Trade Show Boot Camp

Trade shows can be profitable, educational and entertaining, but trade show survival is vastly different than your routine around the office. Here are some tips to make the trade show experience valuable and pain-free as possible.

1. Prepare as much as you can before you leave for the show. Have your talking points and schedule laid out for you to reduce hassles.
2. Prepare the one “engaging” question for your booth attendees. “Are you enjoying the show?” is OK, but trite. “Have you seen our latest promotion?” is better.
3. Leave your new shoes at home. Ah, but you bought new shoes for the show. Leave them. Most large trade shows are housed in convention centers or other airplane hangers where you can expect to be walking on lightly padded concrete. Plus, you might be standing all day. Wear layered clothing, the hall heats up later in the day.
4. Try not to drink, sit or eat in the booth. It’s hard to believe, because there may be 100,000 people at the show, but you really are on display all day. If it’s time for lunch, leave the booth and see the rest of the show, but try not to leave the booth unattended.
5. Rotate booth personnel. No matter how friendly, or outgoing your staff is, it’s hard to be effective as a knowledgable greeter 8 hours a day. If you don’t do this kind of thing regularly, it’s harder still.
6. Always be qualifying. From the opening greeting, you should be trying to qualify your potential customer with every question. If you’re giving away promotional items, make sure you’re getting valuable information in return.
7. When engaging visitors to your booth, listen 80% of the time, and talk 20%.
8. Set achievable goals for the show. If it’s your first time, chalk it up to getting your feet wet, if it’s trade show number 500, don’t forget what you’ve learned.
9. Get a few six packs of water and keep them in the booth. I know, you’re in the middle of Sydney or Las Vegas and there’s no water. But it’s true. At a Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show, you have to leave the hall to get water and then it’s $5 for the small bottle. If you’re talking all day, you’ll likely be hoarse by the third day, so the water will come in handy.
10. While you’re at it, make sure you’ve got a booth “first aid kit,” there’s never a Band Aid, a screwdriver, or a piece of rope around when you need it, and believe it or not, you might need all three at the trade show.
11. Bring your sense of humor–it’s the stories attendees tell after hours that make for an enjoyable and successful show.