Marshall Yard:

#1 Know your Audience:  If all trade show attendees were buyers, acquiring new business would be like shooting fish in a bucket. But we know this is hardly the case. This doesn’t mean, though, that you should throw in the towel. Offer giveaways only to attendees who will return your investment: potential clients who make an appointment to meet with you to discuss your product or service.

#2 Don’t just giveaway anything: Your secondary objective with giveaways should be to drive traffic into your space. Your PRIMARY objective should be to strengthen customer loyalty and promote your product or service. Essentially, steer clear of distributing any cheapo knick-knack, regardless of how it relates to your business: if you’re an electronics manufacturer, don’t give away rubber balls…try flash drives. If you’re a publisher, don’t bake cookies…give ‘em pens.

#3 Where are the giveaways?: If you’re able to solely target prospective clients with your giveaways, super! If you’re not (say, your exhibit environment wasn’t design to accommodate meetings), strategically position the giveaways somewhere in your space that doens’t lure passersby. Give them to each salesperson or keep them in an interior, yet easily accessable, cabinet.

#4 Price isn’t the only factor: A dollar per item, for instance, can buy a heck of a lot more than you might think…So USE it! That’s what budgets are for. Sacrificing quality for cost is the kiss of death in any business dealing. Remember to offer your giveaways to the right people for a near guaranteed ROI.

RSNA wrapped up this week - Surely you know, since we referenced it here, here and here. The horse is dead, I know.

Siemens‘ booth, sized 110′x220′, was located in the south hall. At McCormick Place, the South Hall is the absolute least-trafficked and smallest hall. Even though we were all excited about the design, you never know how a show will go until it’s all said and done. The verdict is in!

For the first three days of the show, leads were well above 2007 numbers! Spend less, get more. I like the sound of that. They did, too. Happy clients are good clients.

Ok - Enough of this rubbish. It feels very “propogandish.” I forwarded the professional photos to a friend of mine who is in the medical field. I had gushed to her about the Siemens booth over the past few months.

Her reply:

>>WOW! that IS huge!!!
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>>p.s. That’s what she said.

Thank you Brad Trnasvsky of Sales Management 2.0 for hosting this weeks carnival

Several of the pieces that were included I have to strongly agree with.   Jim Logan of Accelerate Business Group, LLC   discusses Customer Loyalty.

With the following statement:

 ”I believe the foundation of customer loyalty is trust, predictability, and dependable quality”

Adding to those, I believe with innovation, efficicency, growth & quality, customer loyalty can become the solid foundation of any business plan. 

If you are planning on a business venture there is some smart advice about the marketing scheme of your business name that can be found over at Yes to Me.  I enjoyed this article because of the fact that we are in an “instant” society, with everything right in front of us for quick action. 

This made alot of sense in planning and strategy for marketing.  The best laid out plans seem to have the largest impact when it comes to exhibiting, we feel the time line for a successful exhibit as well should be well thought out so this article struck a cord with me. 

I have to agree with the post from Changeologists as well, being ready and being prepared for change.  That falls into my growth part of a business plan, if you have ever been in a company that is stagnent, you will agree with this article as well.  Change is inevitable, the only constant in life.  Being able to hurdle over several of the obstacles to expand, is a business challenge, and does need to have attention to detail. 

There was a time when exhibits were designed to “look cool” and any product or message would be pasted on it.  The process started with “style.” Customers picked a style they liked and then made it work somehow.  We believe that good exhibit design ought to begin with some sort of strategy. 

What is it that your clients want to do or say? An exhibit design should strat with a very solid understnading of the event-specific mission.  Take the steps further, break it down into elements, priority, “grammar” and style..in that order.

In the simplest terms, the process goes like this.  Look at the space, for every particular show.  What is the space? In-Line or Island? How big is it? Where is it? Determine Approach Type - Do you want the exhibit to be:

Marketing Type-being all about the product or brand ID?

Architectural Type-all about the structure?

Experience Type - all about what happens in the structure?

After making these educated decisions, then you can go onto the design phase.

By: Sue Kleiner

Satisfied customers as well as a quality product - is the bottom line to any business, when you are researching exhibiting at trade shows, you should be partnering with an exhibit house that handles every aspect of the production of your exhibit- from conception, to the return of the exhibit properties for storage until your next trade show. Product market strategy is an essential part of the entire exhibiting experience.

You do not get a second chance to make a first impression. It only takes that few seconds get the attention of a potential client as they walk past the parade of exhibits on the trade show floor. You want your exhibit to be a visual display of what your company is all about and bring attention to your services and products.

Trade Shows have become a highly competitive market place and the exhibit experience is all about the “wow factor”. Giving an exhibit curb appeal is one of the ways to get your company noticed. With striking graphics, you increase the chance of drawing in visitors to your booth. This is where the “wow factor” comes in. These trade show attendees will saunter by many, many exhibits; you want them to walk past those and enter your exhibit.

Designing exhibits can be thought of as a partnership of objects – combining the key elements within your exhibit space, making sure the striking graphics are properly lit and in a position where they will draw the most attention. It’s about making sure that the lighting is positioned so as to enhance products or services and making sure that the podium or counter of choice is aligned for the best possible traffic flow.

The fluidity of your trade show exhibit space should make it easy for attendees to browse through the new product launches or the improved products display. Whether you are using podiums or counters in your exhibit, they should form a marriage with all the other furniture within your booth space. Do not plan on giving them too much to focus on - this is actually ocular chaos for most people and it can the end of the conversation, but if the exhibit has a pleasant visual display the potential client will feel more comfortable’ entering and staying longer.

Keep conversation simple and informative once you have a potential client in front of you give them reasons why it would best serve them to do business with you. Explain to them about any new product launch and make sure you have a success story to back this up.