Whether it’s due to low attendance or at the end of the day, sometimes despite your best efforts, attendee traffic screeches to a halt. No matter how slow your floor traffic becomes, there is no need to throw in the towel on the show. Here are some three tactics to get you through those times.
1. Talk to everyone.
When the floor is alive with foot traffic, you have to limit the time you spend with even the best leads in order to maximise your reach. When traffic slows down, you can’t be as choosy. Take the opportunity to reach out to every single person who passes by your booth. The quality of the traffic does not diminish during slow times, so it’s a great chance to raise awareness and have a little fun.
Ask your staff to think of great opening lines that capture the attention of attendees and convey useful information about your product. Turn this into a game to motivate your staff, asking your team to keep track of how many attendees they can reach out to each hour and reward the top performers with a small prize.
Even if the attendees aren’t across the line at the show, you never know. Eventually they may need what you offer, or know someone who will. The impression you make could make an impression that resonates after the show has ended.
2. Improve interaction effectiveness.
A slow show is a great opportunity to find areas that need improvement and work on them. Underperforming staff can practice interacting with attendees without feeling self conscious or pressured by crowds. Your team can work towards improving their results in many key areas without being pulled in many directions
A great area to focus your efforts on is the closing ratio of your introductory lines. Each staff member can use their favourite line for a designated time period and then count how many attendees responded positively by asking for staying for a demonstration, engaging in a conversation or asking for additional information.
Next, get together to discuss results and remind your team not to feel discouraged by a high number of of rejections. Accept your ratio, but then challenge your staff to improve it by moving forward. Continue this process of narrowing down your options until you are left with just one or two winning phrases.
3. Connect and compare.
Why not step away from your display and do some visiting of your own. Introduce yourself to other exhibitors, find out what they do and see if it relates to what you do. It is a great way to expand your industry knowledge and locate new business partners. At the very least, you will enhance your industry perspective, which will make you more valuable to your target audience.
Comparison is a great way to study best practices. As you move around the exhibition floor, study other displays. Ask yourself what they are doing that works, and what doesn't. Rotate your staff on a little reconnaissance too, send them on a hunt armed with their smart phones to discover the best, worst and most interesting display ideas. You can then discuss their findings in a meeting at the close of the show on your return. Don’t forget to include your own display and look at areas for improvement. You can take some notes and work towards implementing them before your next show.
You may not be able to magically transform a show event into your best show ever, but you can use these three techniques to maximise your time to increase your overall effectiveness at future events.