Transcript
“When you’re at trade shows you can spend a lot of your time caught up in the event and just walking around. By the end of the show you’ve walked around the entire day and you haven’t met the company or the contact that you really wanted and you’re exhausted,” says Monica Ospina director of O Trade and Market Access.
“If you do meet that contact you won’t get taken seriously because you’re not bringing your ‘A’ game. You’re not fresh and you won’t have your big ideas ready to go.”
“We advise that trade show participants should have a must-visit list, a nice-to-visit list and a might-be-nice-to-visit list. It’s like when you go to a party and you’re looking for the perfect guy or the perfect lady. You want to be fresh and good looking and handsome and beautiful when you meet your ‘must-visit’ person. After that of course you’re free to dance with everybody else at the party but you know for sure to secure a dance nice and early with the company you want.”
“When meeting your must-visit company or person it’s very important to be an active listener. Active listening means you have questions in mind or even just asking for advice. All human beings enjoy giving advice. Use that to your advantage.”
“If you wanted to be a supplier to company ‘X’, ‘What would be the first step that you would recommend?’ is a good example of a question to ask. Let them share ideas with you. Not only are you getting advice but because of their unique internal knowledge of the company you could get some extra insight. You could find out who the best individuals to contact are, or how specific business gets done, and so on.”
“Also, don’t discard the possibility of following up. Most of the time we lose the opportunity of having a really good contact or friend within the industry because we are caught up in so many emails and things to do that we forgot to send an email. Even if it’s just to say thank you or to continue your conversation from earlier.”
“Experts recommend following up within two weeks of meeting someone. It will still be fresh and you still remember the individual. If you let it pass it will be more difficult for them to correlate that conversation or engagement they had with you during the tradeshow. Just make sure you mark the business cards you get with a check or a happy face that says ‘this is a must. This is a company that I must contact.’ What you’re going to find is that you’ll meet your goals and expectations for the tradeshow because you met the companies you wanted, you danced with the girl you wanted, you have her phone number and the next step is to invite her to go out for dinner.”
