The Eleven Rules Of Exhibiting At Trade Shows

If you want to market your business or a new product that you have released, trade shows are the ideal place to do it. There are so many great benefits of attending and exhibiting at trade shows, from networking to selling. If you’ve never attended one before, it’s something you should definitely try.

When you do decide to attend a trade show and set up an exhibit, there are some rules that you’ll need to follow. The eleven rules discussed below will make sure that it all goes without a hitch. So, read on to find out what you need to do and what you shouldn’t do at a trade show.

Rehearsing Your Sales Script Is Essential

You need to know what you’re going to say to the people you encounter at the trade show. If your aim is to sell items to the people who you encounter, then you need to prepare a sales script. This is not something that you have to stick to religiously, but it will form the core of your sales pitch. The script should be shared with anyone else who is going to the show with you as well. The trick is not to make it too robotic or generic when you are writing it. And then you will need to rehearse it and iron out any mistakes or parts of the script that aren’t working before you reach the trade show.

Get A Good Design

The way in which your exhibit is designed matters a lot at a trade show. There are so many companies with their exhibits there, so how is yours going to stand out from the crowd? You need to make yours look modern, unique and eye-catching to anyone who is passing by it. You don’t need to carry out the design work by yourself though. There are plenty of companies that can help you with creating a trade show exhibit. You can check out Steelhead Productions for ideas on design too. As long as your design stands out from the others in the room for all the right reasons, then you will be onto a winner.

Be Polite

There’s no doubt about it; when you are meeting people at a trade show all day, it can be really tiring. But that doesn’t mean that you should let your presentation slip. Even if people are annoying you and frustrating you, you can’t afford to treat them rudely or dismiss. You can find a polite way to end an interaction if it’s really not going the way you want it to. And then you can move onto the next potential customer or visitor to your exhibit. Things can go really badly if you end up causing a scene and annoying the people that you are supposed to be trying to impress. It’s vital to remember that as the long day reaches its end.

Measure Your Success Against Your Aims

You should set some aims before you attend the trade show. This will help you to focus on what you want to achieve and get out of the whole experience. If you don’t have these concrete aims in place, your team will not be as fully focused as it should be at an event like this. And you won’t be able to measure the success of the event afterwards if you don’t even know what you want to achieve going into it. So, sit down with your team and think carefully what your aims should be. Then you can get together after the show and evaluate your performance.

Emphasize What’s New

One of the main reasons why companies attend trade shows is to show off a new product. So, if you’ve got something new to show off, you should focus on this at the trade show. Many companies organize their release schedules so that they fall in line with the major industry trade shows. If you have something new about to come out, then it’s a good idea to let people see it up close. Trade shows offer rare opportunities for people to see what you have to offer before it has an official release, so take advantage of this fact. People will be much more interested if they can see something that is brand new and unseen before.

Don’t Come On Too Strong

It is possible to take the wrong approach when you’re trying to deliver a sales pitch. If you come on too strong and give people the hard sell, they won’t be likely to buy from your company. You should try to be a little more relaxed and talk to people in a natural kind of way. It’s very easy to repel people when they are being bombarded with sales pitches all day long. But you won’t get very far if people don’t like what you’re saying to them or how you’re saying it. You will quickly find out what works and what doesn’t when you’re talking to people. Learn from the responses you get from people, and change your tone and style accordingly.

Let Visitors Try Something

If you simply talk at people, then you won’t get the most out of a what a trade show has to offer your company. Instead, you should let visitors to your exhibition do something hands-on. If you sell the kind of product or service that can be tested, then let people do this. It’s a great way to get people interested in what you have to offer. And when they’re able to try it out for themselves, it’s much easier to convince them of its benefits. That’s because you don’t have to convince them with words, you can convince them by letting them try it for themselves. Overall, actions are so much more convincing than mere words.

Check Out The Competition

The interesting thing about trade shows is that there are many different companies from the same sector there. That means that you will be within touching distance with businesses that are your direct rivals. You can’t afford to miss this opportunity to take a look at what they are doing. When you run a business, it is important to keep on eye on what your main rivals are up to. So, as long as someone else is covering you back at the exhibition, you should take a look at their activities. If they are doing something better and more innovative than your business, then you’ll know that you have to up your business’s game.

 Keep Working Until The Final Minute

If you want to make the most of your time at a trade show, you need to work as much as possible. That means making the most of every minute that you spend at the trade show. You can’t slack off and take it easy when you think that the crowds are getting smaller. Towards the end of the day, you might experience fewer people approaching your exhibition. But that doesn’t mean that you should put in less effort. The people that are coming to your exhibition to the end of the day are no less important because there are fewer of them. You need to keep going and keep delivering your message for as long as possible.

Give People Something To Take Away

Put yourself in the place of someone who is attending a trade show. If you’re attending one of the large ones, you will talk to dozens of people and see the exhibitions of many companies. So, what is going to make a business stick in your mind? This is something that you need to find an answer to if you want your exhibition to be a success. One way that you can make sure that people don’t instantly forget about your business is to give them something to take away with them. It could be something like a leaflet or brochure. Or it could be something even smaller like a branded pen or a business card.

Don’t Get Distracted

There is a lot going on at the average trade show, and you need to know how to deal with all those potential distractions. Many people end up making new friends with people from other businesses who also have exhibitions at the show. But you’re not there to have fun and make friends, so don’t get distracted by the people around you. Instead, you should devote your full and unhindered attention to the people who are interested in your business. Yes, you can take a look at the competition as I mentioned earlier, but this shouldn’t take up too much time. When the show is at its busiest, you need to be at your exhibition and ready to talk to people.

Now that you understand the eleven rules of exhibiting at a trade show, all that’s left to do is put them into action. Don’t hesitate in finding a relevant trade show that your company can take advantage of.