Exhibiting at a Trade Show
by Dera DeRoche-Jolet

Most of you are probably familiar with and have attended either an ISC Show, a vendor show or the convention put on by your state association. Undoubtedly, you’ve walked the floor, looked at new products, spoke with sales people, and returned to the office with a handful of literature.

You’ve been on that side of the aisle, but has your company ever exhibited at a show? If you haven’t, I’d highly recommend it. There are lots of opportunities including small booths at the mall, county fairs, home and garden shows, and consumer shows. It’s a great way to reach people who are not ordinarily contacted by or accessible to a salesperson. By exhibiting, your company will get seen and you"ll meet people you might never have had the chance to talk to about an alarm system before.

Shows represent a big investment both in time and money. That’s why you want to take every advantage of every opportunity. Just because the show closes, doesn’t mean your work is done. It’s time for that all important follow-up. With the right follow-up plans, trade show leads can generate enough appointments to keep your sales team busy with qualified prospects for quite a while. If you fail to use those leads, you’re missing the whole point of going there in the first place.

Before you even set up your booth, you should plan ahead. During the weeks before you exhibit, plan a lead follow-up strategy with your sales force. Remember, prospects that stopped by your booth have probably also visited your competition’s booth, so you want to be sure that your company is the first to contact the prospect after the show.

Prepare a simple follow-up sales letter that thanks the attendee for visiting the show, stopping by your booth and their interest in your products and services. The letter should also confirm the benefits of an alarm system that you explained to them at the show. End the letter by promising to personally contact them or enclose a postage-paid reply card for your prospect to use.

After a couple of days of being away, we usually have a few "fires" to put out. Preparing the letter before the show lets you concentrate on all the things that happened while you were away from the office and that you’ll have to deal with when you get back. Since the body of letter is already done, you can have your staff input the names, do a mail merge and send the letter right out. You can immediately focus on other business.

Don’t let paperwork pile up and don’t rely on your memory. Make notes immediately on each prospect while you’re at the show. When you’re seeing so many people in one day, names seem to melt together. Jot down pertinent information and at the end of every trade show day, check each new sales lead. Then separate those leads according to priority. Bring those leads to the office, so those involved in the follow-up process can get started right away.

After the show, continue to follow up. Have your sales people make calls on those prospects who have received your letter. If a sales person can’t get in to see these prospects, send some literature or your newsletter.

Make sure you fill literature requests within two weeks. If you promise a free home security survey, contact them immediately and set up an appointment if you haven’t already done so at the show. It doesn’t help if prospective buyers receive your material after they made a decision to have a security system installed. If that’s the case, I’m willing to bet it wasn’t from your company.

You may want to offer a discount on services or parts of the system in your letter as a thank you for stopping by to see your booth. Another successful option is a direct mailing several weeks after the show offering a significant discount. It will help keep your company’s name, products and services fresh in your prospect’s mind.

In marketing, all the tools at your disposal from sales letters to direct mail pieces work together to make the sale. Exhibiting, when used with your other marketing activities, provides unique opportunities and can open some previously closed doors.