1. Text your hottest leads at the end of each show day to create top of mind awareness as they reflect upon their conversations with you and your competitors.

2. Call your important contacts immediately following your event to schedule additional discussion time and answer any lingering questions.

3. Go back over the notes you took in the booth; then e-mail additional information to clarify your answers and emphasize relevant discussion points for each visitor.

4. Invite your visitors to opt-in to your mailing list (don’t just assume they are interested because they stopped by your booth) to receive additional information from your company on a recurring basis.

5. Opt-in to your new contacts’ mailing lists to show your interest in them too.

6. Write a personal thank you note to any clients who visited your booth or made time to connect while you were in the convention city.

7. Write a personal thank you note to any prospects who made time to sit down with you for a meeting during your trade show.

8. Check in with visitors who made a purchase during the show to ensure that their product/service has been received and is working properly.

9. Check in with visitors who made a purchase during the show to introduce complementary offerings.

10. Reach out to any potential partners you met at this event to make appropriate introductions to other contacts where appropriate.

11. Find and connect with your new contacts on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and other social media sites.

12. Publicly congratulate booth drawing winners, promote the extension of your show special, and/or recognize new industry friends through your website, blog, or social media channels.

13. Continue on-line efforts you had started before your event to promote your trade show presence: maintain a consistent blogging schedule, comment on group discussions, and share useful industry/company/offering information (even if your next event is a whole year away).

14. Consider extending or expanding your presence in relevant publications (both on- and off-line) through advertisements, article submissions, etc.

15. Send a greeting card with a picture of your team at the show to remind visitors how much you enjoyed meeting them at the event.

So, before you continue reading, think about what you want to accomplish and how you can afford (time and budget-wise) to get there. As you consider your goals and resources, ask yourself these questions:

Do you want to position yourself or your company as an expert in your industry?
Do you want to raise awareness of your company and offerings more generally?
Do you want to network with industry professionals?
Do you want to obtain a high quality and quantity of sales leads?
How much time can you personally dedicate to this effort?
How much money can you dedicate to this effort?
Is there anyone else who can help (expanding your available resources)?

Got it?  Good!  Now we can discuss your options.

Match your relative amount of available resources (“budget”) with your relative focus on sharing your expertise (“expertise”) in the chart below to quickly find a matching option:

This chart says:
- If you have a higher budget and you want more focus on expertise, then you should sponsor sessions.
- If you have a higher budget and you want less focus on expertise, then you should sponsor activities or tangible items.
- If you have a lower budget and you want more focus on expertise, then you should speak.
- If you have a lower budget and you want less focus on expertise, then you should attend.

Where’s exhibiting?
Exhibiting is flexible in that you can use it for any of these scenarios.

You can exhibit on a shoe string budget or you can spend hundreds of thousands of dollars… You can bring your experts and/or offer technical presentations to show off your expertise or you can focus on making sales and raising awareness overall… or both… or neither… You can even pair exhibiting with sponsoring, speaking, and/or attending, if you choose!

Instead of focusing on budget and expertise, the biggest factor in deciding to exhibit or explore other options is TIME. If you select one of the other paths, your time commitment can be minimal in comparison; however, to be successful as an exhibitor, you will need to commit to preparations, execution, and follow up processes.

To reiterate, as an exhibitor, you will have many opportunities; but, if you can’t (or choose not to) make the time to decide on and implement your choices, you won’t be able to enjoy the benefits. Think carefully before you decide which avenue of trade show participation is the right fit and then commit to the process you’ve selected to move forward in the best possible way.

Still a bit confused?
No worries, this can be a tough choice – let’s talk about it.
I am happy to help you evaluate your options.
Call or e-mail (or tweet or send a LinkedIn request to) me today!

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First of all, stop calling it “booth duty” (it sounds silly and tells your team that trade shows are an activity they are obligated to do, not something they’d enjoy). But, seriously, when your team is struggling with disinterest, you need to exude positive energy to help them improve their mindset. Whether or not you believe in the “power of positive thinking,” you can certainly appreciate that you do have an impact on how the opportunity of working in your trade show booth is framed. Using words like “get to” (instead of “have to”), “opportunity” (instead of “obligation”), and “awesome” (instead of “stressful”) will subtly reinforce a positive expectation.

How can you motivate uninterested booth staff? Don't yell at them; work to understand WHY.

