We talk a lot about tradeshow etiquette on The Core, especially when it comes to representing your company well during show hours. But recent conversations with exhibiters and host organizations have elevated some new “Tradeshow Don’ts” that we thought would be great for every produce marketer to share with their company as an exhibitor, an attendee or a service provider! With United Fresh only 3 weeks away, it’s the ideal time to take note of these best practices and “do insteads”:
Exhibitors: Don’t Tear Down Your Booth Until the Show Ends.
We get it. Tradeshows are tiring. At the end of a long show day and often with a flight to catch, it’s hard to not want to move the tear down process along a little quicker. Try to resist dismantling your booth before the show closes out of respect to your booth neighbors as well as the customers who are interested in having a conversation with you. Remain a fully engaged exhibitor and represent your brand well right up to the last minute.
Do Instead: Host a fun happy hour or special giveaway in your booth during the last hour of the show. This approach will help you make the most out of this time and get the full attention of your customers during a time when they might not be as busy.
Attendees: Don’t Hoard Giveaways.
You’ve seen them. Show attendees with bulging bags of samples and tchotchkes making their way down each aisle searching for the next branded shopping tote or lip balm. Free giveaways are a fantastic attraction – especially when they provide some actual usefulness. But when you start roaming the aisles only in search of freebies, it doesn’t shine the best light on the company you represent.
Do Instead: If you see a giveaway or tchotchke that you have to have, have a quick conversation with the folks in the booth to introduce yourself or let them know you love and appreciate the giveaway. Try learning a little more about them and their products and you never know what kind of connection could blossom as a result.
Service Providers: Don’t Sell to Exhibitors in their Booth (unless invited).
Service providers have a unique challenge at industry tradeshows. Their customers are gathered together with the primary purpose to sell themselves vs be sold to, and have made a large investment to do so. It is important to keep that in mind and not invade their exhibit space uninvited and take them away from valuable sales opportunities with your elevator pitch, especially if they are already speaking with a customer.
Do Instead: Do your homework before the show and schedule a sit down meeting with the companies you’d like to talk to ahead of time so that they can come to your meeting undistracted and ready to talk business. If a sales conversation happens to unfold in an exhibitor’s booth space that they are driving, by all means continue! But it might make sense to see if they can sit down and talk in a meeting space so you can have a more in-depth conversation without distractions.
Do you have any other tradeshow “don’ts” and ideas for what to do instead that you think are worth sharing? We’d love to hear!
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