1. Determine your best prospects. If you must choose between people to converse with, choose the one who can benefit your effort the most.

2. When you eat in the dining area, choose a table where prospects are seated, not other vendors or colleagues.

3. Engage prospects in industry-related conversation.

4. Provide authoritative information.

5. When conversing with a prospect, concentrate on the benefits and values that your firm brings to the prospect, rather than "what you have." The prospect may not know how to convert your features into his or her benefits.

6. Avoid internal jargon that may be foreign to the prospect.

7. Use audio/visual tools to demonstrate benefits.

8. Talk about outcomes. Give examples of successes.

9. Offer a boxed gift of appreciation at the end of the conversation or presentation, rather than candy Kisses or ball point pens to all passers-by.

10. Look professional and interested.

11. Never, ever eat in the booth.

12. Recommend other exhibitors with interesting displays.

13. Respond with respect to any reference to competitors.

14. If asked questions you cannot answer, call the office right from the booth to get service immediately.

15. Have a computer monitor in the booth, connected to the Internet, so you can demonstrate the company website.

16. Introduce visitors to top level company officials on site.

17. Repeat the name of the visitor in conversation.

18. Listen attentively.

19. Respond to the needs of the visitor, rather than rushing into the selling points of the exhibitor.

20. Provide information, tips, checklists or techniques that are of value to the visitor.

21. Take the business card of the visitor and furnish your card to the visitor.

22. Debrief after the show to determine how and what to do better next time.

23. Determine the number of leads generated and rank them as hot, medium and cool. Determine time frames and methods of contacting each group.

24. Memorialize the number of leads you have. Use them as a benchmark against outcomes at the following show, the following year.

25. Use benchmarks to determine if this show is worth the cost of exhibiting.

26. Enter prospect names into a prospect database within a week of returning from the show.

27. Capture good ideas in writing about:
    • How to present your company
    • What audience you expected and what you got
    • Reasons why people talked to you (specific)
    • Reasons why people would not talk to you
    • What the audience expected
    • What exceeded their expectations
    • What fell short of their expectations
    • How would you have changed -
      • Literature
      • Your approach
      • The booth
      • Your location
28. Assign tasks to maximize future efforts. Have due dates for getting things done. Follow up.

29. Send follow-up letters between 2 and 6 weeks after the show.

30. Two months after the show, review hot, medium and cool leads. Note current status. I f there are no new customers from leads, discuss why. Repeat exercise two months later.

SIX MONTHS BEFORE THE NEXT SHOW. . .

Review hot, medium and cool leads again and consider current status. If there have been no positive results, reconsider whether this is a show where you should be exhibiting.

If you decide not to exhibit again - - -

Call the show sponsor and tell them of your decision and why. They may be able to do something to solve the problem. If nothing else, you will have acted professionally and they will have an early warning that there was a dissatisfied exhibitor.

Assuming you decide to exhibit again - - -

• Review debriefing and incorporate ideas into the next show.
• Review booth to make sure everything functions, has not faded or become obsolete.
• Assure that booth message portrays contemporary image of company and its services. Things change in a year.
• Review deadlines for renting and ordering.
• Write deadlines on your calendar - 10 days earlier than they really are.
• Review deadlines for program information, publicity opportunities, program listings, etc. Read material carefully to be sure you are taking advantage of all opportunities and meeting all deadlines.
• Make solid plans for the upcoming show that will increase your ROI beyond that of last year in terms of attention, good will, prospects and customers.
• Plan an exhibit that will generate excitement and get people talking.
• Get the full staff involved in discussions about how to present your firm.
• Have all materials, displays, etc. ready to roll, three months in advance, to avoid last minute expedited freight costs.
• Tie this show exhibit to the company mission statement.