Work with your underperforming staff members individually to understand why they appear to be uninterested in participating (until you ask, you never know, they might be very interested but unaware that there is an issue with their behavior/attitude). Once you have had a discussion about your perception of the situation and any relevant reasoning for their actions, you can work together to find a better solution. In most cases, the underlying issue (after you get past “I just don’t want to”) is relatively easy to resolve…

Here are three suggestions to help you face the most common underlying issues:

(1) Explain why you are exhibiting (your company’s goals) and highlight the benefits available to each staff member as a direct result of their performance on-site.

Having a common focus helps to bring your team together and provides you with a basis for any constructive criticism necessary to encourage your staff to improve their performance. In order to motivate your staff to go above and beyond, however, it is important for each staff member to recognize the specific ways in which their performance affects them personally.

For example, if your company is exhibiting to obtain a volume of quality leads, you can unify your team around this common goal (explaining that by obtaining more quality leads, your company will increase their opportunities to close sales and become more profitable). To encourage your sales staff, in this case, you’d say that exhibiting helps them personally because it reduces their time spent on less enjoyable forms of prospecting (like cold calling) while still filling their sales funnel and progresses existing prospects through the sales process more quickly and easily (reducing the time they’d otherwise spend on the road, playing phone tag, and coordinating follow up meetings). Continue this exercise for the other segments of your team according to your specific goals and their corresponding benefits.

(2) Offer training to improve each staff member’s company knowledge and exhibiting skills.

Most professionals perform poorly and may even shut down when they feel unprepared or uneducated, but your team may not realize or won’t admit that this could be an issue for their performance at your next trade show (especially when these feelings are about details and actions they think others would expect them to know without assistance). It is your responsibility to equip your team to do their best work so that they are confident as they represent your company on-site.

Your pre-show training should refresh your team’s memory as to your company information (history, offerings, audience, competitors, industry basics, etc) and their social skills (greeting and engaging attendees, qualifying leads, making introductions, etc). Very few professionals (if any) are accustomed to representing your company in an exhibiting environment full time; as such, these reminders are crucial. In fact, if you are like most exhibitors, your pre-show training should be more intensive than you think is necessary to ensure that all team members are properly prepared.

(3) Consider staff groupings carefully to remove (or, at least, dilute) negative influences and ensure the presence of positive role models for the duration of your event.

When assigning participation times, it is important to not only consider your team’s external meeting schedules, but also pay attention to how well they work with others… specifically, any other team members who would be assigned to man the booth at the same time.

As you start organizing your booth schedule, categorize your staff members according to their typical performance (from excellent to not so good), areas/level of expertise, and dominant personality traits. Create a balance between loud and soft spoken staffers, those who exhibit patience, compassion, and/or determination with the less enthusiastic, distracted, and/or volatile staffers, as well as those holding particular roles (sales staff, executives, technical experts, etc) to ensure a consistent experience for your guests. At the very least, schedule at least one professional who can serve as a positive influence to your other booth staff in each available time slot.

Finally, if you have tried all of these suggestions and still can’t sway your stubborn staff members to at least act as though they are interested and perform accordingly, don’t force it. Having someone who is unengaged, unmotivated, and unenthusiastic in your booth will hurt your reputation more that it could help. Exhibiting isn’t always easy and it’s not for everyone, so if you can’t make it work, consider hiring external assistance, selecting a different team member to fill in (and enjoy the benefits that come with that honor), or not exhibiting at all instead of fighting with reluctant booth staff.

Robyn Davis (WINH) worked with Kiersted/Systems at LegalTech NY.

Kiersted/Systems provides e-discovery services (from collections to review to processing, etc) as well as consulting services like legal hold and matter management to law firms and large corporations across the country.  This year, our event theme was “radically efficient e-discovery” because we were promoting a new offering from Kiersted/Systems called Kiersted Direct.  To assist our clients and friends in becoming more radically efficient, we offered attendees an opportunity to enter our drawing for a chance to win a pair of TAG Heuer watches.

As at previous Kiersted/Systems events, my main responsibilities on-site were to welcome attendees into our booth and inquire about their relevant interests/needs, briefly introduce the applicable offerings and provide supporting literature (as well as fun giveaway items), and obtain the complete contact information of each guest before making notes (to indicate the quality of each lead) for the Kiersted/Systems representatives who would be following up after the event.  My involvement enabled company representatives to schedule product demonstrations, attend important educational sessions, and maintain their focus/energy levels (despite busy schedules) during productive interactions in the convention city.

