Quick Tips

Increase Your Show's ROI with Measurable Objectives
Design Your Display to Sell
Identify and Attract the Right Buyers to Your Booth
10 Ways to Save Money at Your Next Show
Strategies to Sell More at the Show: How to Select and Train your Booth Staff
Follow Up on Your Show Leads Before Your Competitor Does

Tips to Increase Your Show's ROI with Measurable Objectives

Determine how many qualified leads you wish to generate at the show
Build a targeted prospect list and invite those on it to your booth. "Start in-house with your sales team and your distribution channels,” says Jefferson Davis. “Build a list of customers and current prospects whom you would like to visit your exhibit. Include anyone who has inquired about your products or services over the last 12 months. Ask yourself, 'What types of companies and what job functions/titles do we want to visit our exhibit?'"

Add to your customer and prospect list
Rent names of Diversified's previous show attendees and/or pre-registered attendees or source names from industry publications.

Set a goal for the number of one-on-one meetings you wish to have with buyers and prospects at the show
Get your booth on these buyers' and prospects' agendas before they leave for the show. Remember:

76% of attendees arrive at the show with an agenda
Attendees spend quality time at a show with 26 exhibitors, at most
Half of these 26 exhibitors schedule appointments in advance.
Source: Center for Exhibition Industry Research (CEIR)

Improve your post-show follow-up
Have Diversified's registration contractor, ARI, create a customized lead-retrieval form for your company with specific follow-up action codes.

Download the white paper on Measuring Exhibit Results by Skip Cox
CEO/president, Exhibit Surveys Inc. For more information please visit www.exhibitsurveys.com or phone 800.224.3170

Attend Diversified's new online business seminars, presented by Jefferson Davis
These complimentary webinars will help you set measurable show objectives, improve your pre-show promotions and increase sales at your booth.

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Tips to Design Your Display to Sell

Begin with the End in Mind
Before designing your booth display, ask yourself the following questions:

What product or service will we be showcasing?
Who are our targeted buyers?
What are my competitors' displays like?
Will we be conducting private meetings in our booth?
What is the corporate image we want to project?
What electrical, telecommunications and other services do we need?

Graphics With Stopping Power
You have three seconds to grab buyers’ attention as they walk down the aisle. To make sure your display is noticed, design your graphics so they are visible from 30 feet. And make sure the design quickly and clearly tells buyers why they will benefit from coming into your booth. Your graphics must answer these buyer questions:

Who are you?
What is your product?
What is your offer, and why should I care?

Have your graphics professionally designed and then add lighting to make them "pop."

Invite Attendees into Your Booth
Encourage attendees to enter your booth by matching your booth's carpet color with the color of the aisle carpet, so there is no visual barrier between your booth and the aisle. For the same reason, don't block the front of your booth with tables or product.

Benefits of Renting a Display
If you exhibit fewer than four times a year, you could save up to 33% of your show budget by renting your display instead of buying it. Renting your display from Freeman will save you the cost of shipping, drayage, carpet, labor and storage — not to mention the price of refurbishing your own display. To estimate the drayage charges if you use your own display, go to www.myfreemanonline.com and use the "Material Handling Estimator."

Design a Cost-Effective Display— Read Your Show Manuals!

Exhibitor Service Manual contains your show's carpet and drape colors, floor plans, facility rules, and display regulations.
Freeman OnLine Manual tells how to order show services and rent your display. Use the "Exhibitor Assistant" to guide you through the ordering process.

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Tips to Identify and Attract the Right Buyers
to Your Booth

Your Show as Part of Your Company's Marketing Mix
"Your trade show must be part of your company's marketing continuum. Shows are marketing events bracketed by all type of marketing done before and after,” says Julia O'Connor of Trade Show Training. “When you think of a trade show as a one-time thing, your company loses momentum in the marketplace."
TIP: Build your pre-show marketing plan on and around your company's overall marketing plan.

Pre-show Marketing Works
Here is proof that your company's investment in pre-show marketing will result in better booth traffic at your next Diversified show:

Direct mail motivates 53% of previous show attendees and 29% of newcomers to visit your booth.
The frequency of mailings increases booth attendance; your first mailing will get a 25% response, but sending three mailings to the same audience will increase your response rate to 75%.
33% of attendees visit a booth in response to an advertisement.
Exhibitors that advertise attract 56% more attendees than exhibitors that do not advertise.

Source: Center for Exhibition Industry Research (CEIR)

TIP: Make sure you code every marketing piece you send out so you can track its response rate.

