Trade Show Booths - How to Draw People in.

Size doesn't matter. 
Wether you have a small 10 foot linear booth with a black drape and a table, or a 20x30 island trade show space, you still need to catch peoples attention. How? There are several ways, from pre-show emails, and marketing strategies, to sponsoring a luncheon and handing out something that gets your target audience to go to your booth. Of course those methods involve some level of marketing sophistication and expense.


Good news! 
There is another method that is equally effective if done correctly and professionally – a looping video. Your product or service could be put to music with value-based captions!

What do you show? 
Not all products, services or companies lend themselves to creating an eye popping video to draw people into their booth. Then again, with an idea and some creative editing, almost any business has something visual that could draw potential customers to their booth. Take for example a machining company that manufactures parts for the aerospace industry and government contracts – sounds a little dry, but decision makers who are in that business are interested in the details and how things are made. A video can be played on a lap top, or on a rented 32 inch or larger monitor. The concept in this video was to not only show machines working to music, but communicate through the captions the value and uniqueness the company offers.

High and low costs for a video. 

You could spend thousands bringing in a production crewe with lighting, dollies, trollies and set up each shots with tripods and reflector screens. OR – To keep the costs way down, I shot this entire video using a Flip HD camera – all hand held, no extra lights or assistants (crisp high definition too). This video was created for Tampa Bay Machining – and all of these videos from one machine and department to the next were video taped in an hour and a half. Bam fast. It was completed by the next day with music soundtracks, (almost all of the sounds I added like closing doors, drilling and water squirting), plus captions and jump-cut editing to match the beat of the music. Yes, it could be more polished, they are a few wiggles here and there, but the cost is 1/5th of the normal video production company would charge – and it still gets the message across and draws people into the booth – and isn't that the main idea?


Again, size doesn't matter. 
The key to a successful video is not how big the production crewe is, but using someone who has a creative eye for movement, transitions, editing, and sound.

See it here:  TBM Trade Show Video Loop

(Turn your sound up, it makes the video more dramatic).

Identify Who You are Presenting to – Part 3 of 3 (people-persons).

The third type of listener I have identified are people-persons. People who fall into this category are relationship-based, make decisions and behave based upon the way something feels to them. They buy-into people first, and prefer creating relationships based on trust. You could also call them touchy-feely people. They can be loyal customers, and buy from you because of how they feel about you and your company.

People-persons assimilate information through their sense of touch.  And because of this, they rely on more on their physical senses. As an example, they are typically known to acquire a physical skill faster than the average person – observe if they fiddle with pens, paper and other objects as they talk. Do they intermix business with social discussions about family, and organizations they belong too?

Common phrases that you may hear from people-persons are like  “that person or company is all washed up”. They may also use phrases like, “I feel your frustration” or “that feels right”.

They also like to give analogies that relate to the way they feel about things that happen to them. As an example, instead of saying, “I was really mad”, they would say something like “my blood was boiling”.

The key to engaging this kind of prospect is to build a relationship. Give them things to touch and hold – like your product or even a part of something bigger which you sell that helps you communicate the quality and value of your product. Once you make a people-persons connection with them, it lowers their guard and makes them more receptive to your presentation.

One of the most effective ways to build a relationship with any type of person is by determining which way a person best listens and relates to you. Aside from understanding your message more clearly, they will also feel naturally connected to you as people generally feel bonded or connected to those that remind them of themselves or those with whom they have things in common with.

The next time you begin a conversation with a prospective customer, start paying attention to the way they communicate. You’ll begin to notice that people generally fall into the visual, auditory or people-persons categories. Then as you move along through your sales and relationship building processes, you will be better equipped to communicate with your future customers.

Now there will be times where people overlap some of the different listening and comprehension styles, but generally there is one dominant system that controls their outlook on life. If you need help tweaking your current sales presentation to appeal to the listening and comprehension styles of different prospects, click here to send me an inquiring email.