Hi guys. My name's Bernard Ablola, President of Think Strategy. We are a B2B sales and marketing firm located in Irvine, California. In my spare time I also sit on a nonprofit called the Holistic Life Foundation. We teach kids yoga and mindfulness in inner-city schools, specifically in Baltimore City.
I'm here interviewing the CEO and found of Exhibit Potential, Ross. How's it goin, Ross?
Good, thanks
Awesome. I'm glad to have you here.
Thank you.
Ross is a 12-year veteran of trade shows and exhibits. He is also a consultant and a strategic partner of bringing companies to exhibit halls and trade shows.
Why do companies fail at trade shows?
They fail because they don't know what they want to accomplish from a trade show. For example, when I start working with a client I ask them, "Well, what are your goals for the show?" Most of the time I hear crickets on the other line, because they don't know how to answer that question. So I rephrase it, like, What do you want to accomplish at this? Do you have something you're launching? Are you just there?" Because some shows you can take orders at. Like some of the fashion shows, like MAGIC, for example. It's an acronym for men's apparel. It's where all the buyers go for buying the clothes for their stores. It's twice a year. You go there, and they take orders. That's what they do, is they take orders to send out for after the show.
Then, there's other shows where you're not really trying to sell anything but you just want to maybe get people's information so that you can follow up with them afterwards. Maybe you're launching an app and you want people to use it, so you get them to download the app. So it's just about understanding why you're going to the show, what are you trying to accomplish, and then also finding that path. Because you only have a couple of seconds to spend with somebody. You don't have a couple of minutes. People want to do a presentation sometimes and they're like 7 to 10 minutes long. I'm like, "Well, you're not going to have 7 to 10 minutes of somebody's time."
Really, you just want to attract interest, knowing that you're going to follow up with them afterwards. You're not made to have a meeting with them at a trade show. You're made to just make the acquaintance, make the contact, let them know you're there. Then, you set up the appointments for afterwards.
So I think that's a [inaudible 00:02:15]. And not understanding the space that you have available is another thing. Like, if you have a 10x10 space you're not going to have five people working in a booth, or you're not going to put a table in the front. That's actually another point that's kind of interesting. People always want to have a counter in the front. When you put something like that up, that's like a wall. There's a theory to exhibitors wanting to stop at a booth or not. So if you have a booth that's open, people will be more inclined to stay. But if you put a big counter or something out front it's like a castle, like building a wall, like there's a moat around your ... Or if you have your graphic on the back wall, they're not going to see it, because you have this big counter there in the front.
So there's different psychological things about how you design a booth in the space. So people don't understand that and they try and do too much in one space.
Recently, I had a client who wanted somebody to be able to walk in to use a monitor and go to their website and spend a minute with that, which was fine, but she had a 10x10 booth. I was like, "You can't do this in a 10x10 booth, because you can't fit more than two people in there at a time." So she actually did go to a 10x20 booth and we were able to separate the monitors, and have a counter, and have her stuff there. It worked out much better. I mean, it cost more, but she got more out of the show because of it.
So it's just understanding stuff like that. And working with people like us is what helps you to know these things. How would you know all of this stuff? All I do is go to trade shows. All I do is see what people do right and do wrong. For over 10 years I've been seeing that. That's why I have that insight. I've made the mistakes myself.
Even things like putting a logo on too many times. People want to have their logo everywhere, but sometimes putting a logo around is just too much. You shouldn't have it on every square inch of your booth. It's like put it here and then maybe here and that's it. You don't need it in 15 different places. It looks kind of weird. People just don't think about that kind of stuff.
It's those simple tweaks, right? You mentioned you've invested some money, and we've invested some dollars in testing, and what works and what doesn't work. And sometimes it's expensive tests, because trade shows are pretty pricey.
Yeah. So it's a balance, really. It really is a balance for ... There's a lot of psychological aspects that go into planning a space.
Oh, I agree. I'm an introvert, so a lot of times quiet solitude or one-on-one conversations works very well. In a trade show, it's very overwhelming for me, where you have tons of people, a lot of action, a lot of movement. So I'm able to notice psychologically, as you mentioned, if the prospect of a client is an introvert or an extrovert. I just ... their nature. Maybe they're standing away from the booth and just kind of looking at the marketing material, versus someone who's extroverted where they're coming in, they're asking questions, they're talking.
Sure, they're engaging
They're engaging. So basically sending a message to both introverts and extroverts. Introverts may want to read something, so you have a large LCD screen with information. And catering to extroverts where you have people talking to them.
Absolutely. And, you know, how your staff operates too. It's good to have a procedure in place for how to work with the clients, or the potential people that walk in. These are things that should be established before you go to the show. Language could be a barrier sometimes for certain companies. I've worked with a lot of foreign companies, and they don't have people that speak English really well. I've hired translators before, presenters. Even for a small booth. Like, you go to the auto show and they have those people up on stage talking about the cars and all that kind of stuff. You can hire somebody like that in a much simpler format just to greet the people and have them do the presentations. Then, when they have somebody that's ready to talk more about it, then you can bring them in. A lot of companies fail at that, really. They take that for granted.
What is your process behind a successful trade show?
