Trade shows are huge networking opportunities. It’s your chance to rub elbows with others in the industry, potential clients, and community influencers.
Brand professionals can rightfully gauge their success at a trade show by how many connections they make, and a few helpful tips can ensure these efforts are meaningful and productive.
Preparing For The Trade Show
Your success in trade show networking begins long before you even arrive at the venue, how you prepare for the trade show (or professional conference) matters.
While you’re packing for the trade show, consider what you’re bringing along to wear. Your trade show attire should be comfortable yet professional.
If your brand adheres to a dress code, represent this at your trade show. Outfits should be well-fitting, appropriate, and still represent your brand in some way. A suit with a branded pin on the lapel, a branded shirt with tailored pants, or representing your company colors is a great way to professionally communicate brand-related pride.
Identification is also incredibly important if you’re looking to network at a trade show. Make sure to have name tags and an outfit that allows you to display it prominently.
Next, make sure to jot down your talking points and practice the key elements you want to communicate.
Writing these down in a notebook or a note app and keeping them handy can be beneficial. In this way, you always have your talking points to practice, you can add to them as needed, and you’ll arrive at your trade show confident and prepared.
Also keep a detailed schedule to assist you with your time management. Spending too much time on one thing makes it hard to give enough time to another, and managing your time efficiently is key to maximizing your networking potential. It’s crucial to not just create a time schedule, but to stick to it.
Identifying Those You’d Like To Network With
At large industry-wide trade shows, you may need to prioritize your networking efforts with a targeted list. Your time networking at trade shows is limited, and you’ll need to make the most it.
Before attending the trade show, identify certain criteria that suggests a potential connection may be a good fit. There may be opening questions that reveal important details about a connection, or other characteristics that determine the value of a particular point of contact.
Keep your criteria and questions in mind, prepare them thoroughly, to ensure you’re investing your time networking at trade shows in the best possible way.
Plan Ahead for Meetings
If your plan includes setting meetings during the trade show, scheduling ahead of time is smart for your overall time management and connection strategy. It gives you the ability to set aside one-on-one quality time with big networking leads making sure you don’t miss out on important opportunities by failing to plan ahead.
Networking During Social Time
Your engagement doesn’t have to end after you leave trade show floor. Inviting connections to join you for dinner, or in a more relaxed environment, is one way build stronger connections, have impactful interactions, and leave lasting impressions. It takes your conversation to a more personal place, giving you ample opportunity to communicate your brand culture and voice.
📌TIP: Just because you’ll be interacting with your potential partners socially doesn’t mean the professionalism should end. Ensure success by keep conversations light, avoiding controversial topics (like politics) and avoiding alcohol to keep your mind clear.
VIP experiences are another option for outside of the trade show engagement. Your VIP experience could be at your booth in a special VIP lounge, an invitation to listen to an in-demand speaker, a set of hard-to-get tickets to a show or sports game, or a night out on the town hosted by your brand.
Regardless of how you wish to go about continuing your networking at trade shows with important connections off of the trade show floor, your strategy should always leave a lasting impression.
Follow Up After The Trade Show
Effective follow-up can make or break all the efforts you’ve put into networking at trade shows.
Immediately after the trade show, categorizing leads into hot, warm, and cold categories will give you a priority list when it comes to the most impactful follow-up. The hottest leads should be met with the swiftest, personalized, and most impactful follow-up gestures. Warm leads, who nurture interest and seem intrigued with connection, come next. The coldest leads should be below both of these on your follow-up priority list.
This doesn’t mean colder leads should be ignored, but these connections aren’t as important to invest your time in when compared to hot or warm connections.
Your most impactful channels for follow-up, in order, are:
- Phone
- Social media (like LinkedIn)
- Direct mail
Regardless of the channel you choose, all messages should be personalized, and they should directly reference conversations had while networking at the trade show. Taking notes during the show to keep these small details fresh and accurate is an excellent way to prepare for follow-up.
For your warmest connections, make sure follow-up communication occurs within 24 hours of the trade show, with other attempts to reach out taking place over the next couple of weeks. It’s important to show immediate interest, but it’s also important not to overwhelm them either.
Focus On Networking
Effective networking at trade shows takes time, energy, and a great deal of effort. While you’re actively working a trade show booth, dedicating enough time to networking can prove challenging.
Temporary trade show staffing can solve this issue with ease. Professionals can be tasked with working your booth and representing your brand, while you’re able to focus completely on making meaningful connections and growing meaningful leads.
To learn more about temporary staffing for your trade show booth, contact Expo Ease.
