What are your goals for the IMTS show?

As IMTS is rapidly approaching many exhibitors are scrambling to be prepared for and caught up in all of that necessary last minute minutia that we all tend forget about. But, take a moment to sit back and think about the big picture of exhibiting at IMTS. Ask yourself some questions:

What do I want to really accomplish at the IMTS?

o       Introduce a New Brand?

o       Introduce a New Product?

o       Meet with key customers?

o       Meet with Key channel partners?

o       Get leads?

o       Get orders?

As you make your final preparations we’ve put together a checklist of things that you may want to think about, and perhaps review with all of the folks working in your booth, to make sure that everyone is on the same page and understands your objectives. Think of this as a pre-game checklist.

Layout

It almost goes without saying but, have you planned to use your exhibit to meet your objectives?

o       Based upon your location type (in-line, corner, end, island) and size have you considered which areas will get the most traffic? What will be the first thing attendees see when they see your booth?

o       Do attendees have the ability to “walk-in” your booth or have you created a “wall” of display to keep them out? The best booths don’t create a “wall” that creates the impression of “we” and “them.”

o       What are your exhibitor neighbors doing in their booths that could affect traffic in yours? Many exhibitors don’t talk to their new neighbors until they get to the show only to find out that the booth plans that had been made get thrown out the door because the “lay of the land” has changed. It happens at every show and it’s forgotten about immediately after the show.

o       Where is your attendee card reader located? Many times during a preshow set up exhibitors tend to forget the space for the card reader. The last minute decision is to put the card reader in a heavy traffic area. This leads to bottlenecks in the booth with someone trying to demonstrate a new product while another is pushing through to swipe a card.

o       Have you set up your booth in advance? Do you have so many products on display that it looks like a flea market? Do customers have too many choices?

o       Conversely, have you elected not to display products that have been out for 10 years because “everyone has seen them”? I’ve seen, on a number of occasions, older products that are completely NEW to a first time attendee. Don’t be afraid to display them and talk about them. What may be old news to you is new news to someone else. You know the saying about “never assume.”

o       Are your products glued down or can customers touch them? We’re in a very tactile industry. Attendees want to touch, hold, and use the products. If your concern is about products getting “happy feet” perhaps re-evaluate what your competitors are doing. If you are the attendee, and in one booth you visit the products are all glued down, while in another they are not only available to hold and touch, but the competitor says “Will that work for you? Take it?and try it.” Who do you think gets the business?

Pre-Show Attendee Planning & Marketing

Have you been in contact with your channel partners to find out which days they will be attending? Will their customers be joining them?

The best time to make sure you see everyone you would like to is before the show. Create a list of whom you expect to see and when. Make sure that the key contact people are available to meet them. Check the list at different points during the show. If you see that someone has not?visited when they said then call them on their cell, text them, tweet them and tell them you're looking forward to seeing them.

Attractions

o       How are you going to engage people?

o       What do you say?

o       Have you developed a “talk track” for all booth workers?

o       Does everyone know the “game plan”?

o       Are all of your booth workers fluent in the products?

I’ve been in booth at times when booth workers have arrived at the show and immediately “went to work”. Unfortunately, they had not been trained or given any instructions. This has lead to the “no that’s wrong” conversations and, as a result, ruined the momentum of the sales person. They “got egg on their face” and therefore aren’t going to be effective for the rest of the show. 

If you have people coming in to be in the booth be sure and have a plan to take the time to review the “why’s & wherefore’s” of you booth, your products and any information that they are going to need to help attendees. Remember one “uninformed” can give the wrong information to 100 people in a matter of hours. Take some time to review your “game plan.”

Follow-up

How quickly are you getting the leads into the field? Do your people take good notes? If? you have a plan to get out literature do you have a plan to visit the customer?

Remember attendees who have put you on their pre-show planner are stopping by for a reason. If they see something that they like then they have every right to expect literature, and follow-up immediately. They have every right to expect to be treated as your BEST and ONLY customer.

What happens in your booth?

Is there a standard set of guidelines for all booth workers?

o       Are you on the cell phone?

o       Are you on your laptop?

o       Are you sitting in the back of the booth waiting for someone to interrupt you?

o       Does your booth invite people into it?

o       Is it ok to call the factory for information while in the booth?

o       Is it ok to take a call from the factory to answer their questions while you’re in the booth?

What people seem to sometimes forget is that attendees have a limited amount of time to see everything that they would like to see at IMTS. Their time is valuable. 

