How to cure the trade show woes

My trade show season just kicked off. I’ve made some serious adjustments to my focus this year, and our team’s as well. 

When you’re building a company, the looming question of “should I attend X trade show?” is one every founder ponders—and it’s a question that hits my inbox from time to time. 

It’s tough to give you a good answer without a discussion, but today I’m attempting to help you answer it, as well as sharing my method for owning a trade show when you do attend. 

This is my trade show playbook. 

“Should I attend?”

I dove into my first show for GoWild before I had even gone full time. It was a national show, but was one that just happened to be in my backyard. It was the largest archery show in the country, and was just 90 minutes up the interstate in Indianapolis. The expense was low, and I went on a weekend. 

That was an easy decision. It’s not an easy decision when it’s weighing a week in Las Vegas, a mecca for trade shows. Las Vegas is expensive at every turn for a startup—the flights, hotels and food add up quickly, all before you even get on the trade show floor. And of course, this doesn’t mention a week away from your startup, which is worth a month at a normal company because startups live in dog years. 

Before working into “should you attend,” I want to call out that you have to be particular in which shows you’re going to focus on. Our industry has shows all across the country, and I used to tell myself that I was doing “just fine” by attending some of the smaller shows and skipping the big one, SHOT Show. 

I was dead wrong. 

While intimate settings are good, you cannot replace the impact of attending the big shows. SHOT Show pulls 60K people from our industry into one casino for the week. Nearly all of the major players are there, and there is no other time when you can pack in so many quality meetings. For you, without knowing your industry, I recommend finding your version of this show, then asking yourself a few questions. 

To decide if you should attend, it comes down to two questions:

1. Can I win new customers at this show?

2. Are those customers better or in higher quantity than what I can do without going?

If the answer is yes to both, you should go, especially if you’re a new startup breaking onto the scene. There’s nuance in this equation, but this the meat of the question and answer.

Usually a trade show can exponentially increase your network, raise awareness and lay the foundation for closed deals later in the year. Sometimes it takes coming back for year two or even three to get those big accounts, but the fact is that face time is valuable. 

In a world of virtual meetings, don’t sleep on a chance to get face to face. I was on a panel once at a convention when an editor of a magazine said, “The real networking is done at the bar at 2 am.” This is also true—the beautiful thing about having so many industry giants in one place, is you never know who you’re going to meet when you’re out and about after the show. You have to be ready at any minute to give your pitch. 

Which brings us to the real problem of trade shows—over saturation. 

How to stay organized 

There is no greater waste of resources than spending a week in Vegas having conversations with thought leaders and decision makers, only to get back with three dozen business cards and not taking action on them. 

It sounds silly, but I can’t tell you how many people do exactly this. In fact, people who attend shows, work a booth and are in sales will do this. It’s borderline the norm. But I have a very simple process that puts you ahead of the status quo. My process is so obvious and simple, I wouldn’t have written a newsletter about it did I not know that people just don’t do this from my own conversations. 

Step 1 - Build out your profile

Identify the type of company or customer you’re going after, first and foremost. This is your North Star when building out your calendar.

Step 2 - Find companies who align with this profile

Dig through the companies exhibiting. Start messaging people who would be good meetings and might be attending (but not exhibiting) on LinkedIn. Shoot off your emails—and follow up when they don’t respond. This work needs to start two months prior, if not sooner. You can’t expect to just walk onto the floor and start tossing business cards like ninja stars. People will often be booked up. The work of landing the meeting is on the front end.

Step 3 - Block off follow up time before you even leave

Before you ever leave or step on a plane, block off an entire day for when you return to follow up with your new contacts. This comes full circle in a minute, but trust me—if you don’t do this, you’ll struggle to take any action because you’re going to come back and your team will have filled your calendar. 

Step 4 - Only meet with people who are in line with your objectives

Trade shows bring everyone from the industry together—this doesn’t mean you need to meet with all of them. You’ll be tempted to meet with people you casually know, or tell others you’ll “swing by the booth.” Don’t. Your time is precious, and you need to stay focused. If they aren’t in line with the profile you built in step 1, don’t setup the meeting. Anyone who isn’t the profile might fit a dinner or drinks, but even those slots are valuable meeting times at a trade show (they might be the best slots, really). 

Step 5 - Showtime—Create a Notes document on your phone

Create a Note on your phone for the show you’re attending. This is your source of truth—every meaningful conversation you have is going to get documented here. 

After you close meetings, write down the name of the person, their company and make sure you either get a card or write down their email. Then, you need two things. The first is capturing a few quick notes about if they’re a fit or not. Should you even follow up? The second is the action items discussed. This might include “send sales deck” or “setup meeting with sales rep and developer to discuss integration.” Often my action items note when to follow up, such as “they’ll be ready in Q3.” 

I can often be found standing in seemingly random booths taking furious notes on my phone.

Step 6 - Follow up time

When you return, you have your time block and you’re ready to start following up. Most people never do this, or they automate the process with generic swill.

But you? You’re going to stand out because you’re following up with a note that says something like “Hey John, it was great to meet with you last week. I know you won’t be ready to discuss partnership until Q3, but I just wanted to say I’m here if you have questions in the meantime. It was great to meet you.” Then you set a reminder to follow up at the end of Q2. 

This kind of dedication shows your potential customers that you are organized and they can trust you, because you did what you said you’d do. When you follow up again, they will think, “Wow, this guy/gal is good.”

That’s it. 

This simple process will put you leagues above how most people approach shows, and it will make sure you don’t blow a week of valuable progress without something to show for it.

As for me, I’m heading to Vegas soon for SHOT Show. We’ll be exhibiting with our partner, GunBroker.com and recording podcasts for our show, No Lowballers. I’m excited to be back in Vegas for my fourth SHOT Show. I actually bailed on the archery show this year. My team is going, but I am dedicating my focus to the big show. Vegas here I come.

Who I’m listening to: Del Barber

What I’m reading: Natural RivalsJohn Muir, Gifford Pinchot, and the Creation of America's Public Lands 

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