Top 10 Biggest Trade Show Mistakes

#10 Cluttered and Dirty trade show exhibit. You’ve all seen the booth that’s filled with empty food containers, empty bottles, notebooks, give aways from other booths, and other miscellaneous junk. Usually these same booths have staff that’s busy talking to each other, emailing, and text messaging. It basically says to the audience “I’m not professional, very busy, and not focused on you”.

#9 No pre-show marketing. The best evidence of this is usually a booth with little traffic and no buzz. Great booth traffic doesn’t happen by chance (at least not usually), so be sure to take advantage of all the great pre-show marketing opportunities listed in my previous blog post.

#8 No post-show marketing. This is probably one of the most common mistakes that exhibitors make since they’re generally exhausted and behind on their “regular job” by the time they get back to the office. But, this is a huge mistake which is usually to forget to tag the bases after you’ve hit a home run. The fact is that the faster you get back to your prospects the more likely you are to close a sale. If possible, try to send out emails each night to at least the more qualified prospects you’ve met, and follow up within a week to schedule a meeting to answer follow-on questions.

#7 Untrained personnel. One step better than having no staff, or unfriendly staff, is a set of staff people who know nothing about the company or product you’re interested in discussing. This raises questions in your customer/prospect’s mind about the company’s dedication to the product or service and whether they’ll be able to get support when they need it.

#6 Going to the wrong show. The definition of “the wrong show” can vary widely, but basically it’s a show that doesn’t match the company’s target markethas very few qualified buyers (i.e. lots of consultants, job seekers, and other people trying to sell to you rather than vice versa)has a high cost per qualified prospect (i.e. the total exhibition cost including booth space, booth services, shipping, travel, other overhead, is very high and the turnout of qualified prospects is very low).

#5 Missing a critical trade show. As someone once said, the first step to accomplishing anything in life is to “just show up”. If you aren’t at the show, and your competitors are there, you’re missing out on customer meetings and new prospect demos, and, most importantly, the chance to build relationships.

#4 Really bad body language. Some booth staffers almost shout “leave me alone!” with their body language. Here are a few of my favorites:everyone is standing around talking to each other with their backs to you so you feel like it’s rude to ask a question. Usually these are the really big booths with lots of people “working” and no customers there (I wonder why?)everyone is standing like security guards with arms folded and mad looks on their facesThe one guy in the booth is working away on his email (or web surfing) with his back to you.

#3 No booth personnel. I’m always amazed that companies let this happen. It basically says that you aren’t capable of managing your company well enough to properly staff your booth. And if you can’t staff a trade show booth are you really ready to handle my business?? You never know when that one “big fish” is going to stop by and you better be there when she does!

#2 Really lousy trade show display. I’m sure you’ve all seen the company with a desk, chair, and a cheap looking sign that has the company name, and, maybe, some low resolution photo that’s been blow up way above the 4×6 inches that it was shot at. This just screams out to the audience that “I’m a one man show, don’t have any resources, and probably won’t do a better job with your project than I did with my booth display”.

#1 No exhibit booth. I’m sure you’ve all seen it as well. The totally empty 10×10 display space with the black drape in back and a small black and white with the poor company’s name on it. This, of course, is much worse than not being at the show. It basically says that you’ve gone out of business. My advice – buy your display from a company that’s been around for awhile and has good references, give yourself plenty of time, and use a reputable shipping company.