Exhibiting at a trade show can bring in loads of interest for your product or service—provided you make the most of your opportunity and don’t drive away potential customers. After all, paying for a booth doesn’t come cheap and can cost a business, especially a small one a hefty chunk of change. Check out these tips to help increase your chances of having a profitable show and help you have more success.
- Talking on your cell phone. People aren’t exactly going to come up and want to talk to you about what you’re presenting if you’re on the phone all the time. It’s pretty much an invisible barrier between you and potential clients and may cause you to lose dozens of sales. So, while it’s important to keep in touch, put down the phone while you’re at the show and return calls and messages at set intervals.
- Having an inaccessible booth. If it’s hard to get into your booth, approach information, or find someone willing to talk to about the product coming to the trade show at all might have been pointless. Create a space where people can come into a private space away from the main flow. It will limit their field of vision, focus them on the product and engage them with your sales space.
- Creating an unprofessional space. Does your trade show display booth look like something a high school student cooked up for a science fair? It shouldn’t. A trade show is a chance for you to show off your business in the best possible light so make sure your booth does just that. If you simply hang op a bunch of reprints and photos you’re not doing your business justice. Spend some time building something that people will want to stop and look at—not just something that will confuse them about what you really do.
- Not knowing what you’re talking about. It’s essential to have people working at your exhibit booth that actually know what they’re talking about. If you don’t, it’ll make your business look unprofessional and leave potential customers walking away shaking their heads. Make sure all employees working your booth have at least a basic understanding of your products before sending them out.
- Neglecting to see what others are exhibiting. Whether you want to get some pointers on improving your booth, keep up-to-date on the industry standard or see what kind of competition you have out there, a trade show is a great place to do a little sightseeing and see what’s going on.
- Forget to stop talking. While you want to get out information about your products and share your enthusiasm, don’t overwhelm people with information and go out on a lengthy spiel. This might actually turn potential clients off. Provide information when they need it and leave space for them to ask questions and inquire about aspects of your products they are particularly interested in.
This post was contributed by Amber Hensley, who writes about the online college courses. She welcomes your feedback at AmberHensley1980@ yahoo.com



























If you have studied your customers and how valuable they are to you, you can easily determine if buying a display is right for your company. First off, let's assume that you have determined that at your next show, a large percentage of your customers (or future customers) will be attending and you have already committed to having a presence this year. Previously, you may have rented an inline booth and had OK results. You reconnected with old customers, strengthened current relationships and even added a few new customers to your list. The show paid for itself and the standard attitude everyone in your office had about it was that it was a moderate success, but not a real money maker.
What's next? How do you overcome this obstacle? The answer lies in the way you justify any type of advertising. How much are you willing to pay for more customers and is it worth it?
Start by calculating what your customers are worth to you financially. Count how many customers you sold to last year and divide that into your sales. For example, if you sold to 500 customers last year and your total sales were $5 Million, then your average customer is worth $10,000. Take the value further by finding your average customer turnover per year. Simply take your existing customers for the past several years and decide what percentage returned to you every year. If you have a high customer retention rate, the value of any new customer is spread out over the years that you keep them coming back to you. If you use this scenario, this means that attracting one new customer at your trade show could end up adding $10,000 the first year plus all the years you keep the relationship going!
At a recent doctor’s visit a few weeks ago I noticed a remarkable product.. a simple product really, but convenient, comforting, and necessary considering the environment. At each elevator there was a hand sanitizer dispenser. This wasn’t just the standard disposable pump you might find in a store, but a brass motion sensitive globe filled with hand sanitizer liquid; stylish AND effective. More and more people have become nervous and threatened by the ebb and flow of various influenzas and viruses and more than ever sanitation has become an issue. Public domains like airports, schools, hospitals, etc. afford high traffic with a high level of human interaction. Lots of people means lots of germs!

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