Most small and middle market companies that exhibit at trade shows do a poor job of representing themselves. Many seem to think that showing up and perhaps renting a booth is all that is needed to make an impact. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Some shows are primarily to sell product and take orders. Others are for image, to demonstrate that you are a factor in the industry, and some accomplish both. Regardless of the purpose, you have a limited time to connect with the best customers, the best buyers, the best resources, and perhaps hundreds or even thousands of new leads, all in one place without having to make a zillion sales calls.

How do you take best advantage of these infrequent and expensive opportunities to show your stuff?

We asked one of the country’s top trade show consultants to give us his ground rules for managing a show booth. Randy McDonald, is founder and president of Magnum Marketing (415-435-5550), a Tiburon, California-based consulting firm that really knows how to do trade shows. Randy ran sales and marketing for a start-up company we had a very close association with many years ago. He created that company’s image from scratch and made it known across the US in a variety of ways, including smashing performances at trade shows coast-to-coast. Here is the first of a 2-part series outlining Randy’s (edited) checklist for successful trade show participation.

Booth Captain. Assign a booth captain with the authority to schedule attendance. If someone wants to take a break, they should have permission and an estimated time of return to ensure the booth is adequately staffed at all times.

Qualifying visitors. Try to recognize unqualified visitors early so that you can "disengage" and work with qualified prospects. Be polite but brief and move on.

Commitment. Focus on getting a commitment from the visitor. Whether your objective is to get an order or simply to get an appointment to provide a demo or close the sale, you don’t get what you don’t ask for.

Before you tear it down. Before the show ends, review the booth and make lists of things you didn’t’ like, what didn’t work, and what could have been better. Take photos if you need to, but don’t rely on your memory.

Review your lists. Act whenever you can to resolve items you noted in 10 above. If you can’t do it yet, file the idea so you don’t have to re-discover it later. If you didn’t include a closing room in your booth design, consider it every year until you can, particularly if your show is an order-taking event.

And more leads. Consider what you can do to follow up more effectively on leads, even if the follow up seems to be going OK. Consider ways to distribute leads more quickly during the show. Perhaps using carbonless forms and distributing leads before sales staff even leave the show. Or categorizing leads at the show by degree of interest to facilitate later follow up. Well, you get the idea.

Reward your best. Tabulate your booth staff’s performance against the original goals, and reward those who met or exceeded them. If no one did, reward those who did best and revisit how you set your goals for next time.

If you follow these suggestions, you are guaranteed to get significantly more benefit out of your trade show appearances. The keys are thoroughness and diligence. The reward is greater sales for your marketing dollar. You’ll wish every dollar you spent paid off so handsomely.