Starting Conversations With Your Show Attendees: Three Great Strategies
Your trade show booth exhibitors are not just set dressing; they are there to engage show attendees in productive conversations. Drumming up interest, establishing connections and representing your company in the best light possible are all typical goals for a trade show attendance, and only talking to people will accomplish them!
To meet your goals and ensure that booth visitors have a positive, memorable experience, here are three amazing strategies for striking up a conversation courtesy of a veteran trade show exhibition company:
Focus on Them, Not You
A lot of people on either side of a booth visit can feel uncomfortable when the conversation feels forced and sales-pitchy. How do you fix this? You obviously want to talk about your company and the solutions it offers, but you don’t want to come off too strong.
The trick? Let the attendee mostly talk about themselves. You will not only learn more about your market as a whole, but you can also let them feel more positive about the conversation. Psychology proves that we tend to feel really good about situations where we got to discuss our own lives, beliefs and work. You can play into this tendency, forge meaningful connections and actually demonstrate your relevance to the person’s life as long as you get them talking.
Examples of visitor-focused questions to ask include:
- Have you been enjoying the show so far? Anything stand out to you?
- What did you come to this show looking for?
- What is the biggest challenge or pain point your organization faces?
- Have you heard of our company before?
- Are you familiar with our field of expertise?
Be a Person, Not a Pitch Man
Another important pointer to remember is that the more you try to meet the attendee on their level, generally the more comfortable they feel.
You can start with the show itself. Ask the attendee if they happened to catch the presentation everyone’s talking about or the most outlandish and attention-grabbing stunt an exhibitor is pulling. If you can make a common connection discussing, “hey, wasn’t that cool?” then you have already created a friendly atmosphere with the attendee rather than making them feel backed into a corner.
Once again, give the visitor the opportunity to speak about their own experience and follow up with questions that indicate genuine interest. Avoid waiting for your turn to speak about your own experience; to them, that is less interesting and less important.
You can also discuss recent developments that affect your industry. These conversations can often allow you to smoothly lead into how your solutions address the changes or present a disruption from the norm. For example, a server security company (like SeedboxCo.net, for instance) can talk about the latest breach, ask if it affected the attendee, and then mention how their own solution can correct vulnerabilities that lead to the breach.
If you catch yourself talking about your own company or personal experiences too long, take a break and see if you can get the attendee to focus back on themselves again.
Consider Getting Help From a Trade Show Exhibition Company So You Can Focus on Starting Conversations
If you want your booth to truly represent your company in a professional light and maybe even be a conversation starter unto itself, you should look to the services of an experienced trade show booth company.
From trade show booth design, trade show exhibit rental, logistics, installation & dismantle, custom graphics and more, you can get the dazzle you need to make your company memorable and make your trade show presence more interesting. You can contact Xibit Solutions today to get the conversation rolling.
