Trade Show Success from Both Sides of the Aisle

Trade shows are a great way to meet potential clients, size up the competition, and soak up industry trends.

And they can be beneficial whether you’re participating or attending, says Charles Malek, president of Wine Master Cellars. Wine Master Cellars, a Denver, Colo.-based company that specializes in wine storage, exhibits in four to seven shows yearly.

Malek recently represented his businesses at the 2009 International Builders’ Show in Las Vegas. Here, he shares his secrets for trade show success:

Measure your return. Because the weakened economy has put a dent in trade show attendance, “you get more serious people looking for new products,” Malek says. Because they track who stops by the booth, Malek can attribute every sale or prospect that came from a trade show. At the end of each year, he can confidently say the business spent $X on a trade show and got $X back.

Keep your exhibit simple. At the builders’ show, Wine Master Cellars had a 10-by-10 self-contained booth that displayed a variety of wine racks so potential clients could get a sense of the sizes and colors available. But they didn’t go overboard by showing every rack they produce—that’s what their catalog is for, Malek says. Other tips? Make your exhibit easy to navigate so that people feel like they can move about freely without getting trapped. And be sure to have enough people on hand to chat with attendees.

Show enthusiasm. Greet people who stop by your booth with a smile and ask, “Are you interested in hearing about our product?” Malek recommends. Also make eye contact, ask questions and listen actively to each person—just make sure to avoid being pushy or over-aggressive.

Practice your pitch. Your customers’ time is limited, so make your pitch short and to the point—let prospective clients know why they would be interested in your product and what they’ll gain from it. “If you can’t explain what your products are and what they do within 30 seconds, you’ll lose people,” Malek says.

Reconsider giveaways. It’s tempting to hand out a bunch of marketing materials, but “too much material becomes confusing and overwhelming,” Malek says. That’s why Wine Master Cellars only hands out catalogs if attendees ask for one. Instead, they track who checks out their booth and send everyone a catalog and letter a week after the show. A couple of weeks later, they follow up with a phone call.

For more information on trade shows, visit conventions.net. On this site, you can search a schedule of trade show by business category and state.

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