To accomplish other goals, Kiersted/Systems extended their participation at LegalTech NY outside of their booth as well.  First, to show their appreciation for continued loyalty and support, the Kiersted/Systems team hosted an after hours client reception at the Modern Museum of Art (MOMA).  Next, George Kiersted (company president) moderated two conference sessions on the final event day.  Finally, Kiersted/Systems helped the Women in e-Discovery group to support the American Red Cross by sponsoring their “Go Red for Women” promotion during the annual Women in e-Discovery educational session.  These “extra” activities contributed to the overall success Kiersted/Systems enjoyed at LegalTech NY 2012.

The third of those three important questions is, “who are you LEAST interested in talking to?” and the incorrect answer my new clients usually offer is “no one – we come to trade shows to meet everyone.”

I can certainly respect your dedication to making everyone feel welcome (if only to maintain appearances); however, I know this answer is wrong because… especially in a business sense, there is always someone you’re uninterested in or unable to accommodate.

Seriously, think about it this way:

1. When you are working in your office, do you answer every call/e-mail as it arrives or meet with every guest who drops in without an appointment? If you’re like most professionals, you don’t because the distractions would prevent you from accomplishing your daily work.

Your assistant is probably one of the most important people in your office because she knows your schedule and interests well enough to serve as your gatekeeper, deciding who should enjoy an opportunity to speak with you and who shouldn’t. Your presence at a trade show should be protected in the same way; however, in most cases, the “gatekeeper” is one of your representatives (perhaps even yourself). In order to decide which visitors would enable you to be most productive, your gatekeeper(s) need to identify your priorities (especially those who could/should be kept away).

2. Logistically, you only have so much booth space and so many representatives to meet with all of the professionals who visit during trade show hours. That means, if you’d like to expand your reach to include more members of your target audience, you should either expand your footprint, staffing, or both, right?

Maybe, except up-sizing your booth space or overstaffing your booth each brings its own set of challenges, for example: (1) if there is too much empty space or are too many unoccupied booth staffers, prospective clients will wonder, assuming your offerings are valuable, why no one else is interested in them and (2) your budget will be a limiting factor, according to the ROI you expect to enjoy. The key is in striking a balance of available space and staff that suits both your needs and your budget. Once you have made these decisions, you will still need your team to help you maximize your reach because the third variable (determining how many professionals you can truly accommodate) is time. If your team understands which visitors should stay and which ones can be politely sent away or rescheduled, then they can exhibit greater control over how they utilize their time on-site.

Why do I (and should you) care?

As an exhibitor, it is so important to identify those with whom you are least interested in speaking because your investment is at stake (and, it’s no secret that exhibiting is expensive) so maximizing your return has to be a priority. However, the time you spend with your “non-target audience” takes away from the time available to spend working towards your goals.

To fully accommodate every single person at your event, you’d have to make space and staffing accommodations that aren’t realistic for most exhibitors. Instead, your booth staff can simply adjust the length of their conversations or selection of specific professionals to proactively engage by priority status.

Although one might compare this process to the classic question of “a bird in the hand” vs. “two in the bush” – the difference here is that when you know that your “bird in the hand” (someone in your “non-target audience”) can’t help you achieve your goals, you must set it free (politely excuse yourself) or you won’t have an opportunity to seek out the “two in the bush” (other professionals at your event) who may be a better fit. This begins with correctly identifying the professionals you are least interested in talking to.

What is the right answer? “Mark Smith (a drama-producing former employee), competing exhibitors, and anyone seeking a job or looking to sell us something” (of course, you would list the specific professionals who are least likely help you achieve your goals and those who are most likely to detract from your more positive endeavors)

Take it a step further… Create a procedure for your booth staff to follow when they encounter the professionals on your “non-target audience” list. Remember to treat everyone (including the contacts you are least interested in speaking with) well, not just because it’s the right thing to do, but also so that you can maintain your positive reputation within the industry. There is a fine line between being business-oriented and rude; train your team to stay on the right side of that line during these encounters.

Also, recognize the situations in which you might be considered a member of someone else’s “non-target audience” and be considerate when approaching them. Show your respect for their interests and they will be more likely to entertain yours.

The second of those three important questions is, “who are you MOST interested in talking to?” and the incorrect answer my new clients usually offer is “anyone and everyone – we want as many leads as we can get.”

Although I can certainly respect the pressure to squeeze every potential lead out of your trade show investment, but I know this answer is wrong because… especially in a business sense, an effective target audience description is never all encompassing.

