Coffee Service & Vending Trade Show Tricks

Trade shows are an excellent way to gather connections and make sales. However, some people think that just showing up to the trade show is good enough to get the results they want. This is not the case! Trade show booth attendance requires careful planning and preparation. You must carefully construct a strategy for before, during and after each show to make sure that your company stands out from the crowd.

MarketReach has been exhibiting at trade shows for over 17 years and finds it to be one of our best lead generation efforts. In this article, we’re going to highlight some of our best insider tricks to help you get the most out of the next trade show you exhibit at.

Before the trade show

Select the best venue: First things first – where do you want to exhibit? While the economy has seen shrinkage in the number of trade shows, there will always be a few each year that will be a good fit. If you’re like most OCS & Vending distributors, a local radius of 30-50 miles is the best target base to serve your delivery model. Because of this, see if the associations you belong to have an annual trade show. In addition to that, I’ve seen my OCS clients attend medical, insurance, human resources, and general B2B business expos to get some leads – and they are often the only one of their kind with a booth.

If you’re totally in the dark about what trade show to attend or exhibit, we suggest looking at the schedule of the nearest conference center or Chamber of Commerce. If that doesn’t yield any results – look at Eventbrite.com, as they always have a plethora of shows across the county.

Curate a pre-trade show marketing campaign: It’s a mistake to wait until the trade show to start promoting. Use phone, LinkedIn, email or direct mail to advertise your attendance at the trade show. In your advertisements, be sure to include your booth number and any promotions you may be running at the event. Also, consider a phone campaign to invite attendees and other exhibitors to a meeting at the show. The best results can be yielded if you do this in the 4-6 week time-span before the show.

Create a stellar booth: The caliber of your booth could make or break your time at the trade show. Studies show that your first impression has a high correlation with the long-term status of your relationship, and the first opinion of someone forms in only 1/10^th of a second. It’s not surprising that the same is true when someone see’s a brand for the first time. Creative trade show booths will give you a huge edge at your event, so make sure everything looks on-brand, clean and easy to comprehend.

Once you’re there

Practice etiquette: The trade show you participate in is only as effective as how you work the show. Show up early and be the last to leave. Some of the best conversations occur before or after the heat of the show. Since some of your best leads can come from fellow exhibitors, be sure you have someone working both the booth and working the exhibitors (being mindful that the exhibitors are not there for your pleasure to be sold to, but rather to start the relationship with). Also, stand beside your booth – not behind it, and make eye contact with the people who pass by. You’re much more approachable if you acknowledge their presence!

Give them something:  Have some giveaways to initiate conversation and attract business cards. As an OCS distributor, your giveaway is coffee and/or snacks! If you decide to give away samples, you can sometimes negotiate with the show’s organizer to get a little extra (the attendee list or a discounted booth) because they could see it as a value to the show. Also, go the extra mile and ensure that your giveaways are branded so that people can easily identify where they came from.

Tailor your conversations: As you have conversations with prospects, put an emphasis on talking about the topics that matter to your company and theirs. What kind of questions do you need to ask to determine whether they are a prospect? Are you training your trade show colleagues to ask those questions? Having a conversation strategy in place will save you time in the long run by ensuring that you collect leads that are qualified.

Make it a competition: If you’re bringing salespeople along with you to the show, make it a competition. Tell your salespeople that the person who collects the most leads will get something out of it. Competition will increase positive energy at your booth, and thus attract more people to it.

Keep memory aids: You will be meeting a lot of people at the show. Be sure to write a note on the back of each business card where a conversation takes place, so you can recall the details with ease. If you want to go an extra mile, write “A” or “B” to signify who the best prospects are. Your top 10 will require little thought of the conversation, post-show, because you will have taken copious notes.

Aftercare and Ensuring Return-on-Investment

Follow-Up Strategy:
Lync Exhibits Inc and In4med Corp found that:

98% of exhibitors collect sales leads at trade shows,
but less than 70% have any formalized plan or process in place for how those leads are followed up with.

Having a follow-up strategy in place is the most effective way to make sure that the leads you collect turn into sales.

Our advice is to plan ahead and divide the prospect calls when you return. Assign someone to put all the business card information into a contact management system so calls, emails and other marketing can start immediately. If you don’t have the staff or resources to follow up with your prospects, consider using MarketReach for a follow-up phone campaign. We will conduct warm follow-up calls to all of your prospects by referencing the show and any information you collected during it. Once we qualify them, we will send them your way for an appointment! It’s a great way to ensure follow-ups are effectively executed.

For more information on how we can guarantee a return on your trade show investment, click here.