Coaches: how to attract and qualify prospects at a speaking gig booth?

Look into pitchmen. Joel Bauer started as a pitchman, in which he used his magic act to get attention for his client's booth. He understands that the unexpected and entertainment are big factors of attention. Giveaways...hey, it's possible to give away a lot of things and not get anything in return. Build a feedback loop into whatever you give away: if it's a contest, make sure they have to log into your site to see if they won, for instance. Or call you. Then you get another chance to communicate with them. Match the giveaway to the theme and audience. Giving an iphone 7 away to a crowd at a power generation show isn't a great fit and isn't memorable. I've heard an example of co-opting other people's booths. This is interesting because you expand your distribution channel at little cost. The idea is you ask if you can put your brochure on their countertop, and in exchange you'll by their crew lunch. Of course this works best when your products are complimentary and not in competition. Imagine if you got 4 or 5 of these to work with you. "Everywhere" the attendees go, there's your brochure. You must be legit. But the key thing is: make sure you get the conversation AFTER the show is over. Collect business cards; screen a little for fit; book the next conversation. Don't try to do everything at the show. Yes, it's possible to set up big deals right there; however, you probably won't and your objective should be to get awareness of you and your brand into your target market's (distributor's) head.

Great question for anyone who has a newly published book and would like to hit the speaking circuit. I was once in the same boat and here is what I would suggest as the fastest and most effective method to getting your speaking engagements. You must be active on social media. You should give away small tidbits of your book in videos and join FB groups related to your topic. There are millions of groups that you can join which will give you instant access to the people you need to know. When I ran for U.S. Congress, I joined the political groups of my party. Your book was written for someone at some stage of life, so find the groups associated with their interest. I also hired someone to work for me 1 hour a day to make calls to decision makers of associations, conferences and trade shows. They would contact the organizer and send them the videos and one-sheets about me. Use free speaking engagements to build your brand. Take lots of pictures, record videos and use these pictures in your promotional material. Cut and splice them. Be sure to wear different clothing to each speaking engagement, so you can have the appearance of different speeches in the beginning It's always a great idea to have loads of books at any event to sell them after you speak. Bon Chance!

Interesting, but very loaded, question. It depends on the industry segments, location of your business and the reach you want to have, as well as your budget. I have organized trade shows all over the world and in over 65 industries. So look at industry, location, country/city, attendee profile, demographics, and some other factors. There are over 10,000 trade shows every year in the USA alone. You need to do some "shrinking" of the reach and take it from there. Let me know if you have specific questions and we can schedule a call. Good luck!

GREAT QUESTION! I loved doing trade shows and with our strategies we would get 10% of all the people who attended to sign up at our stand which is unprecedented. We did this WITHOUT any need to give leaflets to people who would just walk past and forget all about you. I have taught this strategy to other exhibitors and am happy to walk you through this in a call so that I can customize it to your business more than I could here because you've not given enough information about the event for me to give a fuller answer. Also if you are at an exhibition it's worth realizing that there are MORE ways to be profitable including strategies to sell to others (NOT JUST the attendees) even before the event date you can line things up so that if the exhibition doesn't hit the numbers that they sold you on - you won't end up losing out. Really excited to learn more about your business and help you have a great customer acquisition event there at the event. Depending on your stand size and ancillary budget there are other ways to make the event more profitable too. If you want to speak then just click "Talk to Marsha" below. I can make some time this week to help you.

Well, I haven't had much luck but here's one. There's expertfile.com (although I've never received a speaking lead through there.) Let me know if there are others you end up finding.