Seriously, think about it this way:

1. Your time at a trade show is limited and you will not be able to engage in lengthy conversations with every single attendee. That means, when you continue speaking with someone after you learn that he is not a good fit for your company and its offerings, you are very likely to be missing out on the opportunity to enjoy a productive conversation with a better match instead.

You may have a genuine interest in networking with as many professionals as possible, but it is your responsibility to guide the conversations taking place in your booth so that all parties benefit. In understanding your target audience (according to your knowledge of your company, offerings, industry, and brief introduction to your visitors’ needs), you will be able to tell which attendees are a good fit and which ones aren’t. You can show that you respect the time of each professional who approaches by being up front and honest about how you can or cannot accommodate their wishes. Focus your efforts on the most likely buyers (or best contacts) and politely encourage the others to seek out the exhibitors who can help them reach their goals.

2. Your team will not enjoy their trade show follow up (arguably the most important step in the exhibiting process) if they have to spend the majority of their time contacting “leads” who have no interest in your company or offerings. Although rejection happens in sales, it is demoralizing to purposefully subject your staff (or yourself) to this repeatedly without cause.

Especially when interacting with prospects and clients, it is important to maintain a positive attitude. However, this can be very difficult for your team as they search through a mountain of leads to find just a few gems. If you have already had an opportunity to meet with the contacts listed (as you did when you encountered them in your booth), you have also already had an opportunity to assess the fit between your offerings and their needs and then to decide whether or not a call back would be beneficial. Share this information with your follow up team and empower them to contact your best leads first – this will boost the confidence of your representatives, please your new prospects who are looking forward to your call, and provide the best opportunity to produce the final results you truly want.

Why do I (and should you) care?
As an exhibitor, it is so important to identify those with whom you are most interested in speaking because your reach at a trade show is limited by time and enthusiasm. On the one hand, your allotted time impacts the number of conversations you can begin and, on the other, your team’s enthusiasm impacts the productivity of each conversation your team chooses to endure.

In order to properly allocate these resources and expand your reach, you must prioritize. If you are unaware of the people you are most interested in talking to, how will you decide which invitations to accept? How will you recognize your targets as they pass your booth? With whom will you strive to extend invitations to?

Your ability to maximize your company’s exhibiting return on investment will not come from a large volume of unqualified leads; instead, you will be most successful when you work towards quality interactions with your best contacts. This begins with correctly identifying the professionals you are most interested in talking to.

What is the right answer? “John Doe, the head of purchasing at Company ABC, and representatives from XYZ Magazine” (of course, you would list the professionals who can help you achieve your goals – whether they are specific individuals, key decision makers at target companies, influential members of the press, or others)

Take it a step further… Seek out these key contacts before you arrive in the convention city and schedule time to get together on-site. In securing your most important meetings well in advance, you avoid the possibility of missing one another while still maintaining some flexibility in your schedule so you can add in other encounters as you see fit.

Also, make a list of the professionals you would like to meet but with whom you were unable to pre-arrange appointments. Seek out these contacts during the event (in sessions, at receptions, on the show floor, etc) and take advantage of any opportunity to engage in an impromptu discussion that can progress your goals. Remember, these encounters don’t have to be completed in a formal setting (or even focus exclusively on business topics); sometimes a little rapport building can take you closer to reaching your goals than a series of perfectly professional meetings.

If you are interested, you can read about other events
I have completed with BelQuette here:
SGIA in New Orleans (2011), NBM in Indianapolis (2011), ISS in Atlantic City (2011),
ISS in Orlando (2011), ISS in Long Beach (2011), and SGIA in Las Vegas (2010).

During this year’s ISS – Long Beach, I worked with BelQuette to introduce their products (including their newest software offering, JobVault) to attendees.  My main responsibilities on-site were to greet attendees, assess their interests and current needs, explain/demonstrate BelQuette’s most relevant offerings, obtain the contact information of qualified leads, and record the details of our conversations so that company representatives would be properly equipped to follow up after the show.

This Fruit of the Loom bunch stopped by our booth at ISS - Long Beach... What a fun show!

Building upon their recent growth, the momentum created during ISS – Long Beach provides BelQuette with the perfect start to their 2012 trade show season.  In addition to highlighting their newest offerings and reconnecting with new/current partners, clients, and prospects at this event, our team enjoyed an opportunity to candidly discuss strategy and direction for their other sales and marketing efforts moving forward.  I look forward to seeing how everything will come together for BelQuette in the near future.

