How Trade Shows Can Boost Your Business
- Know why you're there. Are you looking to win new customers, raise brand awareness, unveil a new product or service or seek potential partnerships? This simple question should determine who goes to the show, what your budget will be and what activities you should focus on while there.
- Define your goals. Set quantitative goals for your appearance - know how many clients you want to land and leads you need to generate so you can track your performance.
- Pick the right event. Look at a show's demographics beforehand to ensure there will be enough attendees that match your criteria for meeting your goals.
- Set up a ranking system. A good way to make sure you follow up on the right leads is to rank them according to priority (i.e. Groups A, B, C) and determine what needs to be delivered to each group to win their business.
- Document your follow ups. Decide who's going to follow up with which leads, what materials will be needed to make the sale and implement a way to manage and monitor the process.
- Discuss your decisions. Team members should get a chance to chance to weigh in on their role, event duties and follow-up responsibilities to ensure everyone understands and contributes to the process.
- Evaluate your results. Look over your tracked results and see if you've reached your goals to determine your ROI for the event, what went right versus what went wrong and how you will participate in future events.