Building Better Business Relationships: Trade Show Tips to Attract More People to Your Booth

If you invest in a trade show booth you want to maximize your return and ensure that plenty of potential customers come and see you during your time spent there.

Trade show kiosks from Nomadic Display can help you to create a professional image for example, but making a success of these shows is not always plain sailing, which is why you need to acquire a few tips and insights to help improve your odds.

See a trade show as an investment

If you take the view that a trade show is a necessary expense that you have to incur in order to defend your position in the market and keep the competition at bay, it is likely that you will not get the most out of the opportunity.

If you take the more positive view that a trade show is an investment that will enhance your prospects of building your business and cementing new and existing relationships, you are far more likely to benefit from the experience.

One of the best ways of motivating yourself and ensuring that you approach it in the right way, is to set yourself some measureable and achievable objectives before the event starts and then work on achieving them while you are there.

Quality is more important than quantity

It may be very encouraging to see thousands of people walking past your booth and getting a sense that there is a real buzz at the trade show but the true acid test is how many quality contacts come to your booth.

It pays to define a pre-event strategy which involves defining who in particular you would like to come to the show and target this specific group of people or demographic with pre-show invites, emails and calls.

Even a handful of prime, committed prospects who have responded to your invitation and come to talk with you and learn more about your business, will often prove to be more valuable than a hatful of business cards from people who are not likely to contact you again.

Something new

A great way to ensure you get plenty of attention and hopefully success at a trade show, is to us eth event as a launch-pad for a new product or service.

Having something new to say or show to your customers is a proven strategy that will help you to make the most out of your trade show booking.

It is not always easy to get the timing of a product launch exactly right in line with a trade show but it is just as effective to contact new and existing customers and invite them to come and see you at the trade show so you can talk about and demonstrate something you have not previously contacted them about.

Interaction works

If you pay a visit to the majority of industry trade shows, you will quickly notice that the stands where visitors are invited to interact with the products on display, are often busy.

Not all products are suitable for this purpose and if you have a service you might think the idea is not relevant, but if you have some touch screens around or iPads with pre-loaded questions and answers, you will invariably find that people are keen to get involved and play with any gadgets you have on display in your booth.

The question of giveaways

The subject of giveaways definitely divides opinion and there are probably an equal number of trade show veterans who consider the concept outdated and a waste of money, and those that freebies serve a useful purpose.

The answer as to whether you should offer giveaways probably comes down to whether you are careful enough to choose something tangible and worthwhile. Take the time to think about what you could give away as a freebie that represents your company or product in the best possible way.

If you are unable to find something that fits that criteria, then you have probably answered the question for yourself.

Trained to help

Even the best designed booth can fail if the staff manning it are not trained properly and do not handle customers and enquiries in the right way.

It pays to invest in training staff to be able to answer some simple questions and then know when to direct potential buyers to an appropriate staff member on hand. Some companies employ professional meters and greeters or entertainers, so that you achieve professional hosting.

Follow some of these tips and you should be able to make your trade show a success.

Paul Morgan has been a business consultant for over 20 years. He loves seeing his clients succeed, and enjoys sharing tips with startups and small business owners through his writing.