SHOW NEWS: Planning Your 2000 Industry Trade Show Strategy

Ann Bisgyer, CEM

Maximizing the value of your marketing dollars spent at trade shows requires advance planning, decisions and action. Here are suggestions to make the most out of your exhibiting dollar.
� Choose the shows which serve your marketing needs. Each show has its own personality as well as its advantages and disadvantages.
If your customer base is Texas or the Southwest and your company strategy is to stay within the territory, the Southwestern Fastener Expo alone may be sufficient.
If you want to expand in the Midwest market, the Chicago or Columbus shows may be helpful.
Las Vegas, created as a western regional show, is rapidly growing into a national event.
STAFDA�s convention is construction- and tool-oriented.
In addition to fastener trade shows, there are an endless number of expositions where fasteners are a related product. For example, several fastener manufacturers exhibit at the National Hardware Show.
� What will a trade show cost? Plan on a minimum of $5,000 for a 10�x10� space. In addition to booth rental, there will be time out of the office, flights, hotel rooms, meals, furniture rentals, printing brochures, shipping the booth and materials, and other costs.
One multiple-booth exhibitor at the National Industrial Fastener Show in Columbus calculated he has been spending more than $30,000 annually on the show.
� Trade shows are an opportunity to make a splash. Plan in advance to roll out a new logo or product or announce major company changes.
Use your booth to display what is new since you last saw these customers: new products or pictures of your expanded plant.
� Read the exhibitor kit to avoid missing deadlines or arriving with a booth that violates show rules. More and more trade shows are putting their exhibitor brochures on the web.
The exhibitor kit gives deadlines for ordering booth furniture, electrical service, plants, etc. in time for the advance discounts. Missing a deadline can cost you 20%.
� Train your sales staff. Selling in person from a booth is different from inside telephone sales.
� Concentrate on the advantage a trade show offers: Person-to-person contact. Direct mail, internet web sites, magazine advertising and telemarketing don�t provide for shaking hands and eye contact or showing actual products.
Some companies send top salespeople to a show as a perk, but it is also an opportunity to introduce a new salesperson to the industry and your customers.
� Contact target customers in advance. Make an appointment for breakfast or a booth visit late in the afternoon when aisle traffic usually slows.
� Avoid giving out gifts that become a problem for the attendee to get back to the office. The bulky brochure may be best sent with your follow-up letter rather than left behind in the hotel room.
If most attendees drive to a local show, they can take home the door prize television. If most are flying in, a pen or letter opener will fit in their pocket or suitcase.
� Adjust according to the nature of the show. You can plan to spend more time talking with potential customers at shows where attendee traffic is expected to be slower.
After quick qualifying, one of your salespeople might take a prime potential customer to sit down in the lounge area to talk.
That strategy may hamper your exposure at crowded shows. Instead of spending �quality time� with attendees, you may want to rely more on a handshake, eye-to-eye contact, quick qualifying questions and obtaining business cards for prompt after-show follow-up.
For both fast- and slow-paced shows, remember to listen to the customer. Ask questions instead of just giving your standard spiel.
� Staff your booth according to anticipated traffic. Before you make flight and hotel reservations, call show management and ask how preregistration compares with the previous year. If the early numbers are up, you may need the full staff. If the preregistration is down, it may be wise to reduce your costs with fewer people flying in and staying in hotels.
Having too few people in the booth means you�ll miss person-to-person contact. Too many exhibitor personnel can lower morale of the whole show as staff stands idle.
For the upcoming Columbus show the booth price includes three exhibitor badges with the option to buy more. The reality is that if you need more than three salespeople, you probably need more than one booth.
Trade show rules usually prohibit using the aisles. Even from a practical standpoint, three salespeople plus customers in a 10�x10� booth is a crowd.
This is especially true at the Las Vegas show. Because the show is in a hotel rather than a convention center, it has eight-foot-wide aisles instead of the 10-ft. ones at Columbus. That makes it harder to talk to a customer standing in the aisles.
� Take advantage of advance marketing opportunities. For example, Fastener Fair Europe offers exhibitors free admission tickets they are to give to their customers.
�We have found that the most successful way of advertising the show is through our own ticket invitations,� Jerry Ramsdale of the European show finds. �We automatically send out tickets to each exhibitor free of charge so that they can invite their own customers and potentials, and this means that relevant visitors are invited directly by name. It does not matter if companies receive a flood of tickets from different exhibitors � that is all the better to get the message across that this is an important and relevant event for the industry internationally. Saturation is the key.
�We have also found that those companies who strongly promote their presence at the show tend to enjoy greater success at the show itself,� Ramsdale added. �We always like to encourage our exhibitors to do this, because we want them to have a good show. Their success is our success.�
� Measure your show success by business conducted, not by the numbers of people walking by your booth. Slow, but high-quality, traffic can yield more sales.
Peter Draper of the Fastener Fair pointed out that show management is not concerned about attracting �huge numbers of visitors. We want to ensure that the visitors who come are relevant and of a high quality rather than just �filling the aisles� with people merely walking through creating a false �feel-good� factor.�
Nancy Rich, manager of the Chicago Fastener Expo, agreed that full aisles may seem exciting but can be deceptive.
Years ago when the Chicago show switched from a tabletop to a booth format it meant larger exhibitor space and wider aisles. Even though the number of attendees rose for the first booth year, the larger square footage of the hall made it seem less bustling, and some exhibitors complained about attendee traffic being down.
Since some shows don�t announce attendance numbers and most fastener shows are not yet audited by the relatively new trade show third-party quality assurance programs, many exhibitors conduct their own counts. Some count the number of brochures they give out. Others punch a counter in their booth each time an attendee stops to talk to monitor actual traffic.
Keeping track of actual stops at your booth helps you plan for next year�s show.
Another way to monitor the quantity and quality of traffic is by offering show specials. For example, a certificate for a $100 discount on an order within 100 days may give you a good idea of what business the show actually generates for you.
If the show yields profitable sales for you, consider expanding your presence next year. If a show isn�t profitable for you, consider other ways to spend your marketing dollars.
� After-show follow-up is vital to success. Concentrate on the people you met personally. A personal letter or call to someone you talked with takes advantage of the relationship you started at the show.
If you aren�t returning directly to your office, you may even want to bring an express mail package to send contact information back to the office.
Avoid the �was so glad to meet you at the show� form letters to all names on an attendee list provided by show management. What if the attendee didn�t stop at your booth? Trade show experts find that a majority of those preregistered to attend can end up as �no shows.� The standard �glad to meet you� form letter to hundreds of preregistered distributors who didn�t make it to the show will make you look foolish.
Before sending a general letter, ask show management for verified attendance names vs. all preregistered.
Verified attendance has long been available via the simple perforated stub badge system. Now the same bar code and scanner technology you have added to your warehouse is available to record attendee badges entering the show.
Editor�s Note: Ann Bisgyer, in addition to being co-publisher of FIN, is a certified exposition manager and the proprietor of Expo Experts, a trade show management and consulting firm. Tel: 503 335-0294. E-mail: ann@expoexperts.com
For a complete list of fastener trade shows go to www.fastenernews.com and click on �Trade Shows� or check your FIN Calendar.