Business, Events, Trade Show
Trade shows are about how many peoples you can see if a very short amount of time. You have 4 – 8 seconds for your booth design to grab people attention and make them stop to speak with you. So how do you bring people to your booth?
Traffic Starts Before the Show
Bringing traffic to your booth starts with your pre-show marketing. Emails, social media, and direct mailers are all great ways to drive up interest.
A great way that a company did this was that they sent everyone a dollar and if you brought that dollar by their booth to match it with the serial number, you then got $100. Another time, I was sent a chemical test strip, if it turned a certain color you won a prize and were entered into the grand prize.
For the larger shows, work on finding your target market. You can set up appointments ahead of time, or offer a giveaway that will draw in that target market.
Traffic In Your Booth
First thing to do in your booth is smile and look at the passing crowd. Do not spend money on your booth and then sit behind a table and look at your phone or laptop. I ban phones and any computers not being used for demos in my booths. I also remove chairs. You can read about that here.
One of my favorite designs is a business that could do small batch runs for bottling and they put up a big banner in their booth that stated the exact run size they could do. This was a huge show, after they left, they had contracts to run for the next two months with leads that would book them out of the year. They had their larger competitors sending people to them and they sent larger orders to their competitors – ensuring the customer received the service that they needed.
Tying your booth design, major offerings, and marketing together, will bring people to your booth.
People are here to engage, so you need to show your willingness to be engaged.
The second part of engaging is knowing when someone is not a good fit for your company and how to move them on so you can talk to those who are a good fit. This needs to be done with tact and each person will require different approaches. Practice makes perfect with this.
You cannot speak with everyone at a trade show – and you don’t want to. Bring the right people to your booth and drive the ROI of your trade shows through the roof.
Business, Trade Show
Trade show set up is stressful enough without running into the show floor authorities. It can be surprisingly easy to run afoul of the “floor cops” if you don’t know the rules. So here are the three main rules you need to watch out for.
1. Tool Usage
Some facilities do not allow you to use tools to set up your booth. Now tools can mean power tools or it can mean anything more than an allen wrench. When you are designing your booth, make sure you read your show rules to know what you can use to build your booth.
2. Load In Requirements
You can run up against facilities that will only allow you to hand carry items onto the show floor. Others say that you can use a hand cart one time. If you are going to need to haul items in, make sure you know what the rules are and if you need to ship items to the facility or to pay for them to haul items onto the show floor.
If you do have to ship, understand that you will pay to have it shipped to the facility, for storage, and then for them to move it from storage to your booth. You will also pay for them to store your boxes/ crates and then for them to move the boxes back to your booth, back to storage and to ship them again. Make sure you have these costs budgeted into your booth.
3. Set Up Hours
Some shows require that you are set up before a certain time, they do not want to open the show floor and have you scrambling to set up when attendees are arriving. They can even bar you from set up if you are not set up at the right hours.
This biggest thing you need to know is to read the rules.
Yes, they are often 5 – 10 pages long, but read them and know what you can and cannot do. If you run up against something you do not understand or if something isn’t in the rules but you feel like it is a gray area, ask show management before planning on it.
Business, Trade Show
What will 2022 bring for trade shows?
Honestly, that is up in the air and changes constantly. With mandates changing on a daily basis, new variants of the sickness that shall not be named, and budgets still being tight, the predictions are all over the place.
Here are a few of the major things that I do predict.
Businesses will be much more intentional about their trade show spend.
Unfortunately, this may mean fewer vendors and sponsors at the local and regional shows. That does leave the door open for the local companies, or the companies that have the budget to attend the national shows and the regional ones to grab a larger market share.
It will also mean more targeted messages and after events. Many companies are limiting the people who will attend the shows as well. I would always be ready to go to a hybrid or totally virtual event until the end of 2022.
It can not be just about the trade show floor
You need to be exhibiting, speaking, and setting up client and prospect meetings while at trade shows. You also need to use social media and your website to extend the life and reach of your booth.
Follow up will become more important than ever with smaller numbers of vendors being able to target and personalize messages to their ideal client.
