The Four Ps to Trade Show Success

Planning, preparation, politeness and promotional products

By Matt Hatcher,
National Premium
May 2010

All journeys start with a road map. Whether you are exhibiting at the local regional show or the national convention, the final destination should be the same: instead generate new leads and increase brand awareness. It's time to plan.

Staffing your booth

The first order of business is to establish an event planner or point person to mange the trade show booth. Choose a detailed person with strong people and organizational skills. Someone who will keep the area looking good, interact with attendees and will manage the booth.

Next, assign people to greet and qualify visitors. This role should be filled by people who are polite, approachable, energetic, smiling and knowledgeable. Once a prospect is qualified they should be able to deliver a brief presentation. It is discouraged to hire professional models or "seat warmers". Although pleasant to look at, they do not know your company nor represent your best face forward.

It is also recommended to staff specialists for prospects who need more in depth information. This could be a technical person, manager, marketing, HR, membership or inside sales representative. It's time to prepare.

Training

People who attend trade shows are there for a reason. Your company has limited time with each prospect and being prepared is the key to leaving a long and lasting impression. Therefore, training must be mandatory. Areas to cover before the show include:

    * product, service and media training
    * qualifying techniques
    * lead management and generation
    * exhibit and demo logistics
    * trade show attire
    * conduct and objectives

The booth staff needs to quickly introduce themselves and ask probing questions. Prepared team members will weed out the tire kickers and get to the quality prospects faster, thus saving you money. A great training tool is a script with anticipated questions and answers. Don't be rude.

Professionalism

All booth members need to mind their Ps & Qs. If staffers are not engaged, chewing gum, talking on cell phones, attendees won't visit your booth -- period. No negative energy.

Attire is important. Corporate logo apparel helps to reinforce trade show booth themes, and should also be perceived as respectful of the organizers and attendees of the show itself. It's time to increase booth traffic.

Promotional items

Promotional products carefully selected for their suitability to a specific audience not only increase the number and quality of show leads, but also elevate brands by creating positive, compelling brand experiences. Promotional products inform, remind and persuade.

72% of tradeshow attendees who received a promotional product remembered the name of the company that gave them the product. 76% of attendees had a favorable attitude toward the company that gave them the product.

Including a promotional product with a pre-show mailing increases the likelihood of an attendee stopping by the booth. As a rule, promotional products of greater value generate more sales leads than products of lower value.

For more information on promotional products please contact Matt Hatcher, Account Executive at 952-697-3306 or matt@nationalpremium.com.