I hope it goes well for you, Al. Home shows were a valuable, but exhausting, marketing tool for us. The biggest reason people have a hard time choosing your service over another company's is they cannot visualize what you offer. Ta-da! Having them in your booth in a trade show format is a heaven sent opportunity- IF you do it right. (sounds like you are.)
Here are a few ideas from a Special Report I did years ago on how to benefit from a home show opportunity:
1. Don’t do it on the cheap. Remember, this is your big chance to make a big impression on possibly thousands of prospects. How do you want to be remembered? (Assuming they remember you at all!) As a discouraged carpet cleaner slumped over in his chair staring off into space? Or a vigorous and successful company that loves making Cheerleaders out of it’s customers? (By the way, I banned chairs in our booth. People want to see action. So be sure to staff your space with enough employees. Bring in extra people and give each booth worker a 20 minute break every two hours. This is grueling work.)
2. Use a “hook”. Home show attendees are overwhelmed with sensory impressions and moving fast through the exhibits. You need to “hook them” long enough to at least think about focusing on your information. Hooks can include employees handing out discount coupons in the aisle, free give-aways (candy is always a favorite) or a drawing for merchandise or free carpet cleaning.
3. Put on a “show”. Once you have the attention of your prospect, you must now show them what you do. Help your customer develop a “picture” of what you will be doing in their home. (The biggest problem in marketing any service is the prospect usually can’t see it before hand.) You have a wonderful opportunity during a home show to demonstrate your services.
For example, we always rented outside spaces at home shows, set up a truck mount and advertised free rug and entrance mat cleaning. (One year we cleaned over 800 area rugs in a two day period.) This free rug cleaning not only endeared us to people but more importantly there were always 50 to 100 people clustered around our space watching us “resurrect” some of the filthiest examples of fiber textiles known to man!
If your home show doesn’t offer outside spaces set up a portable extractor and let kids spill an assortment of nasty substances on different upholstered cushions and then you clean them off. “Go on, son, dump that ketchup on there. Now spill the coffee cup! Mix it up good! Haven’t you always wanted to do that? Whoops, is this your mom? Sorry, ma’am. Son, don’t try this at home!” Lots of laughs all around … but a powerful show is being put on at the same time.
Don’t forget to have framed photos of your people, plant, equipment and before and after shots of cleaned areas. Keep a three-ring binder “brag book” available in the booth with copies of your certifications, complimentary customer letters and comment cards and of course more photos.
4. Give them something. The most common (and probably best) way to be remembered by the attendees is a coupon with some sort of savings attached. We handed out $10.00 off coupons that were sometimes redeemed five or ten years later. Did I care? Of course not. After all, that measly little $10.00 off coupon had kept me in the back of the homeowner’s mind for years!
5. Get their name and FOLLOW UP. Keep a clipboard for all the folks who want work done right away. Do NOT put off calling them. If you use the points above you will easily cover your initial trade show investment with these “immediate jobs”. To encourage longer range work offer a drawing for free carpet cleaning and include a box to check if they would like a “free home carpet cleaning inspection.” Many of these people will not follow through, but you must. Pay someone to call them at home in the evenings to schedule the cleaning inspection.
Anyway, let us know how it goes, Al. BTW, I'd appreciate any other trade show pointers from anyone on how to maximize your investment while you are there. Please share them on this thread.
Steve
PS If anyone wants the entire Special Report on Home shows just e-mail me at
stoburen@homefrontsuccess.com Include your mailing address if you want the free 30 minute companion DVD. No charge for eithr one but I would appreciate feedback/ suggestions for improvements.
This home show was not promoted and only a few vendors showed, the traffic slow and the crowd was not the home owner type. I stood up the whole time and tried my best to attract attention. People looked the other way, I tried to give away a free spotter a couple of times and they said "No Thanks". I sold one bottle and 2 people signed the drawing. I saw 2 couples that I clean for and they stopped and said hello.
