connect with current customers in your trade show booth

We talk about the value of trade shows in bringing us face-to-face with potential customers, but one of the biggest opportunities created by trade show participation is to reinforce your relationships with your current customers.

After all, it's not every day that you get your customers to meet with you, in-person, in a branded environment of your own creation.

Invite your customers to your trade show booth and you'll create opportunities to increase loyalty, demonstrate your appreciation, up-sell, cross-sell and educate. It's definitely in your best interest since, according to the book Marketing Metrics by Paul W. Farris, it's 50% easier to sell to existing customers than it is to sell to new prospects.

Solutions are limited only by your imagination, but here are 8 tactics to get you started:

  1. Host a VIP lounge. Make existing customers feel appreciated by designating a special area in the booth that only they can access. Supply comfortable furniture, wifi, beverages, device charging and other amenities that will entice your customers to extend their visit to your exhibit.
  1. Provide concierge service. Nothing communicates customer service better than going out of your way to make a customer's life easier. Think: help with transportation and restaurant reservations. You might even offer to package and ship their literature back to their office for them.
  1. Create a custom greeting. RFID/NFC technology makes it easy to post your guests' names on an electronic welcome board, play their favorite music and temporarily transform the exhibit into their favorite color. (3D Exhibits did this at EXHIBITORLIVE 2015 and our guests LOVED it.                                                                                                                
custom customer NFC greeting trade show booth

  1. Schedule specific appointments ahead of time. If you know exactly when each customer is scheduled to visit, you can make sure to have the right team available to greet them and walk them through your exhibit.
  1. Deliver a custom presentation. You know which services each customer is currently buying and you also have a feeling for which additional services they are a good candidate for. Use this knowledge to prepare a custom presentation that demonstrates exactly how your newest technology will augment and enhance their business.
  1. Provide customized education. Every professional wants to have a jump on changes and emerging trends in their industry. Show your commitment to your customers' success by having one of your in-house experts, an industry expert—or even an outside resource, provide an in-exhibit mini-seminar on new legislation or disruptive influences in your industry.
  1. Give executive access. There is nothing more flattering to a customer than to have a C-level exec from a supplier company take time to ask them how things are going—and even ask for their suggestions on how to make future products and services even better. Use this to cement your relationships.
  1. Facilitate peer interaction. If your customers are interested in meeting others in their same position, leverage your show and exhibit to make this happen. You can make this as macro or micro in scale as you'd like—anything from an event for all customers in attendance to small roundtables where customers who you've hand-selected for compatibility share best practices and experiences.

How do you use your trade shows to connect with your customers?