If you are the owner of a small business, or you’ve just been put in charge of the company’s trade show booth, the entire process can be overwhelming (some companies have an entire team dedicated to their trade show booths). If you have never done it before, here are five steps to help you create an effective booth that will drive sales and new business opportunities.
Step 1: Choose the Right Trade Show(s)
There are millions of trade shows happening every year all over the world, and chances are there are hundreds or thousands happening just in your industry. Unless you have an unlimited budget and plan to spend all your time traveling to trade shows, it’s not realistic to expect that you can attend them all.
Even if you have an established circuit of trade shows that your company has attended in the past, it’s a good idea to review that list every now and then to find out if there are better ones, perhaps that reach a more accurate audience, or cost less than the ones you attended in the past.
Step 2: Identify Your Goals
Exhibiting at trade shows is a great way to get your business in front of a lot of potential customers in a very short amount of time (as many as 200 or more per day at a well-attended show), without spending your entire travel budget for one-on-one meetings. They give you a platform to display your products and services, and allow people who may not even be aware of what you are offering to see the benefits. Trade shows may even be an opportunity to sell your products to customers. It’s important to identify exactly what you hope to get out of your trade show (leads, sales, contacts, exposure, demos) so you can set up the right kind of booth to attract that audience.
Step 3: Design Your Booth Space
Gone are the days when every booth at a trade show was an eight-foot banquet table with brochures. Today’s booths are increasingly designed to offer an experience to trade show attendees, and without an eye-catching design, many attendees may not even bother to stop. Check with the trade show organizer to find out how big your booth space is (the standard is usually 10’ x 10’) and where it will be located on the showroom floor. If you need more space, you can often purchase several adjacent booths to combine into a larger area.
Next, find a place where you can purchase booth display materials. There are many local and national organizations that offer design services, including graphic design, printing, and all the necessary components to assemble and transport the booth materials. Booth displays come in a wide variety of different configurations, including tabletop models and floor models, ones that require a crew of workers to put together, and others that can easily be assembled with just one person. More complex custom booths may even include modular designs with islands, product demo areas, tables, stages, chairs, and more.
Step 4: Gather Materials and Train Your Staff
Now that you have your booth display, you need to identify the materials you plan to have available in your booth. Will you need demos of your product? Do you have brochures and other marketing materials that outline product benefits? Are there other components you need to display your product? It’s important to ensure that you have everything you will need to properly demonstrate your items—discovering that you left a custom power cord that is required to run your products back at the office can seriously hinder your show.
In addition, you want to train your booth staff, particularly if this is their first trade show. Take some time in advance to set up a “practice” booth at work and go over the basic steps for engaging show participants in conversation, identifying which individuals will be qualified leads (you don’t want someone spending hours discussing your product with a person who isn’t interested or doesn’t need it), presenting professionally and in a compelling way, and closing the sale to ensure you have a plan for the next step.
Step 5: Time for the Big Show
Once you have all your training and materials, the next step is to put on the show. Coordinate travel arrangements so you have plenty of time to get set up and be prepared for the show, double-check your items before you ship them so you know everything is there, and pack a few emergency items (such as tape, glue, scissors, zip ties, markers, etc.) just in case you arrive and need to make some last-minute adjustments.
Trade shows can be a great way to open your company up to new leads, identify potential sales, or increase sales. The key is to ensure that you are properly prepared to make the most of every show. Follow these steps with your next trade show to get the leads, contacts, and sales you need for your business.
Mark Saghy is a marketing executive with Exhibit Deal, a wholesale trade show display company offering digital signage, pop-up displays and accessories.
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