There are always differing business objectives to having your brand present at a tradeshow, to spawn new leads, show off new products and surge brand awareness. At the end of the day, walking away from the show with closed sales is golden ROI proof in your pocket.

Easier said than done though right? Turning tradeshow leads into on-site sales has never been an easy feat, so here’s a few tricks of the trade that can increase your chances to achieve on-the-spot tradeshow sales.

The elevator pitch

You’ve heard it before and you’ll hear it again, perfecting you’re elevator pitch is what makes you come across to prospects as the successful, competent company they want you to be. Breaking the ice with a stranger can be quite daunting so help yourself out by knowing what to say and how to say it. The aim of your elevator pitch is to make prospects want to know more about your company, what you’re selling and what makes you special. Getting this right should develop into a deeper conversation and therefore more opportunity to connect and secure the lead details and potentially close the tradeshow sale.

Fail to plan, plan to fail

In our busy day to day roles, forward planning for tradeshows is tough, but beware, there’s no room to be disorganised when exhibiting at a bustling event. Putting in the essential time beforehand to get your ‘ducks in a row’ really is the key to keeping calm, collected and focused on the day for getting those leads and swooping in for on-site sales. Configuring your team and there roles at the event beforehand (and sticking to them) will: • Avoid confusion and hesitation within the team • Demonstrate teamwork and the efficiency of your company • Give you more time and energy to do what you do best, presenting and showing-off your products to potential customers.

Everyone in your team will have strengths and weakness, it’s only natural. Forward planning your advantages will only result in success. Who will be attracting people into the booth? Who will be showcasing and demoing products? Having this decided will enable you to engage with visitors quickly. They say you have about 1 minute before visitors leave, make sure you catch them without being aggressive.

Stand out from the crowd

The competition at tradeshows is rife; competitors left, right and centre, the million dollar giveaway opposite obstructing leads from your booth. Before you can convert a lead into a sale, the first challenge is to get people to your booth. What’s the best way to grab their attention from all the other distractions around?

Booth Design In our experience using clean, modern, bright and colourful design, uniformed with your brand, works a treat to make attendees feel enticed and welcome into a booth space. Make sure there’s room for visitors to sit, with a comfortable space to draw up an in depth conversation about their business needs, they’ll be more inclined to make a purchase decision on the spot.

Engagement Make attendees want to come and see what’s going on. Professional videos, bright banners, music, brand or product themed games are all great ways to attract people over, giving you an opportunity to open conversation.

Zuant Tip: Consider having a ‘lucky number’ competition in your pre-event email that’s triggered when the lead is scanned at your booth.

Booth Promotions By giving a reason for delegates to come and speak to you. Product promotions should relate to your brand/product/campaign and be well advertised using banners, flyers etc. Everyone loves a useful giveaway, so try and ensure you choose items that people won’t throw away, competitions are also a great way to round up a crowd and get people flocking to get your attention.

Zuant Tip: Walk into the crowd at prize draw time to attract more people and get a visitor to press the Zuant Pick a Winner button, making the advice feel involved.

 

Team attitude

This plays a huge part in standing out from the crowd and welcoming attendees into your booth. Would you want to walk into a booth where the staff are sitting down, chatting and downing free coffee? Get yourselves excited about the event, the amazing products you have to offer, the hot new leads and on-site sales. With no-one in your booth, how will you turn those leads into sales?

Zuant Tip: Run Zuant Cloud Realtime Lead Performance Graphics on an apple TV screen to boost show worker achievement.