A table cloth and pop up banner probably won’t cut it.
As technology advances and it becomes harder to gain peoples attention, booth design must evolve as well. Interactive booths, augmented reality, and immersive experiences – even in a 10 x 10 will become the norm.
Be flexible
Anyone that tells you that they know 2022 will turn out like x is crazy. The world we live in is very fast paced and can change in the course of two days. Be flexible as you go about planning your 2022 trade shows, know when to roll with the punches and when to pull the plug.
What are your plans and goals for the 2022 trade show season? I am excited to hear about your plans.
Business, Trade Show
Trade Shows are big business and that always brings the scams out. People looking to make a quick buck can ruin your show and have a negative impact on your business cash flow. Here are the top 3 scams you need to watch for.
1. Housing / Hotels Scams
This is the most common scams that I have seen and have personally had hundreds of calls about “special deals” for hotels at trade shows. They will attempt to scare you by saying that the room blocks are filling up fast and you need to book and pay now. They request full payment (rather than the normal one night) and when you arrive at the hotel you will not have a reservation. These people scrape the companies that are listed as vendors on the show website and you will most likely receive 2 – 4 calls per show. Tell them what they are doing is illegal (they hang up very quickly), track the number, and pass it on to show management. There is not much that they can do but it does help.
Where do you find the legitimate room blocks for the show? In the Exhibitor Package that is sent to you. This will most likely be an email. You can often find it on the show website, under an Exhibitor tab. Some shows do have a housing authority that they ask you to book through but again, that information will be listed in the Exhibitor packet.
If you go outside of the show housing authority or with a third party vendor, please make sure it is one that you know and trust. The good part about going through the show housing authority is that they make deals with the hotels that any booking through them cannot be moved to another hotel if the hotel is oversold. They can also act as liaisons between you and the hotels for any issues.
2. Fake Shows Scams
This is harder to pull off but can be more lucrative for the scammers. They will create a website and information that looks legit and then ask you to come. There may be a “discounted rate” because it is the first year the show is running or they are looking for companies just like yours to be a part of it. Sadly, when you arrive at the venue to set up, there is no show and you are out the money. Always do you research on the show before signing up. I am wary if a show is a first year show, is not on the venue website, and it seems like too good of a deal.
If anything seems off to you, call the venue to confirm that the show is happening. (Please get the number for the venue from the venue website and not the person trying to sell you on the show.)
3. Outside Vendors Scams
When you are shopping around for show vendors, especially for an out of town show, please do your research. There are plenty of people out there who are willing to take your money and never show up. This can happen for print items, rentals, and even services.
If someone calls you up offering the deal of a lifetime for the show, be wary.
One other note on outside vendors, many shows require you to get special permission if the vendors will be on the trade show floor at all. Read through your rules so you know what you can and cannot do.
Trade shows are expensive but you need to be wary of people offering you ways to cut costs and corners. Do you research before signing any contracts and be wary of the people who require full payment upfront that are not a part of the show itself.
Looking to save some money on your shows? Check out this blog post.
Business, Trade Show
Staffing a booth is hard. There are long hours and hard concrete to stand on but there are ways to help your staff make the best of the show and ensure you reach your goals. You need to ensure your booth staffers know these 5 things.
What are the goals of the show? What should staff be focusing on?
When your staff knows the reasons they are there and the show goals, they can really help to push the show in the right direction. This is especially true if your company has many product/ service lines and the show is only focusing on one of them. The staffers know to focus on that item while also having the other lines in their head if show attendees ask for them.
Your staffers should also have realistic goals. You want quality leads and sales, not pushy people who are scanning anyone who walks by to hit a quota.
Where and when is the show?
-
- You should also include
- Where is parking
- Is there a fee to park?
- Where is the booth
- What times they need to be at the booth.
- I often will overlap the shifts by 15 minutes because people rarely factor in time for parking (and the lines to park) plus walking to the booth.
What is the booth layout?
You want your staff to know where they can find items and what they can bring into the booth. I normally ban backpacks and refuse to hold the large “trick or treat” bags that people gain as they walk around the show. My booths and designed in a specific way and it does not include storage. If you do have storage in your booth you need to make sure who has the keys and let people know what they can bring in.
