EXHIBITION/TRADE SHOW ADVICE

[Moh]

Hi all,

I'm about to launch a new clothing and accessories brand. I have been tirelessly working away to develop the products ready for launch.

My launch date is set to coincide with an upcoming exhibition which is related to my industry.

I was looking for some advice on how to make the exhibition a successful one.

Can anyone recommend any inexpensive ways of lead capturing? I have iPads at my disposal so any app or website recommendations would be handy.
Are there any tips and tricks to draw in customers?
Are special discount codes/ recommend a friend offers etc a good way to get people on to my website in the future?

At present I have recruited a few friends who work in sales within the industry elsewhere to come along and help run my stall.

As a way to interact and draw in customers, I will be serving coffee and chocolates.

I plan to print literature to distribute around the event, including business cards, product brochures.

I would appreciate any advice on publicity, exhibitions, sales techniques etc that would help us on the day.

Thank you in advance!

 

[The Byre]

Scan their badges!

Give them all brochures and other material!

Get their cards and note special interests on the back!

Give away baseball hats! Give the kids balloons!

Move out from your stand and get them in the aisles!

And above all, energy, energy, energy!

 

[Paul Kelly ICHYB]

You can normally only scan badges if you use special hardware or apps that have a cost.

The basic way is to ask visitors for their business card.

You could incentivise people to give their details - prize draw, free gift, discount/offer etc.

 

[Mark T Jones]

As a rule, information gathered is far more valuable than information given. Remember that your visitors will be taking home hundreds of brochures

As said, get their card or at least a phone / email. And make a note of something specific to them

Follow up - that is your value

As far as possible aim for better rather than more conversations - there will be plenty of tyre kickers and pen collectors.

Oh, and don't forget to follow up!

 

[The Byre]

You can normally only scan badges if you use special hardware or apps that have a cost.

The basic way is to ask visitors for their business card.

I go to a handful of international trade fairs each year and over the past two or three years almost NOBODY has asked me for a card or other documentation (the exception being a handful of exhibitors from Third World countries). All they do is read the QR code on your badge and store it. Large exhibitors have dolly birds roaming around the stand and beyond, scanning in people's badges on their smart phones.

Free QR stuff here - http://www.qrstuff.com/

Usually, a QR or barcode reader and management system is included with a stand's overall package by the exhibition organiser.

I can imagine that small and local trade fairs may not be as well organised as the big boys and the last time we exhibited at a small local fair (more for political reasons, than actual hope for trade!) a smooth and well organised operative attitude was very conspicuous by its uniform absence!

 

[Creamcrackered]

It's an obvious one, but good lighting helps. A brightly lit stand stands out from the rest.
Scanning badges is a great way to get everyone's details, but I find it useful to have a form or log book for recording the really hot leads

 

[HFE Signs]

As above collect as much data as you can, but also good clear branding is vital.

 

[Root 66 Woodshop]

Smile.

Make sure you're all bloody smiling! There's nothing worse than popping to a trade show and seeing a bunch of miserable sods hanging about a stall... I tend to walk straight past them if they're not enjoying themselves.

Having you or your friend modeling your range is also a bonus... especially if there's a bikini involved!

 

[Mark T Jones]

Whilst I'm Jo expert in this field, I have recently done significant research with a view to exhibiting - a big part of the research involved spending almost a whole day at the Autumn fair speaking at length with exhibitors - they were remarkable forthcoming!

'Zappers. Can be hired for £75 (either a big waste or a drop in the ocean) opinions varied on whether they were worth it, but majority consensus was that the information they gathered was weak and to get value it was vital to add some context and value - sometimes by spreadsheet, sometimes by notes written on an individual's business card

Another frequent theme was the importance of trying to separate buyers from tyre kickers - far easier said than done!Mobutu, as per my previous post it pays to not get too excited by the tens of thousands of visitors, but to concentrate on the ones you want to be talking to

And finally, to repeat. Follow up! This is where quality data comes into its own. Everyone with a zapper will be sending generic follow ups - yours will stand out if you mention something of specific relevance to them

 

[Jeff FV]

It's a while since we've done a trade show (as exhibitors) (circa 3 or 4 years), but zappers (barcode/QR readers) were definitely not included in the cost of your stand, but available as a paid for extra (we never bothered) And these were major UK trade shows (Top Drawer etc)

If other exhibitors have "dolly birds" roaming around beyond their stands complain to the organisers. Organisers are hot on people exhibiting outside of their stands and will (quite rightly) charge anyone for the privilege of doing so.

Lighting is a good call - we always used to pay extra to upgrade our lighting from the basic one light, to a series of spots. Always worth it for us.

Plus, agree with "smile"

And finally - comfy shoes. Whatever you do, wear comfy shoes.

 

[japancool]

And finally - comfy shoes. Whatever you do, wear comfy shoes.

Oh god, if you take nothing else away from this thread, at least take this one piece of advice.

 

[MikeJ]

What Jeff said.

I wouldn't worry too much about the coffee and chocolates. All you'll do is have people wasting time for a free coffee. Have it, but don't have it out front. If people sound interesting,and you want to keep them on the stand, then offer them the coffee.

Are your customers likely to have business cards? My industry does, but I've been in a few places where they're not common. I did a show in Algeria a couple of years ago, and hardly anyone carried a card. Most would happily pass on their details, but they were having to write them out each time.

