Trade show marketing is certainly an investment.

From the cost of securing a space on the trade show floor, to the trade show display itself, there are a lot of items on your list to plan for in order to have a successful show. But those are not the only investments you need to consider.

Below are things that you should think about to maximize your trade show marketing investment.

Set Plan For Pre-Show, At-Show and Post-Show Activity

Establishing a breakdown of activities in each segment of the trade show marketing process is critical to track effectiveness and ROI of the work done. This should include everything from creating social media buzz, at-show presentations to who is following up with the leads generated at the show, email marketing, etc.

Having all of these action items laid out, along with your budget for the trade show, will help you maximize your trade show investment. The better the plan, the better the odds are to turn those visitors into customers.

Pre-Show Promotion

Pre-show marketing is a part of a successful trade show campaign. Never assume customers or prospects that are attending the trade show you’re marketing at will simply “stop on by.” You must implement that pre-show marketing plan well in advance. From your activity in building buzz via social media, the information you add to your website about the upcoming trade show, to the personalized emails and even letters (going old school is really effective in this digital age) to invite current customers and attract prospects to your booth.

Even including a special incentive: exclusive grand prize raffle for visitors, get a VIP happy hour wristband for an after the trade show get together, etc. Incentives will add to your budget, but can provide you with the opportunity to deepen the connection with customers and prospects that can yield long term customers.

Be Outstanding

On the trade show floor it can be a little overwhelming visually. Your company needs to stand apart from the other businesses next to you and even down the aisle. According to the Center for Exhibition Industry Research (CEIR), the average visitor to a trade show booth is 5-15 minutes. That’s not much time to make a lasting impression or to close a sale before the person walks down to your competitor’s booth a couple minutes later.

Having a high impact trade show display can draw people in. Don’t buy some cheap used display or go the DIY route to save a few bucks. Having professional booth exhibit and design assistance goes a long ways in having a trade show booth that attracts attention. Adding iPad kiosks, video displays and even interactive touch screens can keep visitors in your exhibit space longer giving your sales team more time to develop a relationship with them. Don’t forget lead generation tools like scheduled demonstrations, contests, raffle/drawings that require registration keep people coming to your booth.

Have One-on-One Space in Your Booth

Having a space away from the busy trade show floor dedicated to having some privacy is important. For example, some companies have utilized a double-decker trade show display that has a 2nd floor where the sales team can meet with people who’ve set up appointments or for those moments where sales are finalized.

Staff Selection

Picking names out of a hat or just choosing whoever is available should never be the way to decide who is going to represent your company at the trade show. Those people are the face of company. Seriously consider who you want to fulfill that role for you.

Choose people who are outgoing (like to smile, great conversation starters) and are going to know “how to work a booth”. They are engaging visitors, capturing contact information, asking the right questions to know if they are just there for the free prizes, are a potential customer or are ready to buy. Thoroughly knowing your product/services is not enough on the trade show floor. Make you are training up and staffing your booth with the right people.

Don’t Hide In Your Booth

Speaking at trade shows and conferences can add a whole other level of trust and credibility for you and your company. It can also lead to even more sales! Most trade shows and many conferences are in need of great public speakers who can provide value to their attendees. Got something to say?

Being a speaker helps you and your company stand out from the competition. Whether you are a featured speaker, hosting a lunch roundtable, or participating in a panel of speakers, your presence is increasing your company’s profile and visibility.

Limit Marketing Collateral

Less is more! Especially at a trade show where EVERYONE is being given a lot of paper products. Don’t be that company that spends thousands of dollars on brochures, sales sheets or pamphlets that will likely never leave their bag or odds are that it’ll end up in the garbage can. Focus on one or two key pieces of information in exchange for their contact info to send a personalized information kit after the show.

Unique Trade Show Giveaway

Don’t invest money in pens or key chains. There are far better options out there if you think creatively. If you have “upgraded” giveaway items, you can offer them in exchange to those who fill out your questionnaires. If you still plan to give away cheaper items, water bottles (that are BPA free) are a great option.

Leave Your Booth

See what the competition is doing with their booth and at their displays. Being able to see what’s capturing people’s attention can be an idea generator on ways to improve your own exhibit experience for attendees. Learn as much as you can. Talk to people and pick up their marketing collateral.

Follow Up

Part of your planning before the show was putting together a strategy for following up with your leads from the trade show. Hopefully, you planned out who is going to “get in touch” and do the follow-up. Post-show marketing is a smart way to way to extend the life of your exhibit.

Ensuring that you have staff and a process established to take action on following up with everyone immediately after the trade show instead of letting the connection go cold without follow up for weeks or months. Making follow up a priority can pay off and cover the trade show investment with increased lead conversion and sales.

