It’s that time of the year again… tradeshow season is upon us. Tradeshow exhibiting is a great way to attract new factoring business, but it’s also time consuming and expensive.
Since relationship building is hard to quantify, sometimes it’s difficult to determine the value of attending industry shows or marketing events.
PRN Funding has attended many shows across various industries. Based on our experience, we have compiled a list of trade show do’s and don’ts to help make your next trade show exhibit a rewarding experience.
Do…
Research
Ask questions before considering any trade show. What’s the audience demographic? What types of companies will be exhibiting? How will the trade show contribute to business goals? Being “surprised” by a trade show is not exactly a positive thing when hard earned money is on the line. Even if you’ve been to a trade show before, always consider if it’s really creating value for your company.
Set Objectives
Before the event starts, it is helpful to set a “success” objective. It can be hard to determine if a show is worth the cost or not without setting some sort of predetermined goal. Whether it is a certain number of conversations, new social followers, or email addresses on a newsletter sign-up sheet—just make sure you are able to quantify what a successful exhibit looks like.
Show Off
The only time a handwritten sign is acceptable for a business is when that business is a lemonade stand. Although cutting costs through homemade posters seems like a good idea, having your exhibit look professional and polished is important. Chances are that most of your competitors will be there too, and you don’t want your booth looking like the last place winner at the middle school science fair.
Talk
If you plan to send employees to do the talking for you, make sure they can actually do some talking. Going to a trade show and not chatting with other attendees is a big waste of time—after all, why else are you there other than relationship building? Since most of the people attending factoring trade shows are business professionals, these are a great opportunity for brokers and factors to build strong networks. Remember, no worthwhile relationship was ever built without a little one-on-one interaction.
Remember
Striking up a conversations and exchanging business cards is great, until you look at all the cards you have gathered a week later and cannot remember a single detail about anyone. *Holds up a card* “Oh, Gary, that one broker with the…hair?” Help yourself out by jotting some notes about the person on the back of his or her business card—then you can look later and recall that Gary is the bald broker from Ohio who wants to talk possible deals.
Don’t…
Fishbowl
If you are just going to set out a fishbowl to collect business cards, why did you bother coming to a tradeshow? The names on the cards are connections you could have found through a simple Google or LinkedIn search. When collecting business cards, make sure your exhibitors know at least a few details about the name on the card. Again, this requires face-to-face talk time.
Wait
The few days following the tradeshow are the best time to get in touch with your new contacts. If those business cards sit in a folder or a bag for a few weeks or months, the time has passed and the lead has turned ice cold. Be proactive and follow-up soon after the show…you never know what might happen as a result.
Go “Just Because”
It’s easy to become trapped in a business routine. You buy supplies from a certain company because you just always have; you do things a certain way around the office because that’s just the way it is. If your reason for attending a certain tradeshow is “just because” you always have, it’s time to step back and reassess. Could that money be spent better otherwise? If nothing else, get an employee’s fresh perspective on the experience and go from there.
Sit Back and Relax
This piece of advice is along the same lines as the fishbowl. Creating conversations requires exhibitors to be proactive. Sitting back and only conversing with coworkers in the booth is no way to generate leads. Encourage booth representatives to be social and engage with all attendees.
Conclusion
If done correctly, tradeshows can be an excellent way to generate new business and talk to other exhibitors and attendees. Plus, they can be fun— you get the opportunity to travel to cool locations, bond with coworkers outside of the office, and talk to interesting people you might otherwise never meet. Networking with other brokers and factors is important in our industry, because a factoring deal should never go unfunded. Look for PRN Funding at the next factoring show you attend, and test us to see if we are following our own advice—we’d love to chat with you.
Philip Cohen is the founder and president of PRN Funding, LLC, which is an extraordinarily focused niche factor in the healthcare funding market place.
Visit the PRN Funding website at www.prnfunding.com for more factoring and brokering information.
Speak Your Mind