Ohio State University Extension Fact Sheet

School of Natural Resources

2021 Coffey Road, Columbus, Ohio 43210

Trade Show Marketing for the Wood Products Industry - How to Maximize Your Marketing Impact

F-53-02

Sara J. Gurney
Wood Products Marketing Specialist

Bob Romig
State Extension Specialist, Forest Industry

Booth display sponsored by Ohio Valley Regional Development Commission and Ohio Department of Agriculture at the Salon Industriel Du Bois Ouvre-Industrial Woodworking Show in St-Hyacinthe, Quebec 2000.

Introduction

Personal one-on-one contact is the ideal method to interact with and gather intelligence about other companies, as well as gain valuable inside information about customers, prospects, suppliers, and partners. Trade shows provide an invaluable opportunity to network and develop relationships with others in your industry and are an extremely cost-effective outlet to showcase your products and services. Shows put you in contact with large numbers of customers and potential clients, whether you participate as a prospector or an exhibitor.

Each year millions of people attend shows in the United States and around the world. One of the largest wood products trade shows is the International Woodworking Fair (IWF) held in Atlanta, Georgia, every other year. The show in 2000 had approximately 70,000 preregistered attendees, with 1,200 exhibiting companies. One machinery manufacturer committed $3 million in exhibit space and 3,000 sales personnel to assist customers. Participants range from the executive who is planning to build a turnkey-engineered wood plant to the homeowner hobbyist, with exhibitors who will want to spend time with either type of participant. Exhibitors make use of the entire Georgia Dome and the World Congress Center in downtown Atlanta. IWF is truly a global event for the wood products industry. When you walk the floor, you will hear languages representing European countries, Asia, Mexico, and South America.

Deciding on the Right Show

Before you commit to exhibiting at a show, it is a good idea to first visit at least one show in the same or similar industry. There are probably several worth visiting and a few worthy of a booth exhibit. Committing to a booth exhibit can be very time consuming and expensive. Therefore, it is important to pick shows appropriate for your business. Media kits are usually available from the show organizers to tell you about the size, target market, and typical exhibitors. Trade associations and industry web sites also provide valuable background information about different shows.

Trade shows provide an excellent opportunity to market your products and service, but they can also be expensive. Attending a trade show without advance preparation and planning is simply a waste of time and money. As part of your trade show planning, you will need to identify the right show(s) for your product or service, establish a budget, and decide if your company will attend the show as an attendee or exhibitor.

• What is my marketing strategy for the show?
• What are my objectives?
• What products/services do I have that are new or unique?
• What makes me different from my competitors?
• What is my budget?
• What deadlines are coming up? It is important to follow deadlines so that everything will come together in a timely fashion. For example, you might have to commit months ahead of time to have an advertisement printed in the show directory.
• Who will be staffing the booth? Your staff needs to be well trained and informed since they will be the ones selling and marketing the company at the show. Establish guidelines for your booth personnel on how they are to interact with visitors. They need to have a clear understanding of what is to be accomplished by the exhibit. They will also need to be prepared to gather leads, demonstrate or show products, handout literature, or sell products as well as convey a good impression about the company. It is a good idea to set up a schedule for your booth personal, so that they stay fresh and alert.
• How will I design my booth? Your name should be prominently featured on all communications, including your booth. Choose a few larger, clear pictures rather than a lot of small ones. Include statements about solutions, and how you can solve the needs of prospective customers. Your signage should be simple, direct, and eye-level, if possible.
• How can you make attendees remember you? What company literature will be used and how it will be used to market your company? Decide on useful giveaway items that will reflect your company’s products and image.
• What lasting impressions will your promotions leave with your prospective client? Don’t forget the importance of a smile and a handshake.
• Determine your pre-show marketing strategy.

• Press Release: Press releases are a cost-effective way to contact clients and prospects through your industry trade associations and press.
• Pre-Show Mailing: These mailings should be sent to the most promising prospective, preregistered attendees and your past and current customers.
• E-Mail Announcement: If possible link the e-mail to the show’s official web site. More than ever attendees are turning to the Internet to plan the exhibits they want to visit.
• Telephone Calls: These calls provide a one-on-one opportunity to invite your current customers, hot prospects, and even inactive customers to your booth to encourage increased traffic and potential sales at the show.

Booth display sponsored by Ohio State University and Ohio Department of Agriculture at the International Trade Show in Atlanta, Georgia 2000.

At the Show

While at the show, check out the competition’s booth displays. What sales strategies tend to be successful? What is eye-catching? Which exhibits encourage you to enter and engage sale personnel? Why? What makes them stand out from the crowd? How will your products meet the needs of the customer? Show how your products compare to the competition.