The first of those three important questions is, “who are your biggest competitors?” and the incorrect answer my new clients usually offer is “we don’t have any [external] competitors – we only compete with ourselves.”

Although I can certainly respect the quest for continuous self improvement, I know this answer is wrong because… especially in a business sense, your biggest competition is never only yourself.

Seriously, think about it this way:

1. Personal best doesn’t receive a line on your revenue chart. If you were competing only with yourself, any improvement would indicate success; however, if you go out and write your personal best proposal or give your personal best presentation, that still might not be good enough to “win” the sale for your company.

You may genuinely care about improving your offerings enough that they can speak for themselves; but your offerings don’t stand alone in a vacuum. Even sports known for their individual nature (like golf, gymnastics, swimming, running, etc) compare the scores of one athlete against another. In those sports, when the competition is over, there is a winner and a loser, regardless of how much effort each athlete put into his or her own performance. In business, the company that “wins” gets the sale while the other companies don’t. Recognize that you are in a competition and compete at your highest level.

2. If something happened and your company didn’t exist anymore, your clients wouldn’t immediately close their doors. They would simply find another way to fill their needs. Your competition would help them do this.

Your company may be truly special in that there aren’t any others who do exactly what you do exactly how you do it; but if, for whatever reason, you couldn’t help your clients anymore, someone else would. Even if the other companies weren’t quite as special as yours, your clients would make do. In fact, they may still choose to “make do” with someone else’s offerings because of other factors. Recognize that you aren’t the only option available and show your clients why you are still the best choice (then, appreciate the business you do receive, because they chose you).

Why do I (and should you) care?
As an exhibitor, it is so important to know your competition because trade shows are designed to highlight the options available to attendees. In this setting, your competition is often literally right next door; it’s done that way to offer professionals a convenient way to find the products and services they require without wasting their time and effort searching for the same solutions elsewhere.

Instead, your target audience has an opportunity to take comparison shopping to a whole new level. They can experience your offerings first hand, ask questions of the experts who created them, and then walk just steps away to refresh their memory as to the pros and cons of their next favorite option.

Your ability to communicate intelligently about your offerings as they are compared to others in your industry will either inspire confidence in your contacts and help them to the next step in your buying process or discourage them from working with your company and lead them back to the competition. This begins with correctly identifying your biggest competitors.

What is the right answer? “Companies ABC, XYZ, and KLM” (of course, you would list the actual companies from your industry who also provide the products and services that fulfill the needs of your target audience and rank them according to specific similarities)

Take it a step further… Find your competition on the show floor and identify their main selling points (as they compare to your company and offerings). Keep this information in the back of your mind as you meet with attendees. Using what you know, you can handle objections before they arise, highlight the differences between your offerings and the others available (so your clients can make an informed decision), and watch out for where any misinformation about your company may be coming from.

Also, keep an eye out for any attendees who visit your competitors. If these attendees are considering your competition, they may be interested in learning about your offerings as well. However, don’t forget to complete your thorough qualifying process with these attendees because you can’t truly know if your offerings will be a good fit until you understand their specific needs and interests.

From an outside perspective, it appears that I make a perfectly seamless transition into each client’s company for the duration of their event(s) – very rarely do the attendees (or even other exhibitors) suspect that I am not one of my client’s regular company representatives.

How do I make this happen? I know what attendees will ask (from my experience in this industry) and I prepare accordingly. I ask my new clients to provide specific information about their company, offerings, industry, and target audience by way of a “New Client Event Preparations Information Request” PDF (the information they provide here supplements the research I do on my own and any additional training sessions we schedule).

There are three questions, however, which are so important that I ask them twice (once through the PDF and again in person before the first event day)… Unfortunately, the answers my new clients provide are usually wrong.

I am telling you this because, even when they aren’t in the booth with me, my clients are still contributing to their exhibiting success.  You see, I do my best work when I have access to the resources necessary to properly prepare myself. The same is true for your internal team (they do their best work when they are properly prepared; it is up to you to provide the necessary training information).

These are the three important questions:

- Who are your biggest competitors?
- Who are you MOST interested in talking to?
- Who are you LEAST interested in talking to?

You may be wondering, “if I’m using this specific information to learn about my clients, how do I know it’s incorrect?” Good question – we will cover each question and its answers (both right and wrong) over the next few weeks. Stay tuned!

PS. Want to see the rest of the information I request from my new clients?
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