Debrief and Follow Up After Trade Shows

RCS Influencer Tammy Hall says that the key to a good trade show strategy is preparation. 

With all of us being isolated in our home offices or actual offices our normal sales calls have come to a screeching halt.  Trade shows basically stopped in 2020, but we are seeing both virtual and later in the year live trade shows come back.  At CFS we love trade shows, we are very specific on the types of shows that we participate in.  Trade shows give our sales staff an opportunity to interact with existing clients as well as meet potential customers.  It also gives us an opportunity to size up our competition and interact with our suppliers and other industry partners we associate with.  

Our strategy for trade shows is brand awareness and to showcase our quality workmanship as well as our customer service.  We incorporate both visual and touchy feely experiences in our booth.  We want our trade show guests to get a full understanding of who we are as a company and how our services will benefit them.  

The key to a good trade show strategy is preparation. Know who your audience is, bring the right team members, be professional and most important have fun.  When we get ready for a trade show our sales team meets and determines what the booth will look like, what collateral we will bring, what videos will be shown, what we use for give-a-ways and do we want to incorporate a game for some fun competition.   

After each show we have a debrief and assign the proper follow up to all leads and engagement.  Follow up after a show is a MUST, if you do not incorporate some type of follow up you have wasted the door opening created by the one-on-one interaction the show created.  I still have contacts from shows I did over a decade ago.  Trade shows are lots of preparation, long day(s) and lugging a bunch of stuff, but in the end, they are a great tool in your sales toolbox strategy. 

Tammy Hall is the Director of Marketing and Service for CFS Roofing Services LLC. See her full bio here.