Trade Show- Color Tips

You want your trade show exhibit to make an impact and draw people into your space. Color is an important factor to consider when creating your trade show displays. It is essential that you choose colors that create the desired effect you are trying to achieve. Below are some things to keep in mind when deciding which colors will work best for your trade show exhibit.

Popular trendy colors give your exhibit a leading edge impression and draw in more visitors. On the other hand, they also go out of style quickly and can make your trade show displays seem dated. That is why it is important to design your exhibit so you can update colors easily without a lot of expense.

Besides the colors of your trade show exhibit you should also consider the colors worn by your staff who will be working on the trade show floor. Their clothes should coordinate with the rest of the exhibit. Another thing to consider is that solid color clothes will not distract or clash with your exhibit’s color theme.

Colors that complement each other include orange and blue, yellow and purple, and red and green and can make eye catching displays. Using several shades of the same color can give a harmonious and stable look to a trade show exhibit. Blues, greens and purples are considered cool colors and are soothing and calming colors. Reds, yellows and oranges are considered warm colors which are active and stimulating.

Color can be added to your trade show exhibit through lighting and by using flowers. One thing to keep in mind is light and pastel colors are difficult to keep clean. Since there is always a lot of traffic going through your exhibit during a show you might want to use them sparingly.

You should make sure you carefully select the color scheme for your trade show exhibit because it is a major factor in attracting visitors into your exhibit.

Trade Show- Buying Used Displays

If you are in the market for trade show displays and are on a tight budget you may want to consider purchasing used trade show displays. They can be a very smart and cost effective purchase. You can find many pre-owned exhibits and displays that have been well taken care of. Most displays are in excellent condition and you can get them for huge discounts compared to purchasing new displays.

The first thing to do is to decide what type of displays you are wanted to use for your trade show exhibit. You should make a list of the features you are looking for to fit your needs. When looking into purchasing used trade show displays you need to have an open mind and be flexible.

The next thing is to determine what your budget will be. You should have a firm estimate of what you are willing to spend and stick to it. Some sellers of used trade show displays are willing to bargain. You shouldn’t hesitate to offer less than the asking price. It is also very helpful if you know the actual retail price of the display so you can make a reasonable offer.

You need to do some research and find out what is available that would fit into your needs. You can search the Internet to find used displays and accessories. This way you will be able to see what types of trade show displays are available and what the current prices are. If you are informed you can then be able to search for quality used trade show displays at bargain prices.

Using used trade show displays are an economical way to be able to create an attractive display at a fraction of the cost of buying new displays. This is a smart move especially, if you are new to doing trade show exhibits or if you only attend a show or two a year. You can find some great deals out there if you shop around.

Trade Show Tips – Displays

When you are exhibiting at a trade show you have a very small window of opportunity to attract potential prospects. You have just a matter of seconds as a person passes by your display to catch their attention and draw them in. Before you can engage a person into conversation and see if they will be a qualified lead you have to get their attention. This is why your display design is so important.

Your exhibit display has to be designed to showcase your products, communicate your company’s message and entice your target audience to investigate further. An exhibit display that is attractive, uncluttered and incorporates motion and creative lighting will help you to stand out more than the other displays.

A person who is visiting a trade show is bombarded with noise, light and a variety of stimuli. To actually stand out at a show you should follow the adage, less is more. If your exhibit is not cluttered and clean looking visitors will see this as a welcome site among the surrounding chaos.

You should try to keep your booth tidy and organized. Keep literature and marketing materials in attractive displays or neatly in your exhibit area. It is also a good idea to have only active staff members in the booth. You should ask employees if they are not working not to linger at your exhibit so your space looks more open and inviting.

Your trade show booth should be attractive and appealing on several levels. If you can reach your target audience with sight and sound you will make a greater impact on them. You do this by having displays the have an impact and are lighted for effect. You can also have music to appeal to them and draw them into your area.

There are many things that can be done to make your trade show exhibit stand out from the rest. If you have a tidy and organized booth that has appealing displays visitors will be attracted to you exhibit.

Display Area Tips

Everyone knows that when you’re exhibiting at a trade show it is all about, location, location, location! Every trade show has spaces that are better located than others. Good locations for trade show booths include the spaces that are close to refreshment stands and ones located near entrances and exits.

There are several obvious things you can do to cut the cost of renting exhibit space, such as sharing space or opting for a smaller area. There are other things that you can do to maximize the impact your display has on visitors and allow you to save money at the same time.

Sometimes if you think outside the box, you can make more of an impact for less money. You might consider having several smaller booths that are strategically placed throughout the trade show floor instead of one large centrally located one. The trade show management might make a deal with you for several smaller spaces because they have a harder time renting out these spaces.

Keep in mind that it is the goal of the trade show management to book every space at every show. They are willing to negotiate with the exhibitors so the entire trade show floor is full of exhibits. You can sometimes make a deal or get a reduced rate for space that is not the traditional size or shape. You can use this to your advantage and design your exhibit to stand out from the rest and to have more of an impact on potential prospects.