What should they wear?
If you have branded gear, I am a fan of wearing that. If not, set a dress code that your company is comfortable with. You can also have some fun with it. I have seen everything from prom dresses to hula skirts to lime green suit jackets. Whatever your choose, make sure you are not asking people to buy clothes outside of the normal office wear.
They will hear “No” a lot
This is the hardest one for those on the sales team. They can normally call maybe 100 people in a day or see maybe 20 if they are really hustling. At trade shows, you will hear no 200 – 500 times a day. You want to ensure that the booth draws people in and then the booth staff can qualify if people need what you are selling so that they can move to the next person if not.
Business, Events
College football is starting back up and that will hopefully include tailgates and fans in stadiums. A tailgate makes a great corporate event if done the right way. It offers you a chance to wine and dine customers outside of the normal “business” confines. People let down their guard and can be more open at a tailgate than a dinner or educational event.
You need 5 things for a great tailgate and then are in order of importance.
1. Good Food
Food is crucial for any event in my opinion but tailgates revolve around food. Your best bet is to find a local restaurant and have them cater it for you. If you have more than 50 people, ask them to come out to set up the food and keep it refilled. You do not want to have to be pulling food out of your vehicle all night – or have to find a place for the leftovers at the end of the night.
When picking the caterer you should consider the following:
- What is their reputation in the community?
- Is their food portable? (Pasta does not work well at tailgates)
- Do you want a full meal or just appetizers?
- Some of my most successful tailgate caterers just had heavy apps that people could walk around with and enjoy.
- What is your budget?
- Do you have any customers or close business connections that cater?
- I am a big believer that you should use your own customers to do business whenever you feel comfortable and it is in your budget. This builds greater loyalty from your customers and potential customers know that they have a better chance of getting your business.
2. Drinks
Tailgates are often synonymous with beer but you should also consider bringing in wine and potentially mixed drinks. You also should always have water available. (I get the small water bottles because people will often drink half a bottle and then forget where they put it.)
When you are deciding what drinks to bring in you need to think about these things:
- Are you going to card?
- I strongly suggest that you do if you have alcoholic drinks at your event. Even if you have a closed tailgate, carding people and wrist banding them keeps you out of the liability.
- Have a bartender.
- This can be some of your staff or someone you hire, but having the drinks behind a gate keeper helps to keep people from getting out of control.
3. Tailgate Space
You need to have enough space that all the people you invited can fit comfortably inside your space, along with your food, bar, tables and chairs, and a tent. You can often rent a space for one game or you can purchase the space for a full season.
Know the rules of your space. Read the contract that you sign and the back of the parking pass you are given.
- Can you bring in glass bottles or kegs?
- What kind of tent stakes are allowed?
- What type of bbq’s can you bring in?
You do not want to have a major part of your event shut down because you did not know the rules.
4. Event Staff
A good tailgate requires that you have people to help you. You need people to:
- Mingle with the guests
- ID the guests
- Pick up after the guests
- Serve food
- Serve drinks
- Set up and tear down
You can hire people or assign people from your team or do a mixture of both. I prefer the last option as it allows your team to really mingle with the guests which is why you are hosting the tailgate in the first place.
5. Rentals and Decorations
You will need tables and chairs for you and your guests to sit at. I would suggest a mixture of banquet height tables and cocktail height tables. I like the look of fabric table coverings with a centerpiece on the bigger tables as it keeps the space from looking cheap.
You also need to think about:
- Do you need shade or rain cover for the space?
- Do you need to bring in a generator for anything?
- What happens to the trash? Do you need to pack it out or are their trash bins for your area?
- Who is bringing in the ice chests or buckets to keep the drinks cold?
- Do you need cups for any of the drinks?
- Do you need a bottle/ wine opener?
- Who is bringing in the ice for the drinks?
If you have any questions about how to host a corporate tailgate, please reach out to me and I am happy to answer your questions.
Best of luck to you and your team this season!
Bonus: Think about who you can partner with to do a better tailgate and get a better audience.
