Trade shows can be a wonderful way to get your company, products and services in front of thousands of targeted prospects. People who attend trade shows often have large budgets and are looking for ways to spend their money. Done right, a successful trade show booth can bring you sizeable sales for weeks and months to come.

Unfortunately, that\’s not quite how it works for most companies. Out of several thousand attendees, less than 100 will stop by your booth and participate in your lead generation program (for example: drop their business card into your fish bowl.) Then, when your sales team follows up on those leads, few if any have any interest in completing the sale.

The good news is lead generation services can give you a big trade show boost, driving hot prospects to your booth and greatly increasing awareness of your participation.

Here are four top strategies used to give your trade show booth the big boost it deserves:

1. Get a list of people and companies who will be attending the trade show. Mail them a notice, email them, or — even better — phone them to let attendees know about your booth.

When you promote before the event, you get a much larger group of people who are actively LOOKING for you at the trade show.

2. Work to identify trade show participants who do not know you. This is a key time to tell attendees who you are and what you can do for them.

One top benefit trade shows bring is making your company visible to a large targeted audience. That\’s what any form of advertising tries to do, but trade shows can do it particularly well if used correctly. Your name and brand awareness can improve significantly.

3. Work to set up one-on-one appointments for your trade show booth. Prospects who are qualified before the trade show, then reminded about their appointment with you, will arrive ready to do business. Be sure to send prospects and email reminder a couple days before the trade show. This will greatly reduce no-shows. You get maximum benefit while saving time and hassles.

4. Follow up after the trade show. Phone, email, and set up meetings with leads. During trade shows participants are often in kind of a vacation frame of mind. They are attending to open their horizons and experience as many new ideas as possible. After the trade show is when many are ready to get down to business, concentrate on what you have to offer, and place their orders.

Follow up is where you can really make additional sales. This is when customers are most likely to seriously consider buying from you again and again over time.

I realize this sounds like promoting your trade show booth and completing your sales tasks will be a full time job for a whole team of people. Sales don\’t come easy in the current economy and only those who complete the process are awarded with months of big sales.

Fortunately there are B2B lead generation firms who can perform some or all of the steps I outlined. They can get the list of trade show attendees, work the list, promote your business, set up one-on-one appointments, and then do all the crucial follow-up after the trade show.

This works equally well for webinars, seminars, and other public events.

If you are a very small company or working alone, try using just one or two of the strategies I outlined. Promoting your business and booth before the trade show, then following up with your leads after are two strategies no business can afford to miss.

Author Bio: Chris Machut is president of TeleArk, a B2B lead generation service. His http://TradeShowBoost.com gives your booth the advance promotion and sales follow-up you need to bring you a big increase in sales. Email cary@teleark.com.

Category: Business
Keywords: trade shows,business promotion,b2b marketing,trade show booth,convention