If you have a flexible design layout for your exhibit you will be able to use this to your advantage. You will be able to set-up a dramatic trade show booth no matter what size the space is. You will be able to have an effect display plus save on the cost of the exhibit space.

Capitalize on Your Time

Making the most of the time you have at the event requires a proactive approach and a great deal of preparation – and excellent execution.

As soon as you are proceeding with attendance at an event you should be checking contacts against the exhibitor and attendee listings the event management ought to be providing – make sure you get these lists and the updates and check for your clients, prospects and classify those you are targeting.

At the show, make sure you are qualifying attendees from the get-go!

Dividing your attendees into A’s – those with a desire to do business, place an order or write a check – they get special treatment and your time; B’s – they may need a follow-up because they cannot make a commitment there and then and require you to convert them – follow-up professionally and be prompt, there is business in this group, and finally; C’s – maybe they are interested and maybe not; if you get the feeling they are going to be dropping your brochure in the trash 5 minutes after leaving the event, get rid of them!

How the event is staged will also affect how you use your time. Make use of down-time so you schedule meetings with those people you want to be talking to – use break-out sessions to your maximum advantage to make contacts with your targets that are more than simply an exchange of business cards – make these meetings well in advance of attending and that means getting on the telephone with your prospects before the show.

Use the 3-Day Rule when you are following up.

Most business is concluded after the event and not in the show arena – you must follow-up when you say you are going to and that means being prompt. Never leave prospects for more than 3 days after the show to contact them with whatever follow-up action is required. Attendees will have been contacted by other exhibitors and may have concluded the business or made a decision to place the order with your competition; very often, attendees make the buying decision and place the order with the first exhibitor who places the sales call.

Hybrid Trade Show Displays

When you have a restricted budget and restricted space you have to look at how much bang for your buck you can extract from the resources available.

Necessity is the Mother of Invention so exercise your mind and imagination because if you have a space of any dimension, a hybrid design will be able to use it to the best effect per dollar you spend.

Hybrid trade show displays provide great eye-catching displays because they utilize space in such a different way than what the eye is accustomed to. Curved panels forming a backdrop provide the illusion of greater depth; minimalism provides the feeling of space when in fact you are not occupying much of an area – even better, a hybrid display is easily the best option when you are using an odd shaped space!

The bulk of the cost of a trade show is in the rental of the space – the capital cost of the booth itself is actually spread out over time as you attend show after show and in fact is a minor part of the operating overhead. Using a hybrid display you can take advantage of the offcuts of trade show space – in fact, while most exhibitors are looking to avoid these misshapes you can actually monopolize them and drive down the cost of attending the trade show.

Hybrid displays are also very easy to assemble and disassemble and the designs usually are lightweight in construction. You will also be very surprised at the amount of space and shipping weight that these displays take up – most of these displays are in fact made up of empty space which is created by the design. I also find hybrid displays useful when we are looking to scale up or down – they are eminently flexible so we can add to them when we need “more” or take up the smallest booth space without detracting too much from our overall impact on the trade show floor.

Economic Road Blocks Causing Trade Show Cancellations

I keep picking up stories of trade shows being canceled because of the “current economic conditions” and frankly, while this is causing severe pain for everyone involved it is really something to be viewed as a set of incredible opportunities.

Weaker companies will always go to the wall and especially in trying economic times such as these but, for the savvy businessman recessions provide fantastic opportunities to seize more market share and emerge larger and more profitable when recovery starts.

Weak trade shows are shutting their doors which is making the decision for which ones you should be spending your budget on that much easier – only the good shows are surviving, the ones where business is done and the exhibitors are making sales. Carefully selecting those shows which provide a strong track record and a history of high business levels will ensure you get the best ROI from your investment attending them.

Before you commit to exhibiting at a trade show make sure the management have provided you with the demographics and statistics from their previous shows plus who has already signed up for attending the proposed venue and not just the exhibitors but the attendees as well. The big corporates have already been pulling out of so many shows this year but when you do see them, you can take this as a fairly good sign that the show is worthwhile but you also have to temper this with big companies hitting the road because if they don’t, it looks really bad for their reputation.

There is still a lot of business out there; you are just going to have work a little harder and smarter for it but blaming everything on the economy is a bad move!

As sales and marketing people, we must constantly question ourselves and the tactics we are using to bring home business and successful sales people are the ones who have moved on from blaming someone or something else to, “I did not make that sale – what did I do wrong and how will I make sure I don’t do it again next time!”

It’s not always the economy!

Trade Show Leads Strategy: Catch and Don’t Release!

I read somewhere last year a piece called “Where Good Leads Go To Die” or something along those lines (sorry I can’t attribute it but it left an impression on me).

