5 Things To Avoid On The B2B Trade Show Exhibit Floor

Thousands of messages blaring across the exhibitor floor have become the bane of every company that pays for space at trade conferences. Spending dollar after dollar, year after year, all while leads are more and more difficult to capture, frustrate the best of your sales team. Are your sales teams operating with their hands tied behind their backs at your trade conferences? When walking the trade show exhibit floor, they observe so many people in booths still not using digital tools, techniques, and strategies to their advantage. Are you complicit in perpetuating this problem by not embracing the use of digital solutions?

We have seen many icons shift into the digital age we operate in today. Recognizable faces from Mark Zukerberg to James Bond, each of us individually, and teams are learning how to transcend our current day problems, with answers and solutions that fill our needs now. These questions are designed to help you uncover solutions that truly feed your sales team with better ways to connect with attendees at your trade shows and conferences.

When you produce better results, you pay your team better. When you pay your team better, they stop being so tense to provide for their families. When sales teams are relaxed, they come across as more genuine and authentic, which gives attendees solid reasons to trust their advice – which is the goal at trade shows/conferences in the first place. Let’s learn from these pains happening on trade show exhibit floors right now.

5 Things To Avoid On The B2B Trade Show Exhibit Floor

1. Hyper-Focusing on collecting leads – You come across “ME selfish” and no one wants to deal with that…when connecting with attendees, building trust allows them to become customers or brand advocates. The result from effectively connecting with attendees is lead generation.
2. Capturing their attention at all costs – Do you really want to be seen as a disruption instead of as a solution? Ask where their eyes are focused now – they are digitally connected. Are you using digital means to connect with attendees in ways they see as valuable?
3. Feeding your exhibitor team junk food – Feed your teams conversation leads from social channels, and they will be more effective at your trade conferences. Do you have a social conversationist feeding your team tweets, posts and pictures to connect them personally with conference attendees?
4. Being a lone wolf and only focusing on your company – Give referrals to partners and other companies on the exhibit floor. Being seen as a generous go-giver in the business community builds social currency, trust and karma.
5. Instead of focusing on answers, just selling your widget/service – When you are so product and company focused, it turns people off, and they will look for the solution you deliver from another vendor. People are frazzled, and if you add to the feeling, you will force them to seek out your competitors.

For better results, sometimes it is necessary to stop trying to create that perfect trade show system. Realize it is better behavior that will drive the results you want. When was the last time you adapted your actions to align with what people’s behaviors show they expect today? Are you still trying to get stellar results using actions crafted from 5-10-15 years ago? Are your strategies being used on the trade show exhibit floor dated?

How can you deliver better results that hit your business objectives?

Here are better questions delivering better answers:
Have you found the old behaviors used at trade shows are getting you lackluster results?
What behaviors are you able to tap into with the current actions you are taking now?
What new tools have you incorporated into your exhibit floor strategies?
If you are hearing “It can’t be done” or “we tried that, and it failed” – Have you brought in a fresh team or a specialist who has gotten better results?

There are solutions that can get better results for the B2B exhibitor floor. Creating mashup solutions are generating better results in business. Here is a new mashup thinking for you –

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to bring in a new James Bond that delivers today’s results for today’s challenges. Make sure you do not self-destruct in 30 seconds, and upgrade your B2B trade conference strategies. (I will take both Ethan Hunt and James Bond on my team – You?)

Image Credits: [Exhibit Resources] [Might Club]