Trade shows are a great place to find new business partners, interview with possible new vendors, and expand your customer base. While trade shows can be beneficial, they are also extremely expensive. To get the highest possible return on your trade show investment, you need to utilize the best professional networking tactics to make every trade show worth your time.
Rent A Suite
Instead of just getting a couple hotel rooms for you and your staff during the show, invest in a suite. As you make contacts with prospective vendors and clients, you can use your suite as a comfortable conference room for meetings. A hotel room is not very accommodating when it comes to meeting with business professionals, but a suite gives you all the room you need to stretch out.
Utilize A Business Card Reader
When most companies go to trade shows, they collect a pile of business cards and then try to attach a comment sheet to each card. The result is a mess that significantly lowers your ability to follow-up on the cards that you collect.
As you prepare for your next trade show, you need to invest in a business card reader that will capture all the information from each card and store each card as its own digital file. When you are done speaking to a prospect, you can make notes on their file using the card reader and make higher quality follow-up calls when the show is over.
Put Your Company Logo Everywhere
When you make those follow-up calls after the show, it is going to be difficult for your contacts to remember you among the thousands of other people they talked to. But if you include your logo everywhere you possibly can, then sometimes that will help spark your prospect’s memory.
Have huge banners made that show off your logo all around your booth, and have your logo printed on all the equipment cases you use to transport your booth and equipment. After seeing your logo constantly and associating it with your company, your contacts have a much better chance of remembering who you are.
In the corporate world, trade shows are still an effective way to collect information and make new contacts. When you are getting ready for your next trade show, be sure to take all the necessary steps to maximize your time at the show and bring back as many hot leads as possible.