I will say it once and I’ll say it every time – you must ensure you manage the contacts and leads you generate from your trade show activity; more business is lost as a consequence of sloppy follow up after the show than is generated during the event itself.

It goes beyond making simple follow up calls and visits too; you must put in place a good system to collect the prospect information and also impose a scoring or ranking system so you grade the quality of the prospect information you have gathered.

Customer A has met you at the show and but wants nothing from you though they tell you they have a project commencing within 6 months.

Customer B meets you at the show, has a project commencing in 18 months time and has downloaded your web based marketing collateral and asked for a meeting a week after the show.

What do you do?

A needs to be engaged as a priority because they have business taking place within 6 months – so they haven’t asked for any information – who cares! This is what your sales and pre-sales people are for and they need to be brought to bear on the account urgently.

B has business but not for 18 months though they are receptive to contact and being engaged. They will have a lower priority than A but you will need to keep that prospect alive until they are ready to commit to doing business with you. A lower priority should be assigned but they still must be contacted and engaged when you say you will or they are going to acquire a poor perception of you from the start.

You will come across Customer Do Nothing Wants Nothing – again, you must engage these prospects if you are to stand any chance of uncovering a need you can sell into, but it is practical and realistic to assign a low or general scoring to such prospects who will earn a sales call as part of your cycle of contacting prospects and trying to make a connection with them which will lead into something productive.

Fundamentally the strategy is to catch information but not to release the prospect unless they really are a waste of time – to find that out you will need to invest some of your own.

Wheelchair Access

I was meandering around PMA 2009 earlier this month while in Las Vegas and was surprised to run into a whole bunch of people in wheelchairs; I have several clients and contacts I have made over the years who use a wheelchair and it was only when confronted by 20 or so attendees at once that it really hit me what was going on.

I got on the phone with John Turnton who is a good friend of mine from way back when and as he says, “You see a wheelchair but I live in it.” Out of this conversation came some of the following advice for those of you who will inevitably meet up with those less physically able than us less disabled.

“I know I’m in a wheelchair stupid!”

John’s number one bugbear is people staring or stating the obvious – he’s in a wheelchair, he doesn’t need some schmuck being cute about it but there are also some other habits the less disabled have – talking loudly as if John has a problem with his ears instead of his nerves not working with his legs.

Don’t stare – don’t talk loudly – don’t ask stupid questions!

Wheelchair Access

Modern day wheelchairs are fast, small and mobile – someone in a wheelchair can get from A-to-B faster than someone on two legs so watch out for them!

So saying there are some things that are hard to navigate, stairs being one though they are not the barrier they used to be but still difficult while narrow confined spaces are not welcoming for someone in a wheelchair either.

Maintain Eye Contact

When you are with a wheelchair-bound prospect don’t hunker down or hang over them – pull up a chair and sit maintaining eye-level contact with them.
Another thing to bear in mind is that some people may have a guide with them, and this applies to others as well such as the vision impaired; now while you should acknowledge the guide as a courtesy it is impolite not to address the person with your questions or responses (it is a common mistake to direct all the questions and answers to the guide instead who in fact, are not the ones making the decision or have the money to buy).

“When your eye-level is maximum 3ft you won’t watch a demo at 4ft!”

Finally, one of John’s penetrating remarks, he isn’t going to check out a demo taking place a foot or more above his head – I’m 6 ft in my socks but I am not going to look at a demonstration that is taking place a foot higher than my eye-level so why should someone who’s eye-level is 3 ft above the deck look at yours if it situated too high?

Web Based Interactivity: The Chicago Auto Show

the Chicago Auto Show was launched on February 13th and runs to the 22nd but aside from the usual array of glittering automobiles complete with supermodel babes and more glitter than you can shake a stick at there is also something far more fundamental going on – the internet really is making its’ presence felt at this show.

The Chicago Auto Show is offering entry to the show for a mere $10 for a grown-up kid and $5 for a real one but they are also delivering the ability to gain access to the show via the internet. Video webcasting has been introduced along with a range of show webcams so you can get the show experience without having to freeze yourself in the Windy City.

Webcams and web based video technology gives exhibitors the ability to bring a TV studio and crew to cover their activities at the show and extend their reach to a worldwide audience who can enjoy the performance whenever they feel like it; in real-time as it happens or stored for future viewing when more convenient.

Using trade shows has always been about making business and customer connections using your physical presence and the power of face-to-face communication; now the internet is empowering exhibitors with the ability to really extend that reach beyond the trade show venue.

So far we have not tried our own webcasting technology at a live show but we already do provide product training and demonstrations through our web site and as part of our training and marketing strategies. The logistics do not seem difficult just how to manage the webcast so it is meaningful and receives the attention you want it to get.

It’s good to see the Chicago Auto Show taking a lead in this because it gives smaller operators a chance to learn from their experience and this is definitely the way the future of trade shows is going to go : virtual trade show displays.