Everr heard this sentence: failure to plan is to plan to fail?

With shows, it's the same, and you, perhaps, know about it.

That's why this year, you prepared E.V.E.R.Y.T.H.I.N.G.
The stand, the team, the products displayed. You know you are at the right show, and on top of that in a decent spot.

But unfortunately, it's going to be...

Trade show groundhog day (again)

Day one: a new hope

You've been on your feet since eight in the morning. But something is off this year (again). People keep walking past. They glance, sometimes they slow down for half a second. But most continue. And the ones who stop, you wish they didn't. Definitely not the decision makers you came for...
Quick debriefing? Things will go better mañana, you tell yourself. The real people, the ones you seek, were probably just flying in today. They'll be here tomorrow... hopefully.

 

Day two: the return of traffic

There is indeed an increase in foot traffic, it's better, but not good enough. Not for the price you paid. You start wondering if the show organizer did his job right. Or maybe the market this year is bad, yeah probably that...

 

Day three: the boredom strikes back

Seems like most visitors have left, but your back pain hasn't. You lack sleep, and you are just counting down the hours to go home, which will take hours too, telling yourself the next show will be different.
But next year, my friend, will not be different. Not until you understand what is actually happening on that floor. So let me draw you a picture.

 

What the visitor actually sees on that floor

You are not the only one who prepared everything. There are two hundred other companies on that floor who also prepared everything.
So if this might feel like your presence at the show was clear for you.
For the visitors, it wasn't.

 

Two hundred decisions in three days

Put yourself in their shoes: Two hundred stands, that's two hundred teams, two hundred sets of banners and screens and roll-ups all fighting for the same attention at the same time.
That's overwhelming.
So if they didn't stop, that's normal.
They don't know you, why would they?

 

Why your team shuts down too

Now here's the part nobody talks about.
In this mess, your team shuts down too. They disengage. Because for them too, it's overwhelming. Thousands of visitors. Who's who? Pen collectors, retired veterans coming to see old colleagues, interns that got a badge or real decision maker? It's not written on their face...
So what could they do? Engage with everyone? Some tried. They stood at the edge of the booth and waited for a smile, a hello, something to start a conversation. But it never came.
Seems like people were like rats in a maze. And they felt resistance coming off the floor too, so they pulled back.
Plus, you're professionals, courteous, not pushy. This is not a souk in Marrakech or Istanbul, where you grab people by the arm, right? Right.
If they wanted to speak to you, they knew you were here, you suppose. And if they didn't know you, there was your banner, your demo screen, telling them who you are and what you do.
No, you did your job, it's the show who's faulty. But is it?

 

The vicious cycle and what is really behind it

Because, year after year, after year, after year, you keep pouring money into these shows, and come back with the same mixed feelings at your office "what's the point, but not going is not an option, what would people think if we were not there?".
And the vicious cycle will continue, until you understand how it works, and how to get out of it.

 

The Paradox of Choice

Here's what you've been up against, all these years.
In 2004 psychologist Barry Schwartz published The Paradox of Choice and showed that more options do not make people more likely to choose. They actually make people less likely to choose anything at all.
Oops, right?
So a visitor who is already overwhelmed by two hundred booths, and two hundred decisions to make: "should I stop here or not?", will not stop at an unfamiliar booth on the basis of a banner. They will default to what they already know. The exhibitors they have seen before. The brands that feel safe.
And what that means?
That you were invisible to them.
I know, that's unfair right? Especially after you spend hours and a big chunk of your budget for this booth design!
But that's not the worst.

 

The temptation to come back anyway

The bad news, is you'll be tempted to come again, thinking this time it will work.
But if you never take the time to understand why "IT" didn't work as expected in the past, why would it be different this time?
Unless you believe it was only "bad luck" and that this time the tide will change. But basing a strategy on luck is what gamblers do, don't you think?

 

Nobody taught you how this environment works

So let me help you: the trade show environment is working against everyone who does not know how to work inside it.

 

The reason no one knows about it

Show organizers, booth designers won't tell you about this, because they don't even know about it. it's not their problem. Their goal is to sell booths and booths space.

What you do with it is YOUR business.
So It's your role to teach your team how to handle shows. Don't expect them to know, because it's not their job, either. No one asks in an interview, even to salespeople, what's your performance on a trade show.
And that's normal, the people behind your counter spend their year in an office.
Best case scenario your sales spend their days outside the office, meeting clients. But one to one, never one with two hundred competitors around them. And that changes EVERYTHING.

 

Your team was never trained for this

Office life does not prepare you for a trade show floor, and sales life on the road neither.
No one taught your team how to read a stranger in two seconds, how to open a conversation with someone who has not decided to engage, how to make a visitor feel something in the first three seconds that makes them want to stop rather than walk on.
And if you don't know it either, then no wonder your shows don't yield the results you want.
That's why it felt like waiting all these years, waiting for the right visitors to come along, like some wait for redemption, or an eternal "after". But no one came, not enough of them at least. And the show ended. And your hopes, that this year it will be different, died too. Again.

If you are asking yourself how to actually get more visitors to stop at your booth, you can read here.

What the busiest booths do differently

No, it's not their budget and not their design

What if I told you there is something specific that the busiest booths do differently. And no, it's not their budget, nor their booth design. It's what their team does in the first seconds of a potential conversation that changes everything about how the floor responds to them.

You don't have to trust me, but you have to give it 15 minutes, before you bury the pain until next year.
Because I've documented all of it, including footage of the trade show floor.
Yes, that's the good news, you might be only 15 minutes away from changing your trade show game and stopping this trade show groundhog day, once and for all.