Incorporating these ten tactics into how you trade show market your business will give you the best chance to generate more sales and visibility for your business.

Every year millions of people spend a fortune in time and money attending trade shows and conferences. For participating companies, these expenses continue to grow when you tack on sponsorship fees, booth construction, and travel costs. With all the work and money spent attending and sponsoring conferences, I’m always surprised how little effort is spent preparing the nuts and bolts of how we will engage one-on-one with our industry peers.

Companies can spend $30K to $250K and up to attend and sponsor a conference. That money is usually spent coordinating things such as flights, hotel, booth equipment, and giveaways. Ironically, in what is usually a people-to-people selling business, little-to-zero time and money is spent on how your staff will behave and engage with attendees.

If you’re surrounded by your most ideal audience with a limited time to speak to them in an environment that’s costing a fortune, wouldn’t you want to be prepared with a bevy of one-on-one communication techniques?

Trade shows are corporate Burning Man

At a trade show you’re operating in an environment of compressed time and space in a miniature city decorated with corporate art. As fantastic and wonderful as that may be for your business, it’s all going to evaporate at a predetermined time. If you want to succeed, you have to make the most of that precious little time.

More positive engagements, not more scans

If we assume you’re operating in a person-to-person selling business, wouldn’t you be more successful with more positive qualified engagements than just badge scans? And wouldn’t you have more of these interactions if you knew how to stop a person, engage, and qualify that person quickly?

Here are ten tested recommendations. Read on.

1: Ask an opinion question

People love to be asked for and give their opinion. Add on top of that an opportunity to show their smarts and you’ve got someone hooked. One way to learn if someone is right for your business is to ask an opinion question.

Here’s the technique:

Open by asking, “Can you answer a question for me?”

For improved success read their name and company off their badge, with something specific to their business (e.g., “John, you work at Oracle, could you answer a question about databases for me?”).

Then ask a true opinion question (e.g., “What do you think is the most significant way companies are falling short with Big Data?”).

Why it works:

People love to to share their opinion.

The answer will quickly give you an idea how much they know about the subject and/or if it concerns them. You can also gauge who in your company they should speak to next.

The responses become great market research fodder. Keep a record of all the answers.

2: Use a camera as a prop

Here’s the technique:

With video camera in hand, introduce yourself to an attendee and tell them you’re shooting a video for a certain outlet (it can be your blog) and you’d like to ask them a question on camera.

Afterwards, ask for their card so you can follow up and share the video when it’s finished.

Why it works:

There is no need for small talk at all. The camera (or you can use a clipboard) acts as a prop making it clear that you have a very specific objective.

When you’re done, or if they say no, you have an excuse to walk away as it’s clear that you have an objective.

Even if they say no because they’re shy or PR won’t let them be on camera, it’s still possible they may still be interested in the topic and therefore a qualified subject.

You have an excuse to collect a business card, plus you have an asset from the event to share with them afterwards that they’ll be eager to see because they might be in it.

3: Set up one-on-one interviews beforehand

Traditionally, weeks before a big trade show or conference, a company’s PR will hammer attending press and analysts with emails asking if they’d like to meet with their CEO to talk about their latest announcement. These emails are the equivalent of saying, “Hello, you don’t know me and I don’t know you, but I thought you would like to pay attention to me.” While off-putting when put in that context, press and analysts have come to expect them. If anyone else but a PR person did this you’d be completely taken aback. It’s just not how we normally form relationships.

We’ve found a far more successful technique is to literally flip the format, or as I like to call it, and ask influencers if you can interview them for a publication.

Here’s the technique:

Send an email a few weeks before the event and ask if you can interview them. You’re essentially saying I’d like to pay attention to you rather than asking you to pay attention to me.

Keep the topic somewhat loose as you’ll want them to speak on their expertise.

Why it works:

It’s an amazing relationship making move. It’s far easier to get people to care about you if you care about them first.

You have a personalized follow up asset to share.

It’s the best way to have one-on-one engagements with the top influencers at the conference.

4: Don’t eat lunch with people you know

If you don’t have a scheduled lunch with clients or potential clients, proactively look for people you don’t know and join them for lunch. Avoid what will be comfortable (eating with your coworkers) and force yourself to break out of your shell and eat with people you don’t know.

Here’s the techniques:

When you enter the room for meals, scan the room for a table that’s almost full and already engaged in conversation. If people are acting lively, that’s a good sign. Join that table.

Avoid tables where everyone is ignoring each other and staring at their phones or computers.

Why it works:

Lunchtime is when people are a captive audience.

You can spend time learning what others have learned at the show.

You need to maximize your time to meet new qualified people, and you can do that during a meal, which some traditionally see as “down” time.

