The number of attendees at each trade show or expo you participate in will greatly vary, but one thing is for sure: other exhibitors will be vying for their attention and their dollars. Given the A.D.D. nature of people these days (diagnosed or not!), you need to take measures to grab their attention and attract them to your booth.

One of the best ways to drive traffic is to stack your attendee deck with individuals from your warm market. Having a crowd of people around your booth will pique the interest of others. Non-familiar attendees will come over to check it out, asking, “What’s going on over there?” Contact your customers, family, and friends to invite them to your booth, and provide an incentive for them to come. Perhaps an added discount or free product or service? Be sure to stagger the time of their invitations so there is a steady flow throughout the day, not hoards congregating at once.

Once the attendees are at your booth, it’s essential to be prepared with your marketing messages. Don’t merely “wing it.” Keep in mind that you have maybe two to four minutes to interact with each attendee, so you want to convey the most important information in the most convincing manner possible. It’s this all-important first impression that will help to convert an attendee into a prospect and, ultimately, into a bone-a-fide paying customer! Here are some effective keys for crafting compelling, concise, and consistent communications.

Benefits Trump Features
When you convey a benefit, it essentially answers the question “So what?” A benefit helps put the product or service into perspective for a specific use or user, which normally expedites a purchasing decision, because the prospect can now visualize why it may be better for them. For example, let’s say that you are trying to sell a bowl that is six inches round and made of stainless steel. The bowl’s size and material are simply features in and of themselves; they mean very little. Following the features up with the “so whats” – that the bowl is specially sized for small animals and keeps water cool three times longer than plastic – will help the prospect see that this is a bowl unlike others he or she has seen. It is the bowl for them!

Here is another example, this time for a service-related business. A feature may be that your hours are 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. The benefit is that your customers avoid high-traffic periods (“So what?”), shortening their commute time to or from work (“So what?”), so they are less stressed and more productive throughout the day. Aha! You are the groomer for them! Anticipate, script, and practice the “so whats” for your top five product or service features in advance, and provide them before you are even asked.

Convey Competitive Differentiators
It’s rude and unnecessary to “dis” the competition, but it’s absolutely A-OK to showcase your differentiating factors – especially the ones that put you head and shoulders above others that offer the same or similar product or service as you. When I owned my chain of dog daycares, It’s a Ruff Life!, poochy parents often questioned why they should patronize us when the competitor just one mile away charged 25% less. Instead of telling them all the reasons why they shouldn’t use “Brand X” (and believe us, we could have!), we provided competitive differentiation that elevated Ruff Life to a higher level of expertise and service. We relayed actual accounts about how and why our customers found great value in our extended service hours, multiple playgroups to segment high power players from couch potatoes, oversized playrooms with individual outside play yards, a ratio of one specially trained counselor to 12 dogs, etc. These were attributes that we knew could not be matched by the guy down the street. They made the decision more about value than price and took the spotlight off of price and onto value. The trick here, of course, is to know your competition!

Top Dog Eileen Proctor is a national pet industry and lifestyle expert, renowned for pioneering Phoenix, Arizona’s dog daycare industry in October 2000 with multi-award winning facility It’s a Ruff Life! As the Top Dog of Visibility, her training and consulting company, Top Dog Business Boosters, and exclusive 24/7 online community, Petpreneur Central, cater to the specific needs of PetpreneursTM across the United States, helping them to “sniff out” opportunity, get the “leg up” on the competition, and emerge as a “leader of the pack.” For additional information about the Top Dog, visit www.TopDogBizBoosters.com and www.PetpreneurCentral.com. For information about this or any other marketing, business development, or visibility topic, e-mail [email protected] or call 602-867-3647 (602-TOP-DOGS).

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