Top 5 Signs You Need A New Trade Show Strategy

For many sales professionals, your company success lives and dies by your trade show performance. That’s why it’s so important that your trade show strategy be compelling, engaging and unique. Think about the last trade show you (or your company) attended. Think hard. Think harder. Was your booth flooded with visitors? Were the visitors engaged? How many new leads or clients did it generate?

Like it or not, when it comes to drawing in clients at a trade show, looks matter. You have something unique to offer your customers, and you need a trade show strategy that not only showcases what that is, but compels potential customers to find out about it. How do you know if you need a new trade show strategy? Here are some of the major areas in which companies go wrong when attending trade shows as a vendor.

1. Giveaways. Now don’t get us wrong, giveaways can be a great way to make sure potential customers leave with your company name and contact info, and even be occasionally reminded of you when they use whatever giveaway they’ve taken home. But if your best effort is a pen with your logo on it, you can be fairly certain that they’ll go home with 12 other pens from your competition, and then likely they’ll lose it in the car long before they ever write with it. Make sure your visitors take home something useful and memorable.
2. Wasted time. If your salespeople regularly use their time at trade shows to catch up on emails, text their buddies, or watch Netflix, you’ve got a big problem. They should be engaging with potential customers. And for that to happen, they need a booth that draws in potential customers. See how that works?
3. Boring literature. Much like the pens, having something for visitors to take with them to read up on your company/products/services is crucial to bringing in new business from a trade show. But if your brochures are boring, look like your competition’s, or are poorly designed, they’ll be in the trash can by the exit at the end of the show. Set yourself apart.
4. Bland branding. If the coolest thing about your booth is that you have a custom table skirt with your logo on it, it’s time to rethink your definition of “cool.”  You want your booth to be memorable. You want people to see it from across the room and head right for it.
5. Grab and go. People flock to your booth because you’re giving away awesome stuff. But you’re not engaging them once they’re there, so they grab their free stuff and bee-line to the next booth. You’ve got a steady stream of visitors alright, no problem there. But you’re not generating any new business. For your trade show strategy to be effective, you have to put all the pieces together.

So how’s your trade show strategy? If you’re thinking it could use a little revitalization, you’re in luck. Because here at TQS, we’re really good at creating compelling marketing and engaging people. And that’s really what all this trade show strategy business comes down to. Compelling and engaging potential customers. Call us. We’ll help. And your sales staff will love you. Really, really love you.