Winning on the Trade Show, Expo or Conference Floor

Trade shows are highly competitive spaces where everyone is trying to outdo you. You’ll need to stand out and create a lane for yourself. Chances are others are selling the same thing you are to the same people. This is a recipe for fierce competition. You have to do everything you can to eclipse the others on the field. Now here is how you can start to take over the show and create buzz around your booth and gain more leads from trade events you attend.

Go to the right shows, one way to beat the competition is to pick the right show to exhibit. Pick a show that is related to your business but not exactly the standard industry show everyone goes to. How about a show that could be related in a way to your product with less competition? Let’s say you are a company that sells computers. Instead of going to a technology expo you can try a business show that would maybe have businesses interested in buying computers for their office. Standing out at a business show would be much easier than having to find a way to stand out in a group of other companies that are all selling computers.

Looks matter, a lot. Visually your booth needs to stand out from everyone else. Others will be doing the same, so make sure to spend time and have a plan on how your booth will look. Choose colours that stand out to draw people into at least looking at your booth. Keep it relevant but not boring.

Engage your customers, it’s not good enough to sit and wait for people to come and engage with you. It’s important to interact with people wandering in. It doesn’t have to be about what you are selling immediately off the bat. You should first make the customer feel comfortable at your booth and maybe direct them to some interactive display. You must get them into what you are selling before you can do your sales pitch. Just remember not start with the pitch immediately, so just get out there and start chatting.

Get a crowd. A crowd is the best way to get people to notice your booth. When people see a crowd, they want to see what the commotion is about. So how do you get a crowd? Make your booth fun, have games or activities for people to play with or to sample. This is probably the most important goal you want to try and achieve. With a crowd, your booth can become the most talked about thing at the show. Encourage people to take pictures and post to social media when participating in games at your booth. This gets \your brands name out in two ways at the same time.

Give them something to keep. This is also a good way to generate buzz and traffic to your booth. When people see someone walking around with something cool they got at a booth they are going to ask where they got it. Leading them to visit your booth and maybe stay for the pitch. Giving out cool swag or samples from your booth will make your booth the talk of the trade show.

Use these ideas to beat the competition when running and planning your next exhibit. Shows can be very efficient at generating new leads and getting more brand awareness. So don’t fade into the background. Get out there and create a special space for yourself and take the show by storm. Some ideas in this blog were based on this article.