend a dime.

There’s also a really good chance that you won’t be recouping your expenses from the two, three or even four days you’re there – but don’t freak out! Most would agree it’s worth every penny.

The important thing is to make a plan – start early, and try to skip the mistakes that are easy to avoid.

Trade shows bring together thousands of people, sometimes tens-of-thousands of them. A lot of those people will be motivated buyers looking for exactly what you’re selling. There’s just no opportunity that compares.

Take a deep breath and invest in the trade show experience (including that haircut). Use that expense as motivation. Go to the trade show and make it worth it!

 

It’s Not Just About Selling

In the perfect world, you’d show up to a trade show with product and promotional materials and leave without either.

Maybe you’d even have to get on the phone to headquarters and demand more of both because your booth is so popular it’s a feeding frenzy.

It’s not a perfect world, though, is it? Sorry to let you down.

However, sales aren’t all there is to these shows and, believe it or not, for many, it’s not even the most important part.

For many, trade shows are about market feedback. Click To Tweet

If you’re about to launch a new product or have only just formed your business, trade shows provide an invaluable opportunity to see where you need to improve before investing more money.

Many buyers will happily give you constructive criticism (some more welcomed than others) because they are legitimately excited about the opportunity to work with your brand.

There’s also all the networking to be done as well.

You could easily double your LinkedIn numbers in a single day!

Trade shows are where people find the perfect supplier or meet those from a potential partner company. I’m sure at least one person has met their spouse there too.

 

It’s Never Too Early to Attend

This also gets at another point that’s worth bringing up. Trade shows aren’t just for 10-year veterans with stockpiles of product waiting to be sold.

Many people attend trade shows with almost no merchandise.

They have a booth, a winning attitude and little else (a haircut. They have a nice haircut, remember that).

The reason this makes sense is because the experience will bring you valuable feedback about your product now, before you go ahead and create thousands of them. Which would you prefer?

• Build a prototype, spend the money to create thousands of them, take them to a trade show, find out they’re awful.
• Build a prototype, take it to a trade show, learn what works, fine-tune it, create thousands, rule the market, retire early, buy an island.

Looks pretty straightforward to me.

 

Put Time into Your Show Strategy

Even though you haven’t been to a trade show before, you probably have some idea of what to expect. Are you telling me you’ve never watched a trade show documentary?

There are basically row after row of trade show booths with people standing in them ready to explain their product or service. In fact, there may be a reason lots of trade shows take place in Las Vegas – if you picture a casino, with endless rows of slot machines, it’s a very similar look inside the convention center too!

It might look easy enough, but don’t let those smiling pros fool you. A lot goes into your overall approach.

Obviously, you need to think about the exhibit. You may not be able to judge a book by its cover, but it turns out that everyone judges booths by theirs. In fact, they give your booth a glance for 3-5 seconds, and may not approach at all, just based on that quick glance.

Furthermore, think about who will be manning the display with you. Can they actually sell? Do they present themselves well?

Now is not the time to call up your B-squad.

This is a trade show, not a tryout! Click To Tweet

You want your best people back there with you to make the most sales and win networking opportunities! Also, make sure to tell them about the haircut thing.

Don’t think you’re above practicing either. Maybe that seems weird, but it’s worth running through a few scenarios so you’re ready.

You can either practice beforehand or practice at the actual trade show in front of real customers. I think it’s obvious which one is the better choice.

 

Plan Early

It’s not like trade shows are things that get sprung on you at the last minute.

No one’s ever opened a door and heard, “SURPRISE!” and then found themselves at a trade show.

You have time to plan for these things, so use every possible minute.

The last thing you want is to learn at the last second is that you didn’t order enough brochures, your graphics have your boss’ name spelled wrong, the trade show display has a broken thingamajig, or one of your staff members hasn’t booked a hotel. Also, you might have a question you’ll need to ask the show management staff and it could take them time to get back to you.

If you don’t prepare for your trade show, it will, well, show. Click To Tweet

Start planning right now (finish the article first).

 

Send Your Displays Ahead of You

Usually, it just isn’t realistic to try hauling your display to the event. For most people, this would take a rental truck to do. If you’re flying, you absolutely have to hire a service. Before you decide to head to CES with a display made up of 3 banner stands that fit in your trunk, consider what the rest of the exhibit may look like!

Again, just like everything above, schedule this as soon as possible.

Even if you’re driving to the show, have professionals take care of getting your exhibit to the show early. Get the people at the trade show to call or email you the moment your things arrive so you have one less matter to worry about. Otherwise, you’ll become the thing of trade show lore: the businessperson who showed up and didn’t even have a booth to present (plus, it looked like they hadn’t even had a haircut).

 

Review After Each Day

This may seem obvious, but if you’re attending your first trade show, you may forget to review how the day went with your team after each and every one. By keeping this practice, you’ll be that much more likely to have an even better following day.

Make it a competition if you like too. Count who can sell more products, hand out more brochures, answer more questions, shake more hands, etc. You do know what you want your staff trying to do, right?

What you don’t want is someone just taking up space in your booth. If you have someone like that, their new job is getting people coffee and sabotaging the competition (kidding!).

There you go! That’s <isn’t> all there is to it, but it’s a start.

You’re now ready to saunter into that trade show for the first time like you invented the thing. Go get ‘em, tiger!

For more, check out how to build your brand at trade shows and why attendees might not be engaging with you.

Get our Trade Show Marketing Playbook