Focusing on Volume and Follow-Up at Expo West

We are just a few short days away from Expo West!

The excitement is palpable at this point and I can’t wait to see all of my good industry friends as we all descend across the street from the happiest place on earth.

I have done a few Expo West posts in the past and reshared the Expo West playbook I made last year, but I wanted to expand on two items this week.

The first is how to view the conversations you're having at Expo West and the second is your follow-up strategy post-show.

It can be very difficult for a brand to measure the ROI of Expo West. It’s an expensive endeavor and as a founder or sales leader inside of a company who is participating, you’re looking for signals that validate your participation in the event.

This makes it easy for us to inflate the conversations we are having at Expo into false signals or false commitments. I am extremely guilty of leaving tradeshows in the past feeling euphoric and like we just had the most productive 72 hours we could have possibly had, just for it to result in no new business.

Expo West is not an order-taking show and that buyer is most likely forgetting the conversation they had with you the moment they leave your booth. That positive conversation you think you had with a buyer, is a conversation that is replaying on repeat for them with hundreds if not thousands of brands in a 3-4 day period.

You can not expect them to remember you or your brand after the show, that is your responsibility.

I always see brands frantically working to have their booth filled with printed material, but in reality, most buyers are not coming back to your sell sheet or marketing material after the show, and it’s getting thrown out as they pack their bags and head home.

Instead, you want to prioritize signing up for the scanner to scan their badges and collecting business cards or writing down the emails for the buyers who come to your booth. If you have a conversation and they leave with just a sample and material in hand, you have lost that lead.

You also need to be mindful to not oversell at the show.

The buyer does not need a 5-minute pitch when they are just walking by, they don’t have the time for it.

This is different for scheduled meetings, but for the buyer who stumbles upon your booth, they don’t need the entire origin story of the brand.

“Hi! I am Cameron with Cameron’s Coconuts. We are an organic line of coconuts that just hit the market. I know you're probably having a busy show, please take a sample and it would be great if I could scan your badge and follow up with you next week once things calm down.”

That is all you need to be equipped with. Be mindful of their time, get them to try your product, and make them feel like you're going to follow up when they get back home. They need to understand that you are taking the lead in this newly formed relationship.

The three days that your booth is live are not for closing new business, it’s for prospecting. You are a volume shooter and the more shots you take the more possible points you will score. So be quick, get the contact information, and move to the next opportunity. You are just looking to acquire new contacts and make a good first impression.

I have outlined follow-up strategies in the past, but my ideal timeline is to follow up that Tuesday or Wednesday after the show.

One email is not enough, you want a robust 4-5 email sequence built out and you want to also be connecting with that contact via Linkedin.

The one thing I have never heard a buyer tell me is to leave them alone.

They might not respond right away, but many will respond after several attempts, and as long as your outreach is respectful and relevant to their category, they will be receptive.

Let’s do a quick recap on how you’re going to approach next week:

1) Have your quick pitch nailed down

2) Don’t oversell

3) Focus on volume and getting the contact information

4) Build out your follow-up email sequence

5) Keep following up

If you’re going to be at the show please let me know! It would be great to connect and I look forward to another great year in Anaheim.