While doing some research on lead retrieval systems recently for an upcoming tradeshow, I stumbled upon an article on the “Top Five Tradeshow Myths” and wanted to pass these on to everyone.
I found these to be extremely helpful and informative, especially since I was investigating whether or not a good cost saving idea would be to purchase a barcode scanner (or lead retrieval unit) instead of renting one at each conference at a cost of $400 a pop. I determined that it really depends upon a number of factors, most of them listed in this article under number three.
Top Five Tradeshow Myths
1.) Raffles/"Fish Bowls"
Myth: Having a raffle will gather lots of great leads for the sales team.
Reality: The myth of using raffles and fish bowls to collect business cards as an effective way to collect leads is the top tradeshow myth of all. The only time a raffle is a strategy to consider at a tradeshow is if you are building a mailing list. If you are looking for qualified leads for your sales team to follow up with, this is not the way to go. You will end up with way too many unqualified contacts, making your sales force inefficient by wasting their time on follow-up while missing out on reaching the real prospects quickly.
2.) Promotional Items
Myth: You always need to have promotional items readily available where attendees can pick them up to get them to stop at the booth.
Reality: Once again, if you are looking for qualified leads, this is not the way to go. Having a general promotional item that you hand out to all attendees will drive a lot of traffic to the booth, but will not produce qualified leads nor create specific memories of what your company does and why an attendee should do business with you.
A better approach is to either have the promotional items stored away, or at the back of the booth and only handed out after an attendee has had a conversation with your booth staffer. It can also work to have a higher priced promotional item that only gets handed out after a booth staffer has determined that an attendee is a qualified one.
3.) Lead Retrieval
Myth: Show offered lead retrieval is always the best way to capture leads.
Reality: While there are many good lead retrieval systems offered by many shows, they are not always the best approach for your business to collect the information your sales team needs for follow-up. An important part of the lead capture process is gathering information for your sales team to be used during follow up.
This includes answers to things such as purchasing timeframe, product interest, notes about the conversation the booth staffer had with the attendee, etc.
Next time you are offered a lead retrieval system from the show, ask if you have the ability to customize the information collected. You need to ask attendees questions and have the ability to take notes. If the device does not have this ability, consider other lead retrieval options that you can rent or purchase, such as LeadWizard, NewLeads, CardScan Lead Qualifier or simply print up your own lead form.
4.) Booth Staff
Myth: Our booth staffers don't need training.
Reality: All booth staffers need training, even veteran booth staffers. It is common for companies to learn booth staff skills on the fly at the show and continue with this method year after year. This is far from producing the optimal results your company can achieve at a tradeshow.
Exhibitors who continuously want to get exceptional results from tradeshows provide booth staff training for each show, covering items such as key prospects for that particular event, key VIPs who will come to the booth, new marketing approaches, public relations goals, handling competitors, booth etiquette, engaging, qualifying and closing techniques, as well as role playing. When done right, booth staff training can improve ROI at each show you exhibit.
5.) Networking Events
Myth: Networking events are a waste of time.
Reality: Networking events provide the opportunity to speak with other exhibitors and attendees in a more casual environment than the show floor allows.
This gives you the ability to make deeper and more meaningful connections with them. Now, I'm not saying it is necessary to attend each and every networking event, but it's important to attend the events where you can meet the targeted people you are looking for at the show. A good approach is to look at an event's description and determine which booth staffers would be a good fit for the various events; then split up the networking.
Hopefully this information helps give you a fresh look at the most common tradeshow myths and even gives you ideas on how you can improve the approaches you currently take when exhibiting. And since we could only cover five myths here, keep your eye out for others. Question anything you take for granted and you will find them.
Homework
• Review the myths and re-consider the approaches you take at your show.
• Think of other areas of your exhibit planning that may be myths and consider other ways of carrying out those activities. You may find other myths when you think about the following habits:
- Always renting the same booth space; instead of trying different areas of the exhibit hall that may produce better results.
- Always exhibiting at the same shows; instead of considering changes in the market and evaluating new shows on the market.
- Always renting everything from the show; instead of purchasing items in the show city or shipping them.
- Always shipping to the advance warehouse; instead of shipping directly to show-site and saving money.
- Just showing up at the exhibit; instead of spending time on pre-show marketing planning that can drive even more attendees to the booth
- Thinking that anyone from the company can be a booth staffer; instead of carefully selecting and training the booth staffers you send to the show that will deliver the best results.
Hope you find this information as useful as I did and your follow & comments are appreciated!
Today's Quote: "Creativity is intelligence having fun." - Albert Einstein
