The Power of Referral at Trade Shows
Any salesman will tell you that the best sales prospect is a referral – more sales are made from referrals than any other source and in terms of the volume and quality of sale, referrals are the undisputed number one resource. At the same time, most sales people don’t ask for referrals and it is a case of, “If you don’t ask, you don’t get!”
At trade show events there are thousands of attendees wandering around the venue, and all of them are a potential goldmine of referrals for your business, and in terms of your specific trade show, for increasing visitor traffic to your booth.
Trade show promotional gifts, or giveaways, are typically poorly managed by exhibitors in that they are handed out freely, or left lying on a display for visitors to help themselves. Instead of just giving the free stuff away, try using gifts for rewarding visitor behavior, such as spreading the word about what is happening at your display or bringing colleagues and other guests to the display or a product presentation.
There are some general rules for you to follow when incentivizing attendees to go and promote your booth and trade show event presence:
