3 Ways to Prepare for a Trade Show or Conference

That big trade show or conference is right around the corner, so how do you make sure you’re ready to meet all those prospects? If you don’t go in with an organized plan or train of thought, it’s easy to get caught up in the festivities & leave empty handed. This checklist will make sure you’re ready to knock it out of the park.

When planning for a conference, you can use these three ways to prepare for a trade show or conference to help you! 

1. Establish Measurable Objectives Beforehand

Depending on your reason for attending a conference, this can go several different ways. Ask yourself, what’s the minimum that would have to happen for the event to be considered a success?

Perhaps some of your trade show goals include:

• Collecting 100 email addresses from a sign-up sheet

• Scheduling “X” number of demos for your product or service

• Collecting a specific number of business cards to follow up or connect with after the trade show

Establishing these expectations prior will give you the opportunity to benchmark whether being in attendance provided any value to you and your organization.

2. Create a Wish List

In other words, which companies are you most looking forward to connecting with? Ask the organizers if a list of attendees can be provided. If not, take matters into your own hands. Some of our clients will have us reach out directly to specific companies & ask if they will be in attendance so we can introduce ourselves or organize meetings at the show.

3. Make a Cheat Sheet

One of our clients attends trade shows on a regular basis & one of the things I do to help prepare them is create a ‘cheat sheet’. Our campaign takes more of an Account Based Marketing approach, so we can establish where they’re at in the sales process and reach out to the prospect when it makes the most sense.

I’ll make a list of all companies in the geographical region of the trade show that we’ve previously contacted and provide as many details as possible. This way if they happen to cross paths, the client knows various points of conversation to make sure they hit on. If this isn’t an option, you can also visit the website for the companies on your wish list to determine what vendors they’re currently using & educate yourself on their business practices.

These three things will help make sure you’re confident & organized at your next conference or trade show.

Let us know if you need help preparing for a trade show or conference! We’re here to help your business.

Download our guide to improve your lead generation and appointment setting strategy!

Creating a pipeline of leads can be challenging and time consuming especially when you’re selling a product or service that requires an appointment for a one on one conversation or meeting.

While there’s no secret formula for generating leads that works across every business and industry, there are several tools that we have found make the odds of success higher and faster and we’d like to share them with you!