Attending a trade show, or almost any live event, can be quite expensive with many companies wondering if it was even worth it to send someone. As the person being sent to represent the company, you have to prove to the rest of your company that it truly is worth the amount of money. While you may have various reasons for attending a trade show, your ultimate goal should be to land a sales deal, which will immediately backup the decision to go the show.

Even for people who have spent countless years in sales, on-site selling can be a challenge that many fail to overcome. To get you ready for your next trade show, we’ve prepared six tips that you can use to help increase the chances that you’ll make a successful sales deal.

Content, Content, Content

At any given event there is always plenty of commotion. Every company there wants the spotlight, and many will spend thousands of dollars to achieve that. But in reality, you only have about 10 seconds to capture the attention of people passing by before they become uninterested in what you’re selling. When planning for the event, keep that in mind, and try to figure out what you can do to grab the attention of passersby. After all, the goal is to sell on site.

Making sure content leads to a sale is your next step. Once the content you used to initially draw people in — whether it be a video, unique signage, etc. — grabs the attention of your prospects, you need to be able to use that content as a segue into what your product or service does and how it can help them. This will also give you an excuse to provide other content that can pertain closely to the individual prospect’s industry/needs/problems. Bring content such as case studies, testimonials, product content, pricing information, etc. that will help show how your company and its resources will help the people you’re trying to sell to.

Reserve Your Own Room

Anyone who has been to a trade show understands how difficult it can be to not only try to sell something but even just to talk – it is a noisy place. You may be able to rattle off to a potential customer exactly why they should buy your product, but to be able to answer questions thoroughly, limit distractions, and draw up contracts, you’ll need a quiet space and some privacy. In addition to your booth area, you should reserve a room that is near the trade show floor/event to answer any remaining questions, talk about prices, and ultimately close deals. This will give you a chance to talk one-on-one with the people who are really interested in your product or service and give them the attention they need for you to close deals.

30-Second Elevator Pitch

The hustle and bustle of trade shows only really give you about 30 seconds if you’re lucky to try and convince a person about your product or service. Nailing down a concise and deliberate sales pitch that can be said within 30 seconds is critical to securing more potential clients. An effective 30-second elevator pitch will intrigue the attendee enough to continue the conversation right then and there, in the room you’ve reserved, or through email.

Know Your Competition

Knowing which companies are sending representatives to the event ahead of time can be very valuable. If the event has a public-facing RSVP page such as Eventbrite or Meetup, refer to that, or ask if the host of the event is willing to give you a list. If you’re able to get the names of who will be attending, then do something creative with that information. If you’re a B2B company that sells to various industries and you see that there is one industry dominating the attendee list, come up with something that will specifically capture the attention of people in that industry. If the event is more intimate, you can also conduct some competitive analysis on the attending companies’ competitors so you have the ability to, on a more personal level, show companies how they will be able to use your product to compete with their competitors.

Use Call-To-Actions To Drive Interactions

In your trade show marketing, you should always be prompting attendees to complete a certain action. So if you’re looking to increase on-site sales, you need to make sure you connect the call-to-action (CTA) in your marketing materials to something attendees can do at the event. Encouraging trade show attendees to sign up for a free product trial or to visit a dedicated, targeted landing page can be a great way to help you nurture trade show attendees after the event ends, but when it comes to generating on-site sales, these actions won’t really move the needle. Therefore, focus your calls-to-action on motivating interactions that can happen during the event.

Network Till You Can’t Network Anymore

To get the most out of your sales presence at an event, you’ll first need to promote that you’ll actually have a presence ahead of time. Leading up to the event, create content (e.g. blog posts, social media updates, emails) about the event and your presence there, and try to set up appointments with prospects who may be interested in your product or service and would benefit from meeting you in person at the event. If your goal is to generate as many on-site sales as possible, the people you connect with before and during the event are very important. The more you can educate yourself about prospects before the event, the more prepared you’ll be to make the sale and the more effective your in-person sales pitch will be. During the event, you should also use social media and the event’s hashtag to let attendees know where to find you on either the trade show floor or at the event in general.

While on-site sales may be your main goal, businesses with a longer sales cycle may find it challenging to close a deal with a prospect whose first interaction with their business/products is the event. But that doesn’t mean the sale has to be lost. Don’t be pushy with prospects who don’t seem ready to buy on site; after the event has come to an end, follow up with your leads, enter them into lead nurturing campaigns to make them readier to buy, and continue building the relationship with the contacts and leads you’ve interacted with on site.