TIP: Consider a tiered pre-show marketing campaign. Mail or give your "A" customers and prospects a three-dimensional piece with a VIP registration ticket; mail your "B" list a letter of invitation and a VIP registration ticket; and mail your "C" list a postcard.

Creating and Scheduling an Effective Pre-show Marketing Campaign

Refer to your new Exhibitor Marketing Guide for tips on how to create, and when to implement, your company's pre-show marketing campaign:

Four Steps to Create Your Company's Pre-show Marketing Campaign — page 5

Ten ways to attract quality buyers and prospects to your booth — page 8

Direct-Mail Tips and How to Write with Power — page 12

Ten ways to use the Net to attract traffic; Colors that Sell — page 13

Telemarketing tips — page 14

Promotion Schedule and Checklist — pages 22 and 23

TIP: Read Diversified's new Exhibitor Marketing Guide for additional techniques to increase the number of qualified buyers and prospects who visit your booth. Then please share this Guide with your sales team, marketing and communications departments and your distributors, agents and reps.

TIP: Attend Diversified's new, online, business seminars, presented by Jefferson Davis. These 60-minute, complimentary webinars will help you set measurable show objectives, improve your pre-show promotions and increase sales at your booth. See Webinar Section of this website.

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Tips to 10 Ways to Save Money at Your Next Show

Read Your Exhibitor Service Manual and Exhibitor's Handbook in Advance
To save yourself time and aggravation at the show, invest one hour reading your Exhibitor Service Manual and the Exhibitor's Handbook (click here for First Time Exhibitor's Handbook). The tools, checklists and strategies they contain will help reduce your company's costs at your next Diversified show.

Order in Advance and Save up to 25%

Find your show's advance-order-discount deadlines in your "Exhibitor Action Checklist," (found in the first screen of the Online Exhibitor Service Manual).

Send in your orders before these deadlines for significant savings:

23% off rental furnishings, carpeting and audio/visual
20% off electrical, telecommunications and plumbing
25% off carpeting, chairs, draped table and daily vacuuming by renting the "Show Package" found under "Decoration/Furnishings" in your Manual

TIP: Order only the services and equipment you need. If you have any questions, call the contractor or Diversified at 207.842.5504.

Build Your Own "Services Ordering Checklist" and Bring it to the Show

Fill in the appropriate parts of this "Services Ordering Checklist" (found on page 10 of First Timer’s Handbook). As you send in your forms, remember to record the on-site telephone numbers of your key contacts. Bring this Checklist (and copies of your completed orders) with you to the show.

TIP: Have your display installed and ready for you when you arrive by checking the "Freeman Supervised Labor" box on the "Display Labor" form found behind the "Shipping/Delivery/Labor" tab.

TIP: Click here for Candy Adams' "Gang Box Checklist" to help you pack the supplies your company needs for a smooth move-in, showtime and move-out.

Save Money on Shipping and Material-Handling/Drayage

Click here for "Material-Handling/Drayage Tips and Questions and Answers" that will help you save time and money shipping and unloading your freight. (Please see pages 11-13 of the First Timer's Handbook.)

TIP: Consolidate your shipments into as few as possible. Remember to remove old labels and put new ones on everything. Labels should include your company name, show name and booth number.

TIP: If you are exhibiting at Diversified trade shows that use Freeman as the decorator use Freeman's "Cart Service" for shipments less than 250 pounds. Go to the "Shipping/Delivery/Labor" section of your Exhibitor Service Manual for more information.

Control Your Expenses with Pre-show Estimates

Go to www.myfreemanonline.com and Show Search and Online Ordering to select the show you are in and then use the "Material Handling Estimator" to figure out your material-handling/drayage bill before the show. Also, ask each of your contractors to provide you with estimates of your bill before the show.

TIP: Call Freeman (888.508.5040) and Diversified (207.842.5504) to review your pre-show estimates and get their ideas on how to save money at your next Diversified Show.

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Tips to Strategies to Sell More at the Show: How to Select and Train your Booth Staff

Determine Number of Exhibit Staff Needed

Tip: A rule of thumb is one staff person per 50 square feet of open exhibit space.

Exhibit Surveys developed a formula for calculating a more exact estimate. Sixteen percent of the typical trade-show audience comes in search of your type of product, and of this 16 percent, 45 percent actually enter your booth.

Here’s how the formula works: Let’s say a 20-hour show has an attendance of 7,500. Multiply 7,500 by 0.16 and you get 1,200 attendees interested in your product; 1,200 times 0.45 equals 540 visitors to your exhibit. If you divide these 540 visitors by 20 show hours, you’ll get 27 visitors per hour.

