ASD Market Week 2025 Trade Show Display Rentals

Avoid:

• Poor Planning: Trade show exhibits are marketing vehicles that must perform in an environment where everyone is competing against each other for attention. At a certain point, attendees get overwhelmed with information. The marketing message must be distilled to its most fundamental form and communicated in an easy-to-understand and absorb.
• Undertrained Staff: Booth staff must recognize the essential strategies required for trade show marketing and sales success. First and foremost, rather than focusing initial conversations on lengthy descriptions of what the company offers, sales staff should ask the prospective customer about their needs. That enables them to build a relationship that separates them from everyone else. After that, if there is a match, solutions are discussed for further post-show follow-up. Given the time constraints of trade shows, time and energy must be reserved for bona fide prospects that will benefit from the products or services the exhibitor offers. Not doing this results in lost opportunities with legitimate prospects.
• Neglecting Follow-Up: The biggest mistake an exhibitor can make is failure to follow up on sales leads from the show. Again, it’s essential that booth staff discover what specific customer needs their products or services address. Once that information has been reviewed after the show, time must be invested in outlining solutions available in a concise way. Once that information is organized, they have the foundation for a sale and, more than that, a relationship that benefits both parties equally. That brings the trade show marketing function full circle and establishes the basis for future, ongoing, repeat business.

The biggest obstacle to effective post-show follow-up is that once back in the office, sales staff are oriented toward catching up and returning to the core functions of their job. In that scenario, the investment by management in their trade show marketing budget is almost completely rendered useless, depending on customers’ initial contact; in a scenario where they came back to their office with evidence of visits to several booths that offered potential solutions.

Post-show follow-up is a challenge for both the exhibitor and the attendee. However, it is the exhibitor\’s responsibility to take the initiative and maximize ROI by leading in quality communications with prospects.