Trade Show Strategy - Who Cares?

The little guy cares. In the hundreds of trade shows that I’ve attended, here is my general sense: the budding entrepreneur who invests anywhere from $300 at a chamber event to $10,000 at a national convention is going to work his booth. He cares about converting leads to sales, and he acts like it. Usually he is excited to be there and welcoming attendees into his booth. He is engaging and follows up on all leads.

Conversely, the salespeople from big companies tend to view the process not as an opportunity, but rather “BOOTH DUTY”. They use that word all the time in phrases such as “Ohhh, I got BOOTH DUTY . . . hey Jay, when do we get out of here?” A trade show is more of a sentence to serve than it is a privilege to network.

Granted, there are many exceptions to this, but nevertheless the generalization holds true.

Just walk down the aisle at your next national show to see how many salespeople are sitting, have their arms crossed, talking amongst themselves, on their cells, eating, or looking like the alive dead. You’ll notice these signs of “poor booth behavior” are less prevalent at a home show, where entrepreneurs are trying to build their business. More.