The most important person at your booth may be the one that never asks a question, never makes a comment, but listens. That person is probably the real decision-maker and they are looking at everything but the products. The are making observations about how organized your company is, will they be able to get support, will they be able to base their process and service their customers by using your products. 

If your people are sitting down, finishing their conversation and then getting to the questions you are making a brand statement about your company. At different points during the show it’s a good idea to step into the aisle and put yourself in the attendees shoes and ask yourself a simple question: “What’s my initial impression of this company?”

At the end of the day, at a tradeshow, everyone is ready to have dinner and enjoy some nightlife. Having been to enough shows I’ve noticed how show participants many times avoid talking to exhibitors at night. Exhibitors, on the other hand, are all talking amongst themselves. In our industry many, many people know each other. Take advantage of that. Two people who used to work together are enjoying a cold drink and “Say did you see that new product at such-n-such company?” “Yea, but Jim told me they can’t deliver for 6 months because of…” Turns out both guys had worked at such-n-such and had the inside scoop. Probably pretty good info to know if you where going to base a new production job around such-n-such’s products.

Talk to each other. “What do you do?” “What did you see?” “What’s cool?” can lead to “I’m looking for this and I found something at so-n-so’s booth” “Oh well we saw this and it does it faster and it costs less” or “Hey, remember that thing we walked by and thought was great, but didn’t have a need,” turning to you, “You might want to check out…”

With all of the hype about social media these days you are in the hotbed of what Social Media is all about. Social Media is all about getting ideas and being in conversations. IMTS is the best place in North America to have one-on-one, face-to-face conversations from people around the world. You can learn new ideas, new ways of doing things… I’ve been told “I get more out of talking to people at night sometimes than I do walking the show.” There are lots of eyes and ears out there. Take advantage of them.

IMTS can help solve your manufacturing "Bottlenecks." The show brings together over 1300 manufacturing companies, all under one roof, all with the intention of providing you with solutions to your manufacturing needs.

Bottlenecks

Make a list. Start compiling problems and bottlenecks in your production. Take a walk on your floor and take a look at which machines are running and which are not. Why? This is the very essence of “Lean”. In the “Lean” process this is called Genchi Genbutsu: “Go out and see for yourself”. Ask some questions. What’s holding the machine up. Don’t take the answers at face value. If the answer is “We’re waiting for the saw department” maybe you can move the parts into the milling department in larger sizes and smooth out the process. The real key is to make a journal list of the problems. If you don’t write them down you will forget them. You don’t need to find a solution today and even if you do keep it on the list. It never hurts to look for better ideas. You DO want a list before IMTS. If you can get a list from several different people in your company with 3-4 items on it then you’ve succeeded. Why is this important? Before you leave for the show create one final list and give everyone going a copy of the list. Make sure that they understand the problems. The key to remember as you walk through the show is that the solution may not be the featured product in a booth. It may be a 20 year old product you have never seen. Or, it m it may be something else completely. As an example, I was at the show several years ago and started looking at an exhibitors display. I realized that the display was really the shipping crate and was mounted on hydraulic lift tables. I brought a customer over to the booth and said “Here’s your solution” The exhibitors products had nothing to do with the problem but someone in their facility figured out a way to make their life easier for shows and THAT necessitated an invention. That invention was the solution to another problem. If you are aware of your bottlenecks you’ll be surprised where you might find solutions at IMTS. Remember, there are an awful lot of very very talented people at the show. It’s a great place to learn.

“One way to open your eyes is to ask yourself, 'What if I had never seen this before? What if I knew I would never see it again?'” - Rachel Carson

IMTS is a huge show with over 1 million square feet of exhibit space - there is a lot to see but well worth the walk.

Necessity is the Mother of Invention

Walk through ALL of the pavilions. You might be surprised that the one pavilion that is NOT on your list has the keys to your success. Here’s why. An exhibitor has a core product that been around for a number of years. But in the process of manufacturing they either discover a niche product at an international show somewhere in the world, develop a solution to a problem or have an “co-marketing arrangement” with some other exhibitor, or some manufacturer not even at the show. The product may be a fixturing product sitting in the Quality area, and EDM product in the software area. The bottom line: You might just see something in one of the other pavilions where products have been implemented or are just being introduced. Keep your eyes open. Many of the tooling & fixturing people put some very cutting edge technology on the machines on display and many don’t take a close look.