Based on the length of your interactions, determine the number of attendees per hour that each of your staff can handle. Then divide the number of visitors per hour by the number of visitors your staff can handle per hour. Your answer is the optimum number of staff for your booth.

Train Your Exhibit Staff

TIP: Candy Adams (please click "How to Get the Most out of Your Exhibit Staff" to learn more) recommends that each engagement with an attendee last less than 5 minutes and follow the format below:

Greet and engage. Start with eye contact and a handshake and introduce yourself with an ice-breaking statement.

“Elevator speech.” If the attendee doesn’t know about your company, offer your rehearsed 30-second presentation.

Qualify. Ask several open-ended questions to learn the attendee’s needs, problems, role in the purchasing process, timeframe and budget.

Brief, focused presentations. Demonstrate your product.

Lead capture. Record accurate and complete data about your prospect.

Successful Tradeshow Sales Techniques

TIP: “People convey more than half of their message non-verbally,” says Keith Reznick, creator of The Trade Show Advantage, citing findings from a University of California (LA) study. That’s why it is important to communicate these non-verbal messages to attendees:

You’re approachable.
You’d like them to enter your exhibit.
You’d like to speak to them.

To learn more ways to increase traffic at your booth, please click here and read "Tips for Engaging Attendees and Opening the Conversation."

TIP: "Your booth staff must engage attendees within 15 seconds of their presence in your booth or lose them," says Matt Hill, trade show trainer and president of The Hill Group. (See Resource section for more information on The Hill Group.)

Bonus Tips:

Stress to your exhibit staff the importance of a complete and accurate lead card by pointing out how much new business each lead represents to your company. Click here for First Time Exhibitor’s Handbook and go to page 17 to learn how to design an effective lead card.

Have your multilingual exhibit staff wear a lapel pin flag representing each language they speak.

Prepare show-specific business cards for your staff. Include websites attendees can go to for more information about the products/services they saw at the show.

Give your exhibit staff something to hold — like a lead card or flyer — so they stand there with their hands clasped in a rigid and unfriendly posture.

Attend this FREE webinar: "Countdown to Exhibiting Success": How to Prepare Your Staff for Success and Develop a Closed-Loop Lead Management Process. This FREE webinar is available for replay by going to www.vcall.com/replay then enter replay #1629134426. You will also want to download the accompanying eworkbook which you can do by clicking here.

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Tips to Follow Up on Your Show Leads Before Your Competitor Does

Tips Courtesy of Ruth Steven’s Trade Show and Event Marketing

Improve your Lead-Fulfillment Success Rate

TIPS:

Recognize this is a process and make it part of people’s job descriptions and compensation plans. Report on results regularly.
“Mystery shop” the process. Hire someone to visit your booth and ask for information. Have the mystery shopper report to you how quickly and professionally he or she was contacted after the show.
Own the responsibility. If the show revenue comes entirely from the leads generated on-site, treat them like gold. Make leads a part of your performance objectives.

What to do with Your Leads

TIP: Sort and segment your leads using the following criteria:

Value
Product interest
Sales territory or distribution channel
Preferred follow-up method

Ensure that Your Fulfillment is Efficient and High Quality

TIPS:

Send fulfillment material via a delivery method that reflects the prospect’s value. To less-valuable leads, send a business letter, a postcard or an e-mail and refer them to your website for more detailed information. A highly qualified lead, especially one who has indicated an interest in seeing a sales rep, would merit a sales call or an overnight express package.

In the interest of speed, use the Internet for fulfillment where possible. Web-based collateral material is not only fast, but it is infinitely flexible, allowing for continuous updating and customization to the individual prospect’s need. It’s also cheaper on a per-piece basis.
Keep the contents relevant and don’t add additional product or company brochures.

Remember that the purpose of the follow-up is to move the prospect closer to a sale. Tailor the contact method to the prospect’s level of urgency. Make sure the contents provide the information that the customer needs at that particular stage of the buying process.

The Fulfillment-Kit Checklist

Keep in mind that a fulfillment kit offers you several options:

It is flexible, so you can differentiate the contents.
It is personalized.
It reminds the recipient why it was sent: “Here is the information you requested at the show.”
It tells the prospect what to do next: call for an appointment, visit a website or attend a webinar.
It provides purchasing information, including a list of dealers or the name of the sales person on the account

Components of an Excellent Post-Show Follow-Up

TIP: In your lead-follow-up program, be sure to: