Trade Show Marketing That Works
You’re standing at your booth, watching potential customers walk by, and you’re wondering why they’re not stopping to chat.
Trade shows represent a significant investment of time and money, yet many companies struggle to maximize their return. Whether you’re a seasoned exhibitor or preparing for your first show, mastering the art of booth presence can transform your experience from exhausting to exceptionally profitable.
Trade shows aren’t just about showcasing products — they’re about creating connections. And in the fast-paced environment of an exhibition floor, you may have only seconds to make an impression that leads to a valuable conversation.
Even if you think you’ve got it figured out, the landscape is constantly evolving, and you might have team members who could benefit from some guidance.
So let’s break down the essentials that will help you and your team stand out from the sea of exhibitors and turn those fleeting moments into meaningful business relationships. In this post we’ll cover:
- The trick to having welcoming body language
- Conversation starters
- A great method for tag-teaming booth conversations
- Smart ways to dress strategically
- How to get more leads and what to do with them
Let’s get started.
Do Use Body Language That Invites Conversations
The whole point of spending all this money, time, and effort to go to trade shows is to welcome your clients and new people into the booth, into conversations. So your body language needs to be welcoming.
And yet, one of the things that we all do without realizing it at all is give off unwelcoming vibes with bad body language. We don’t do it intentionally, but there are so many postures that seem unwelcoming. You can have your arms crossed against your chest, or you’re looking at your phone and inadvertently, you present yourself in a way that can turn people off.
The source of most of this bad body language is what you’re doing with your hands. And so if you find me at a trade show, you’ll find me with a pen in my hand. When I have a pen or an AirPod case or something in my hands, I’ll be playing with it. And when you have your hands occupied, you aren’t putting them behind your back, you aren’t looking at your phone, and you aren’t giving off an unapproachable vibe. Instead, your body language says you’re open for conversation.
The same goes for clustering. You’ve probably walked up to a booth where you see 3 booth staff clustering together. It’s not inviting. Don’t do it. And when you’re talking with your coworkers who are new at the show, remind them not to cluster in a way that’s excluding people from coming in and having that conversation with you.
Do Have Conversation Starters Ready That Get Genuine Responses
Not everybody on staff is going to feel comfortable chatting up people as they walk by the booth. And even among staff that is comfy, some people make the mistake of starting off a conversation by talking about, “Oh, this product has this feature, and this can do that,” without finding out why they’re there.
The question that I generally ask people when they come to the booth is, “What do you like best about what you see here?” It’s an open-ended question. They can’t say no thank you to it. And they have to think a little bit. They’re going to give you feedback. Usually, they’ll pick something out and you can engage them in more conversation from there.
Another question I like is, “What are the top 2 or 3 things you’re solving here while you’re at the show?” It doesn’t have to be anything to do with what I have at my booth, but I’m just trying to start a conversation. Find out what it is about their problem that you can help with, or what’s bugging them and how you might be able to fix it.
Do Master the Art of the Handoff
Some of the people who are the most essential to a company’s success are the same people who the last thing they want to do is to talk to a customer. But the show can’t happen without them.
For those people, or the people who maybe don’t know as much about the products, you set it up ahead of time. I give them five things to say, and when they run out, they come find me and hand off the prospect.
What works really well is to set up booth buddies. For one thing, you can cover the basics. “I’m going to lunch or take a restroom break, you’re going to stay here.” But more importantly is the handoff, so we’re not going to put 2 similar skill sets together as booth buddies. We’re instead going to put 2 people who are complementary together. So, “My colleague here can answer your questions.” Or, “I can give you the basics and a cup of coffee, and then can I connect you with one of the design engineers who can dig in.”
Do Dress Strategically, Not Just Professionally
At some companies, everybody wears the matching polo shirts with the logo. I’m all for getting the brand out, and I love the idea of the team and the camaraderie and the identifiability and all that stuff.
But my general rule of thumb is that the business people should look like business people and the rest of the staff can be the team members with the logo wear. That serves 2 purposes. So the salespeople, they’re wearing suits or a professional look, and as the people who are doing business with customers they look professional, and they give a great first impression.
The second reason, though, is that it’s not always busy at trade shows. Imagine if you have a mix of people in booth wear, and people in business attire, they can get in little groups of two and three with a mix of each, and scatter themselves around the booth, and people will walk by and think the booth is busy.
This may go without saying, but you need to wear comfortable shoes. I always have 2 pairs of shoes and I alternate them every day because I find that your feet get worse if they’re in the same shoe for 4 days straight.
One more tip about what you wear, and that is to have your name tag on your right side. When you’re shaking hands, you want people to be able to look and see your name.
Do Lead Gathering That Builds Relationships
So when it comes to collecting leads at the show, here is my least favorite thing to say to someone: “Can I scan your badge?” It’s so much better to find out what they’re interested in.
You can say, “Can I send you this really cool resource, this PDF we have? Great. What’s your info?” Now I can scan the badge, or take their card. Instead of taking, we’re giving.
So think about the giving versus receiving. What can you give? What can you do to help somebody? It feels a lot nicer.
Anything we can do to remove the obstacles from creating that next step forward makes creating a genuine relationship with somebody a lot easier. Because if it’s a busy show, you get back from the show, you can’t even sort through your leads and remember who’s who and what the context was. Whereas if you start a conversation right away, it’s much easier to follow that thread all the way through.
Get my 4 Steps to Successful Lead Follow Up guide to find out what to do with those leads you’ve gathered at the show, so good leads don’t go to waste!
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