You’re at a trade show. How can you track progress without getting lost in the crowd?

It is very important to have clear goals & targets. We have to define clearly why are we exhibiting? Is it to show the products? To find new customers? To find new distributors? To introduce new products? Then it is also very important to have clear targets. With how many potential customer leads we would like to meet? As our time is bounded with how many company representatives we can achieve it? One important target is to have a clear expectations: What is the volume of trade we expect from this trade show and within what time we expect to achieve it?

I completely agree with Stacy's insights! We participate in trade shows worldwide, and beyond the basic conversations and booth preparations, we also collaborate with an intercultural expert. This expert helps us tailor our message to the nuances of each country since interacting with booth visitors in the UAE versus Australia requires different approaches. Additionally, we proactively prepare responses to potential challenging questions and have various scenarios and product demo materials ready based on the needs of the leads we encounter.

TRAIN YOUR SALES TEAM! You can create the best experience in the world, but if your people representing you on the show floor don't know what to do, you won't see results. Run them through the experience. Role play conversations. Spend time - ahead of time - practicing. Reinforce what they've learned with materials they can review on the plane. Have huddles before and after their shifts to troubleshoot and give feedback. You will find out who your rock stars are and how best to leverage them.

Go beyond the scanning badges. Incorporate interactive experiences throughout your booth to capture metrics - touch screen monitors, buttons, motion capture games, scanning tickets, collecting tokens, etc. These will help you track engagement in the areas of your booth experience.

My first advise would be to search if the trade show organizer is offering as a tech solution for finding the potential leads, for match-making, for scheduling meetings, for communicating with the leads? I strongly advise to pay the fee if it is demanded it worths. But be aware that any purchase will be not enough we need to know how to use it. So demand the training for it for all your staff. If there is no solution provided then again you can develop your solutions for setting your appointments, for communication pre-show, during the show and post-show.

If you want to stand out on the show floor, get your signage up high and invest in good lighting - better yet, digital LED signage with animations. Motion attracts attention!

Want to socialize your results? Put it in an infographic format. Create a template ahead of time so you can drop in the final results quickly after the show.