Trade shows are a staple of U.S. marketing and sales activities. For years manufacturers have diligently worked these shows seeking exposure for their brand and their products. At the same time, independent manufacturers’ reps have been called upon time and again by their manufacturers to assist in manning these booths. While what follows was written primarily for foreign manufacturers looking for a big splash in this country, the advice offered can just as easily be applied to domestic manufacturers.

The following was provided by Joe Miller, former president and CEO of MANA.

Trade shows are often an important part of a company’s marketing plan. A number of manufacturers looking to make an impact in the United States make trade show participation one of their first marketing activities and this is generally an excellent idea. However, you should not assume that these exhibitions are always the most effective method for promoting the product. In some cases before spending the money to reserve a trade show booth, a company should ask and answer a number of questions:

• Has the trade show experienced good attendance in the recent past?
• Is attendance growing or declining?
• Are some of our best prospective customers planning to attend?
• Is our company prepared to invest in a professional show booth?
• Given the time and money involved in participating in this show, is there a better way to invest that amount of money?

In some industries, trade show participation, by both manufacturer-exhibitors and customers, is declining as a result of the 24-7 pace of business in the United States and the availability of information on the Internet. Some companies prohibit their employees from attending shows on company time, and many employees would rather spend their free time with their families rather than go to an exhibition on the weekend. On the other hand, it is absolutely essential that you appear at some industries’ key shows if you want to enhance your brand and be given consideration. Every industry is different, so only you can evaluate whether your show is going to pay back your investment.

Talk to your reps and distributors to get their opinions before signing up for a booth. You can ask them to find out if your important prospects are planning to attend. Determine if they think they can get you appointments with these prospects before, during or after the show. You may even want to consider extending a social invitation for lunch or dinner to some key customers. Incidentally, these shows can be excellent places to find manufacturers’ reps, in addition to end user customers.

Ask the trade show management company to provide you with attendance figures for the last five years of the exhibition. You can usually get this by category such as end users, distributors, dealers, exhibitors, etc. A downward trend in attendance should be a caution to you.

If You Exhibit, Do It Professionally

Many companies new to the North American market attempt to participate in trade show programs too cheaply. An exhibitor doesn’t need to have a booth like the large Fortune 500 companies often have, but you do need to have an attractive, professional looking booth with signage, samples and booth workers who know how to work a show. There are many local companies who manufacture and sell trade show booths that can be collapsed and shipped in one or two boxes. An effective booth for a 10’x10’ stand can be purchased for $4,000 and the cost to ship it anywhere in the United States is affordable. If you use the booth for 20 trade shows over 10 years, the investment for the booth is only $400 annually!

Make sure your graphics get your message across simply and effectively. Think of your display as you would a billboard you see driving down the highway. It’s there for only a few seconds, and then it’s gone. If you can’t get the attention of your passers-by in the same way, you’ve lost them. Don’t try and tell your whole story in your graphics — just use enough to get them to stop.

Once they’ve done that, you can give them whatever information about your company that is pertinent to them. Also, unless your company has very, very strong brand recognition, don’t rely on the company name only to get passers-by to stop. If they don’t recognize the name, they don’t stop.

Learn How to Work in the Booth Properly

I notice that many companies whose booth workers speak English only as a second language are not aggressive enough when working a trade show booth. You must stand at the front of the booth at all times and greet passersby with a friendly smile. Develop a variety of one-sentence greetings for the people with badges you should honor. See which greeting works best at getting an attendee to engage you in conversation and use it regularly.

You can usually tell by the color of a person’s badge if they are the type of person who would be a potential customer. Be friendly to everyone, but do not waste time with students and other visitors who are not in a position to purchase your product. Also, be cautious about handing out expensive literature, brochures and samples. Most of these get put in the trash later, so reserve expensive handouts for those people who you have qualified through conversation as good prospects. It’s acceptable to have inexpensive flyers to hand out to all comers if you feel that this is important. Be sure to get a business card or swipe the person’s badge through your show computer device if you feel that they are a good prospect.

Other techniques for properly working a show booth can be learned by having people from your local manufacturers’ representative working the booth with you. Many reps are experts at engaging customers in conversation at a show, and you can learn a lot from just watching them. It is always preferable to have at least two people available for booth duty so that you do not miss important prospects when one of you is at lunch or engaged with another prospective customer. Having only one person working in an unprofessional looking booth is about as effective as running an ad for your product in a trade magazine one time only. Another benefit of having multiple people available for booth duty is that someone can walk the show and engage potential customers at their booths, food courts, Internet kiosks and other gathering places on the show floor.

Pre-Show Activities

There are many activities that you can use prior to arriving at a show that will increase your booth traffic and customer interest. Many exhibitors will send out a mailing piece to their entire database of current and prospective customers inviting them to stop by the booth to see any exciting new development or product. It’s better to use U.S. mail than e-mail for these invitations because “spam” blockers and busy people are making blast e-mails very ineffective these days. Some larger companies will also advertise their booth in trade magazines prior to the show. Sponsoring a cocktail party or a technical seminar at or after the show will also help drive customers to you. If the show has a new product showcase or award program and you have something new to introduce, you may want to participate in that program. Other people place inexpensive, one-page flyers on every booth prior to the start of the show inviting fellow exhibitors to visit them. Your reps will also have mailing lists and may be willing to spend their own money on postage for direct mail promotions to prospective attendees.

Have a Formal Plan for Success

Before you invest in a trade show, you should write up a plan for your participation just as you would for your complete marketing plan. In that plan you should define what success will look like. In other words, what is the cost of participation and what results do we expect? It’s difficult to measure results from these exhibitions, so you need to plan a method of tracking results. Is it the number of business cards gathered? Number of requests for price information? Number of orders received? If you go to the same show every year, you can measure and compare results over time.

Important After-Show Activities

Your plan should also include after-show activities and particularly the way you intend to follow up the contacts. Are you going to telephone these contacts to see if they have further interest in your products? Will you send these leads to your reps and/or distributors and ask them to make personal sales visits to the prospects? Will the reps report to you the results of their visits? Will you place these contacts in your mailing database and send them future news about your company? Will you invite them to your booth at the next show or for a small cocktail party at the same show next year? Most U.S. companies do a poor job of after-show follow up, so a good plan of action here can distinguish you from your local competition.

Several key things to remember from this article will be helpful to you in the future:

• Always try to calculate the return on a trade show before investing.
• Ask if there is a better way to spend the money. Don’t do it just because everyone else is.
• If you attend, do it the right way. Don’t look like a low-budget operation.
• Rely on your channel partners for good advice.
• Be sure to utilize pre-show promotion techniques that fit your budget.
• Be sure to have a written plan stating what a successful show will consist of.
• Post-show follow-up is the best way to get a good return on your investment.

These are just a few ideas that may enhance your trade show participation in the future, and it may be a good idea for MANA to have an in-house roundtable discussion someday.