Hi Everyone,

I'm wondering if anyone has put a booth in at a trade show. If so what was your success with it? How many leads did you get? Closings (contracts)? What were the drawbacks? What did you bring? What was the target market for the trade show? And finally would you do it again?

Thanks,

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Bette Creek
http://bettecreek.blogspot.com/
www.ashbusinessservices.com

Originally Posted by Bette C

Hi Everyone, I'm wondering if anyone has put a booth in at a trade show. If so what was your success with it? How many leads did you get? Closings (contracts)? What were the drawbacks? What did you bring? What was the target market for the trade show? And finally would you do it again? Thanks,

Bette,

I participated this past weekend in a trade show. It was my first, and I wasn't sure I could afford the cost, but I took a gamble. It was the annual regional meeting and trade show for a country-wide franchise.

I don't know the final outcome yet, but I received a list of 161 contacts, talked to 26 owners personally (3 of whom were vendors), and had what I consider 5-6 really promising contacts. If only one of these contacts become a retainer client, the show will have paid for itself.

I brought a display board I created telling them about our company, services, testimonials, etc. I had created a postcard geared to this particular franchise, but I still have 90% of them left. I also had full brochures (which went very quickly) and a brochure I made up about optimizing Outlook (which is a specialty of mine - they also went very quickly).

I brought a chocolate fountain to draw PCs, but could not set it up as there were no outlets in the area where we were staged. A lot of people had candy, pens, pads - giveaways like that. Just as many people came to my table as everyone else's though, so I don't think that's what drew them.

I think my decision would have been different, however, if I had know that only 75 owners were going to be there (I had been told 1400).

All in all, I think it went very well. It was a completely foreign concept to them, but I managed to see the "light bulb" go off a few times -

I would definitely do it again, but I would do more research to determine how many people were scheduled to attend, and weigh the cost against that.

Hope this helps,

Pat Z.

Hi Pat,

Thanks for the information. I'm still deciding on whether to be a participant or a guest. I'm not sure I want to dedicate a whole day and possibly have no leads and miss out on billable hours for the day.

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Bette Creek
http://bettecreek.blogspot.com/
www.ashbusinessservices.com

Pat, so interesting to hear about your experience at the trade show - good for you for giving it a shot!
Bette, I haven't networked at much less set up a booth for a trade show but it certainly sounds like a neat way to reach multiple prospects.
I would imagine you'd be the *only* VA at the event - at least for now....

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Actually this particular trade show there were two VA's there last year. I checked with them and they are not going to be there this year. I asked them for feedback and they gave mixed reviews.

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Bette Creek
http://bettecreek.blogspot.com/
www.ashbusinessservices.com

I am looking into a small trade show coming up on September. At least I have plenty of time to create a scrolling PowerPoint show and a presentation board together. I can do the handout materials through Vista in increments (to take advantage of the freebies).

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Lisa George
Remote Admin Services
Web:http://remoteadminservices.com
Blog:http://remoteadminservices.wordpress.com

I did our local Chamber of Commerce's trade show last year and no business came from it, but that doesn't mean it won't in the future. I probably won't waste the money next year.

I have also done mini-trade shows at a networking organization I belong to a couple of times and don't think I'd do those again.

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Julia

Thanks, you got my wheels spinning. I'm checking out a managerial trade show that I located, for 2009, something to add to my business plan.