Ipads? Meh, you'll spend your time worrying about them. Get a good notepad, spare pens, and a stapler to attach cards to notes.

Have your people wear your shirts. Easy advertising, on and off the stall. Don't go anywhere without a leaflet.

Keep the stand clean and tidy. Keep bags and coats out of site. Walk off the stand every couple of hours and look at it. See if there's anything that needs tidying up.

Expect people to try to sell you stuff, when it happens and you're busy give them a card and tell them to call you. You're there to sell, not buy. Tell them that.

Work out how you'll eat. Don't eat on the stand. Ever. It looks terrible. Rota off in turns to grab something to eat.

Your stand design is key. It takes about 5 seconds to walk past a 3m stand. You've got 5 seconds grab someone's attention and tell them what you do.

Work out what you're going to say to people that stop and look at your stand. Be friendly and professional, but not aggressive.

Expect to be tired.

 

[Paul Kelly ICHYB]

@The Byre - I agree that scanning is the best way, but how do you scan a badge and decipher the code? If a barcode is used (or QR), it is normally a registration reference that does not have a ny customer info on it.

Or have I made an assumption and missed a trick for all these years!

YBC has a stand at the Elite Business Expo in Excel next week - maybe I should try scanning with a generic reader and see what I get!

 

[MikeJ]

A barcode is just a sequence of numbers and/or letters.You'd have to link that to a database to find out who that person is.

 

[The Byre]

@The Byre - I agree that scanning is the best way, but how do you scan a badge and decipher the code?

Ah! Now there you draw me into deep and dark waters!

The last trade fair I attended was in Holland and the Good and the Great of our industry were there, collecting information about the latest toys both physical and virtual. Indeed, I was there with a shopping list of goodies and wondering why all the crazy nutters from the 90s were absent and replaced by unbelievably good looking Chinese business women with impeccable English.

As I staggered around the halls of the RAI Exhibition Centre, good-looking young Dutch girls chased me. "You still have the old magic, you dog!" I said to myself.

As soon as they saw my badge, they waved an iPhone at it and it went beep. At first I put this down to my natural charm and good looks. I may be old enough to be their grandfather, but, I thought, that twinkle in my eye, the youthful demeanour, the energetic manner and my winning smile must count for something!

A similar thing happened at the stand of an Israeli company. Two young 'Sabra' girls with dark flashing eyes and lithe supple bodies grabbed me. Gosh, I thought, news of that year I spent in Israel back in the early 70s, farming chicken, must have spread!

(We had 500,000 free-range chicken and it took me three months to be able to eat the damn things again. Kibbutz Nizanim was where I was and they must have recognised me from pictures taken at the time. Young, muscular, tall, long flowing hair and definitely what the dating websites call GSoH - and smelling of chicken - how could they miss me!)

Anyway, you will be as surprised as I was to hear that it was not the chicken, but the badge.

Like the Dutch girls before them, they wanted my name, email address and the name of my company and what it does. Apparently, all that was contained in the QR code. Once they had that, they lost all interest in me and all attempts to strike up a conversation and begin what might have been a lasting relationship, failed, as they homed in on another bald geezer loaded down with bags full of brochures.

 

[The Byre]

https://www.zoho.com/crm/blog/goodbye-badge-scanner-hello-leads.html

http://www.icapture.com/tradeshow-badge-scanning/

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/badgescan-capture-info-from/id895991597?mt=8

And others such as iLeads, ExpoBee, G2Planet, insinno, Lionexpo, N200-VisitConnect, Zuant and Will-Work Lead Capture.

I'm sure that there are many more!

The first thing I want to know from a trade show organiser nowadays, is are all badges scanable (i.e. do they have QR codes on them) and do visitors get clips to wear them where I can scan them.

Some scan apps go into OCR mode if no QR code is visible, but of course that is of limited use.

 

[MikeJ]

FWIW, the OP hasn't been back since making that post.

 

[MOIC]

I was about to add . . . . .

Make your booth stand out.

Have adequate literature available for potential customers to take.

Promotional bags as a "give away"

Make sure you have enough people on the stand that are knowledgable about the product, prices and ordering process.

Engage with customers, don't wait for them to enter the stand and be the first to speak.

All visitors entering the stand and showing interest should be noted on a hard back note pad, business card stapled and all notes written clearly.

As others have said, following up is the key and as soon as possible.

If the OP has not been back, all the above posts are useful for other prospective readers who are exhibiting and to follow the advice.

 

[The Byre]

The absence of the OP hardly matters, as the issue of how to promote your company at a trade fair is of great importance to most types of B2B and many B2C enterprises.

I make all my final decisions on capital equipment at trade fairs. It is the only place where one can actually see and even in some cases try out one manufacturer against another. I can see trends, simply by seeing where the crowds are. I can talk to some of the lower orders within a company - "Has anything changed since you guys were acquired by your new German masters?"

If they pull a long face and talk of redundancies, then I know a great deal more than if I just read some press release, or a lot of moaning from ex-employees on Glassdoor.

I also get a great deal of information from seeing which products are being shown and which products are conspicuous by their absence. That new and ground-breaking technology from last year may be absent and we combine that with rumours of users not getting upgrades and we smell a turkey roasting and existing customers being left high and dry!

 

[MikeJ]

We've done this several times over the years though. The guy's floggin t-shirts. Hardly worth regurgitating the same stuff over again unless you're going to tailor the advice to him.

 

[tavk]

Bags of information and adv. Great reading folks