Advantages of Attending the Show as a Prospector

Attending the show as a prospector is a great way to learn about trade shows and how best to market at each show. Simply attending a trade show you are interested in is a relatively low- cost way of making potential contacts and gathering valuable information about competitors, suppliers, buyers, and the market in general. Ideally, you can prospect at shows where the exhibitors are your potential customers.

• Generate leads.
• Network.
• Scout out new suppliers and look for suitable partners you could split a booth with or share leads with at future shows.
• Obtain a copy of the last show’s attendance list, which is great for developing a targeted mailing list for future pre-show mailings.
• Attend presentations.
• Check out competition, read their materials, look at their displays.
• Gain more knowledge about prospective customer’s needs by talking to people, asking questions, and observing people’s behavior. What are they interested in? Who do they buy from? Why? When? At what price?
• Debrief with others during and after the show by comparing notes, which can greatly enhance the value of the information you have gathered as well as fill in any gaps in knowledge.

How to Work the Exhibit Floor

• Look for the badges of your targeted customers to get names and company information.
• Stay alert and talk with others.
• Be brief.
• Carry your business cards with you wherever you go.
• Write important notes on the back of cards immediately.
• Look professional.
• Don’t try to sell your products or services, just try to set up a future appointment.
• Establish needs, determine the potential client’s level of interest, and confirm a call back/appointment.

Advantages of Attending the Show as an Exhibitor

Being a booth exhibitor provides you an opportunity to reaffirm existing business relationships and to identify new customers and potential partners. While at the show, you can check out the competition and build awareness about your company. To maximize your impact, it is a good idea to obtain a copy of the last show’s attendance list and identify those companies you want to interact with at the show. A good way to reach these companies is through a pre-show mailing.

• Company and product information.
• Names of the people who will be at the booth.
• A map and floor diagram of your exhibit space, showing location and booth number.
• Attention-getting devices, so that prospects will remember your company and visit your booth. This could be something as simple as including a return mailer that has to be turned in to receive a giveaway item or to attend a special briefing.
• An opportunity to request your brochure or have a follow-up call, in case they miss you or are not attending.

At the show, the presentation of your booth is crucial for attracting potential customers. It is best to work out the details before you arrival, since setup can be a hectic time. This should be done at a pre-show meeting that should be used to identify your goals and objectives, set guidelines for interaction, develop company literature, and decide on giveaway items. Remember that anything you pass out will in the end reflect on you. If you give away a 10-cent pen that stops writing after a few days, then your company might also be perceived to lack quality. You are far better off spending a little more money on the right people than going the cheap route and hitting anyone and everyone. Remember it’s quality not quantity of contacts that matters. While at the show, plan to arrive early, work hard, and stay late. Be courteous and helpful to visitors, and be a good listener. You might think about treating big customers with extra attention, possibly by hosting a cocktail party.

Good Wood Inc., an Ohio manufacturer of wood turnings, dowels, flat stock work and finishing, meeting with a potential customer at the International Trade Show in Atlanta, Georgia 2000.

Guidelines for Working the Exhibit Booth

• Stand up the entire time.
• Assign booth coverage times and responsibilities.
• Pay attention to potential customers immediately.
• Cover your booth 100 percent of the time.
• Have lead sheets to gather information from qualified prospects; fill these out immediately.
• Reserve giveaways for qualified leads.

When Meeting a Prospective Customer

Introduce yourself with a firm handshake, briefly tell the person about your business, ask open-ended questions, and establish a dialog to determine if this prospect is going to be a quality lead. Provide the customer with your promotional material and arrange a time to get together, either during and/or after the show.

Post-Show Follow-Through

Trade shows are expensive, and most of the budget is spent on promoting, exhibiting, and traveling, often leaving very little for follow-through, and yet the show is intended to generate leads that will produce qualified prospects and eventually sales. Ironically, few sales are actually launched and closed on the show floor. It takes good planning and follow-through to establish the dialogue, relationship, and agreement needed to win a sale. At the show, develop a profile of your potential client. This way you can easily determine if this person will qualify as one of your targeted prospects. This profile (scanning badges, filling out lead forms, or collecting business cards and writing information on the back) will help you to capture the information needed to follow up and produce a valuable sales opportunity.

After the show, or at the end of each show day, send prospects informational kits about your company and follow up in a few days to make sure prospects got the material and to explore ways to meet their needs. As soon as you return from the show, send a follow-up letter to your entire pre-show mailing list. Then send your most promising leads a more detailed mailing about your company, its products and services, as well as following up with a few old-fashioned-telephone calls. Some type of follow-up letter or e-mail including links to your Web site should be sent to every lead generated from the event.

Post-show follow-through is an important step in the success of this and future events. It allows everyone to share what he or she heard and learned. It also helps to ensure that leads are followed up. Those leads and resulting sales are the real payoff and are a measure of an effective trade-show performance.