Set Yourself Apart at Home Shows

RCS Influencer Charles Antis shares ideas for how to make your business stand out at trade shows. 

Editor’s note: Watch the video to see and hear what Charles and Aaron Antis have to say about their company’s trade show strategy. You can read the transcript below the video, but we recommend seeing it for yourself.    

Charles Antis: I am really excited this month to answer some questions for RoofersCoffeeShop®, because it's all about what's your trade show strategy for your business. And I have a lot of ideas, but I thought I should really check with my VP of Sales. And that's why I have my nephew, Aaron Antis, who is our VP of Sales and Production. And he's here to talk about what our trade show strategy is because he's the guy that's in charge of all of our sales. Aaron, tell me about trade show strategies here at Antis. 

Aaron Antis: Yeah, so one of the biggest things that we do is we really try to stand out, be different, get noticed, get attention in any way that we possibly can. The theme might be focused a certain way, but we really try to stand out in a different way. So one of those themes that we've had at trade show is Made in California. Rather than do something like a winery like everybody else was doing and have wine tasting at their booth, we went a different route and focused on what we're doing here in California to make a difference. And so we focused- 

Charles Antis: Wasn't that a Habitat build? 

Aaron Antis: Yep. That was the Habitat build. 

Charles Antis: That was the Habitat build. Yeah. 

Aaron Antis: We got everybody to ... all of these people to sign up. You can see all the names down here for all these people that signed up to come to a Habitat build. And that was because we were dressed as a house, dressed as a nail, dressed as a hammer, dressed as a roofer, just something that nobody else was going to be able to really copy. 

Charles Antis: That's awesome. So you said you dressed as a hammer and a nail. You Aaron, do you dress up at these events? Is that possible? 

Aaron Antis: Oh yeah. I always dress up at these events. I think that's the way I've gotten my start and got noticed myself and kind of creating my own personal brand was being a little bit daring, a little bit on the edge. Dressed up as an elf, super tight tights, went around for three weeks every year to all the management companies that we service. For like six years, I was on the front of our boat, yelling at people. And I still get callbacks for that, that people want me to dress as Aaron the Elf or they've heard about Aaron the Elf before they've heard about Aaron Antis, which is also great. 

Charles Antis: Yeah, you helped us get noticed in the HOA industry, which is who we sell to, but you also became a fixture at the Newport Beach light parade and you used to do this thing. You're up on a boat and you have these tights on and you had a megaphone and what'd you use to say? 

Aaron Antis: I'm sexy. 

Charles Antis: I don't know why that worked. 

Aaron Antis: My tights? 

Charles Antis: But we've kind of mixed that with donating Habitat roofs and I don't know it was a good mixture. We got noticed and we kind of do that at trade shows. What else do we do? 

Aaron Antis: Some of the things that we do as well is custom giveaways, really try to make it push the envelope. So as you'll recall, about a decade or so ago, we did a Roof God t-shirt and the theme Roof God was kind of pushing the envelope at that time. About one out of 10, one out of 20 would kind of get a little offended, but it got us attention. Again, it started the conversation. People went to bat for us on it, that it was a good idea and people remembered us which is huge. 

Charles Antis: That's a good point. We actually offended people early with that, but we had a marketing concept and advisors that was saying, "If you offend one out of 10, you'll get their attention so long as you're not out and actually hurting anyone." Wow. That was so Carl's Jr at the time for us, but I'm glad we did it. 

Aaron Antis: Yep. 

Charles Antis: What else you got, Aaron? 

Aaron Antis: I think the last thing that I would say is to try to memorialize the trade show, try to get photos of what you're doing. Get people into your booth, not to just give them something to walk away, get them into your booth, take a photo, give them a picture frame with that photo in it later. That's a reason to reach back out and touch base with them again. 

Charles Antis: Sounds like a selfie opportunity. 

Aaron Antis: Exactly. 

Charles Antis: We are the kings and queens of the selfie and Aaron, you are the king of the photo bomb. 

Aaron Antis: Thank you. 

Charles Antis: Do you know how to make your photo bomb sell? Can you make that work in a trade show? Have you photo bombed in trade shows? 

Aaron Antis: Oh yeah. All the time. Every time I can. 

Charles Antis: Photo bomb in your booth, dressed up as an elf in a trade show pushing good on Habitat builds, is that our secrets to success in trade shows? 

Aaron Antis: Me likey. 

Charles Antis: All right. Thanks, Aaron. 

Aaron Antis: All right. Thank you. 

Charles Antis: All right. See you next month. 

Charles Antis is the founder and CEO of Antis Roofing & Waterproofing. See his full bio here.