5: Attach yourself to connectors

A qualified person doesn’t necessarily have to be a person who will purchase your product. They can be “qualified” in that they can be a good relation and connect you to other key people in the industry. Think about the connectors you know in your industry and how powerful they’ve been for your business.

Here’s the technique:

If the event is attached to an association, call beforehand and make it clear that you’re going to come to the event and you’re interested in joining the association. Ask them for the names of the key members who could introduce you around.

Use this opportunity to also reach out to these people and ask for a one-on-one interview.

Why it works:

By expressing interest in the organization they’ll want to make sure you have the best experience possible. That means they’ll introduce you to key people.

Walking into a room where you know no one can be intimidating. Get the upper hand by having names beforehand of the most influential people in the room.

6: Read the person — Will they be helpful?

For some people it’s in their nature to be helpful. Expand your definition of “qualified” to include people who are simply eager to help. Eight years ago I met a cameraman at a show who is just one of these truly helpful people. He has become a phenomenal asset to my business by connecting me to key people and I’ve even hired his company for a few projects.

Here’s the technique:

There’s not too much to it beyond just reading the person as being friendly and helpful. Once you sense that element, drop all pretenses for “qualification.”

Reciprocate. If they’re showing an eagerness to be helpful find a way to return the favor.

Why it works:

Helpful people are almost always more valuable than a “qualified” person that’s non-responsive.

You’ll have a lot more fun with business colleagues who are helpful.

7: Ask a “yes” sequence

This common sales technique of getting early agreement improves the success rate of your sales pitch. It can also be used to qualify a person.

Here’s the technique:

Ask a series of questions for which you’d expect a qualified person would answer “yes.” For example:

• “Do you have customers you love?”
• “Do you believe you could do more for your customers?”
• “Would you like a solution that wouldn’t add more pressure on you, but could deliver more for your customers?”

Start broad and get more specific until you hit that ultimate qualified question.

Why it works:

Asking a broad question for which you’ll know you get agreement facilitates that initial point of “engagement.”

It’s far more effective to walk a subject through the problem and solution with them answering “yes” to a series of questions than for you to just come out right and tell them.

8: Ask why they’re there

Everyone has an objective at a conference even if it’s not well formed. It’s your job to draw that “why are you here?” purpose out of them.

Here’s the technique:

Ask a friendly opening line that immediately determines whether they’re qualified or not (e.g., “What are you looking for?” or “What brings you to the event today?”).

If they’re disqualified, but you know a company or partner who can help them, point them in the right direction.

Why it works:

Even if not explicitly stated, finding solutions to their problems is usually why people attend conferences. This line of questioning cuts to the core.

The answer will usually qualify or disqualify the subject immediately.

9: What have they seen?

This is the most powerful opening line that can be used at any conference or trade show.

Here’s the technique:

Ask, “What’s the coolest thing you’ve seen at the show?”

The response alone may indicate that the person is qualified.

Why it works:

Your opening line is asking for an opinion that’s both relevant and timely.

You’re not going into sales mode but rather putting the subject in the driver’s seat to lead the discussion.

If they respond in a way that shows they’re not qualified, it’s still valuable because you’re learning more about what’s happening at the show.

10: Compliment

“You can never go wrong complimenting someone.” Keep that in mind if you want people to actually stop and talk with you.

Here’s the technique:

Notice something physical about them and compliment (e.g., “I love those shoes.” “Where did you get that cool piece of schwag?”).

While that technique will get the person to stop, you need to get to qualifying quickly. Ideally, look at their badge and if you know the company mention what you like about them. Go over the top with the compliment (e.g., “You work for XYZ? You guys are doing so well. What would you need here?”).

Why it works:

People rarely ignore a compliment.

If you can quickly get into what you like about their company, you can quickly get into a discussion as to why they’re at the show.

CONCLUSION: Whether qualified or disqualified, learn how to end a conversation quickly

Once you know the person is qualified or disqualified, either way, you still need to end the conversation.

If the person is qualified, make it clear how you’re going to follow up and/or hand them off to a colleague.

If the person is not qualified, you still have to end the conversation positively. Non-qualified people will talk to qualified people later at the show, and it’s important that you’re polite, positive, and clearly explain your business. Follow these steps:

Look them in the eye.

Say their name.

Tell your story (e.g., “We’re the company that does ABC.”)

Say, “We’re probably not the right company for you.”

Thank them for stopping and shake their hand.

Say, “Enjoy the rest of the show.”

Remember, at a trade show you’re always fighting time. This corporate Burning Man will eventually shut down. That’s why all conversations need to eventually end, quickly, because your goal is to score more qualified engagements. You can’t do that if you spend all your time talking to one qualified person.