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Increase Your Trade Show Sales without Renting a Booth

Written by: Cheryl A. Clausen

Article Overview: Trade shows for your best prospects are a great way to generate leads and increase sales if you know how to take advantage of the opportunity. You can reap the benefits without renting a booth.

Increase Your Trade Show Sales without Renting a Booth

Trade shows for your best prospects are a great way to generate leads and increase sales if you know how to take advantage of the opportunity. You can reap the benefits without renting a booth. The down side to renting a booth, in addition to the cost, is the fact that you’re tied to the booth unless you have enough help to man your booth so you can freely to roam the event.

Most trade shows are recurring with the date of the next one known up to a year in advance, so you have plenty of time to plan your strategy for sales success. If the event is held at a hotel or a convention center connected to a hotel you could rent a room during the event and send post cards to prospects inviting them to visit you to get something they of value. You could even host an after the event cocktail hour.

You can walk the trade show making sure you meet as many potential prospects as possible, and then always have something of value to offer them to make a connection. Whatever your plan, make sure you have your entire marketing and sales strategy mapped out for the event far enough in advance to have everything prepared for the big event. That way you’ll get the sales success you envision.

Make sure you arrive at the event early and work your plan. Know who is running the event and find out if there’s an opportunity for you to help with the event. Helping with the event gets you exposure to the right people.

You may want to greet arrivers and hand them a bag they can use to collect all their trade show goodies. Perhaps you want to visit the vendor booths early and bring them a cup of coffee. Be prepared to position yourself for the most exposure, and be prepared with a great attention getting core marketing message.

No matter what your plan of attack always have something to offer the people you meet that they really want so you can start the connection.

Your offer is the key to the whole lead generation process and increasing your sales. Come up with something that is a value added proposition. Something your prospects really want. It doesn’t have to be something tangible.

In fact, information that isn’t readily available but really helpful or useful will encourage others to reach out to you. The first step to sales success is getting the people whose attention you want to connect with you, and giving valuable information is a great way to do it. But you don’t want to do it in a pushy way.

Remember you’re not a booth holder. You’re either walking the trade show or inviting people to connect with you at your own event near the trade show, so you just need to meet and greet people and make a friend. Then mention this valuable something you’d like them to have.

Why do most people waste the leads they get at trade shows? Because they don’t follow-up or they don’t follow-up fast enough. Remember the leads you got from the trade show don’t know you, so you need to have a system to follow-up with those leads in some way within 72 hours or they’re wasted. Beyond 72 hours they’ve moved on from the trade show and their interest and enthusiasm will have waned. So include your follow-up plan of attack in your overall plan. You’ll increase your sales by having a plan for sales success and then staying committed to working your plan.

Related Articles
  How to Promote Sales Growth at a Trade Show
  Score Big At Your Next Trade Show
  Trade Show Marketing - Part 1
  Q&A: What does excellent trade show signage look like?
  USING TRADE SHOWS AS A PR OPPORTUNITY

Article Tags: cocktail hour, core marketing, cup of coffee, goodies, lead generation, plan of attack, post cards, prospects, sales strategy, sales success, trade show, vendor booths



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