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The Top Ten Trade Show Tips That Nobody Ever Told You About

Exhibitors: You don't go to trade shows to lose money, do you? Of course not. Here are my top ten tips - many of which I haven't seen offered anyplace else - to increase your revenues at ANY trade show. Not just DAX.

If I could have any super-power at a trade show, I'd have the ability to be in two places at once. You too? These first two let you do just that - almost. Consider this: The most likely time for a great prospect to enter your booth is while you are tied up with another customer. Here are two ideas that allow them to service themselves while they wait for you, often doing the selling for you.

1. Use QR codes
Every attendee has a smartphone, and they almost inevitably have an app to scan QR codes. For important offerings in your booth like equipment or a new line of garments, include a BIG QR code on the sign with a link to that product at your website. There are LOTS of sites on the internet where you can generate a free QR code. Google it - you'll see. Customers can be studying up on the product they are interested in while they wait for you.

2. Shoot a video
Videos running in your booth? Too expensive, right? - Wrong. Anybody can shoot a brief product video on their smartphone or tablet, edit it with free software from the internet, and play it on a tablet or Ipad. You could have three or more running in a single booth. You'll find free apps for both android and Ipad that will play a video repeatedly, (looping) and you can buy bracket mounts to hold your tablets so they won't scurry off. Customers can watch on their own until they are ready to talk. Important consideration: Trade shows are noisy places. Create videos of your products that don't rely on sound. (It's easier that way anyway.)

3. Use Motion to attract the eye
Having videos running in your booth attracts a lot of attention because something is in motion, and we are naturally drawn to observe things in motion. There are LOTS of other objects that can be set in motion as well. Department stores used to attract you to the vacuum cleaners by floating a beach ball in the air stream of the blower hose. I'm amazed that nobody has set up a dryer on the show floor with a beach ball suspended in the exhaust. But motion can backfire too. Whatever motion you use to attract attention has to guide their eye to one of the coolest things they ever saw. If it's just motion alone, it's like some bully saying 'made you look!'

4. Let the children play
All people start out as children, and we never lose our desire to play. Most trade show attendees come with the dream that they are coming to have a fun day away from work. Having some relevant plaything in your booth that appeals to a client's desire for play can not only encourage participation, but can reinforce the message that your product will make work into child's play, or is simple to use.

5. Pre-Show advertising
A trade show is a lot like a shopping mall that is erected for a few days only. When a new shopping mall opens, lots of people flock to the building to gawk and look around. Every merchant in the mall sees immediate impulse sales too. But the real winners are the stores that generate pre-opening excitement, getting the public to dream about the day they open their doors. On opening day, these stores might have sales figures that won't be eclipsed for years to come.

If you don't engage in telling customers you are coming, you are just one of the many stores that hopes to see impulse sales at the show. Your email blast, social media, postcards (DAX offers these for free) or other means of inviting your customers to the show could be the difference between a customer heading directly to your booth to see some item they are dying to know about, and the same customer finding a similar solution at a competitor's booth.

6. You want fries with that?
Everybody already knows that you will sell more by asking for the accessory sale. What we forget to train our staff to do is ask the other 'right questions.' An old salesperson's adage says 'Questions sell better than answers.' Do you greet customers by asking: 'How's it going?' or 'May I help you?' How lame! Instead watch where their eyes (or feet) wander and once you see what attracted them, ask: 'Like that sweatshirt?' or 'Need a new dryer?' Now you've started a conversation.

7. Email me
Many attendees ask you to email information to them, and most exhibitors will send something within a few weeks. That message will likely never get opened. Why wait? If you don't have internet offered by the venue like DAX does, set your phone up as a wireless hotspot and use your laptop to send the information NOW. Have a series of stock messages available on your computer for your most likely products, plug in their email address and zoom! As an added bonus, ask the customer to check his phone right now to make sure it arrives. Email messages that show up as having been previously opened receive more than three times the scrutiny before being deleted than new or unread messages.

8. Freebies
Nearly every trade show attendee expects to come away with some form of swag, and cheap pens seldom cut it. Candy dishes indebt passers-by to at least make eye contact, items with perceived value in the $1 plus range inspire some desire, but to be memorable, you need to offer something that makes people search the aisles to find you because they saw another attendee with your gift. Face it - if you are going to pump out the desirable freebies, you're going to have to pay a premium. To make it worth your while, make recipients scan their badge and participate in a 3-question survey or the like. You need some extra value in return for your premium output.

Consider co-op'ing a promotion. I once talked five other exhibiting companies with relevant, but non-competing products into a great, successful promotion. Attendees picked up a card at any participant's booth, got it stamped by each company in the promotion, and turned in the card for a T-shirt. We went through the 1200 shirt stock quickly, but we all came away with 1200 leads.

9. Contests and More Freebies
Only 60% - 70% of the general population is willing to give you something so minimal as a scan of their badge for the chance to win something - even if the prize is very appealing. As income and importance of the attendee goes up, the value of their contact information quickly surpasses the value of any prize offered. If you're trying to reach the top execs, the regular freebie or contest approach becomes completely useless. If you are trolling for the 'whales' your bait needs to show great value - way more value than you can offer to everybody passing by. For these clients, mail them a letter before the show with something 'lumpy' inside to get them to open it, and a card that only that person can redeem for some fantastic swag at the show. Make it relevant and fun - for example, mail them a single coffee bean with a card for a package of gourmet coffee.

10. She's got the look
When I first started selling software at trade shows, a suit and tie were required attire for exhibiting. That's far from true now, but having the right 'look' in your booth is still paramount. Create a uniform look for your team, change it each day, make it fun and make it incredible. We're in the decorated apparel industry - you are a supplier - your staff's appearance needs to induce attendees to say: 'if I had that product, I could create things like that.' One year, my shop created special shirts for the shows incorporating 4-color process screen printing, embroidery, appliqué and sublimation. I still have mine. It attracted attendees to our tiny booth like none other. The only drawback: Try presenting your product to somebody and having a random stranger touch your back because she' just had to feel the design.' it happened a lot.

11. Bonus!
The best way to increase revenues at a trade show is to sign up for a show that offers more return for your money to begin with. DAX costs about half of what competing shows cost, and we give you so much more. Sign up for DAX today!