I just worked my first trade booth ever -- for the NJ Chapter of RESA, the Real Estate Staging Association, at the TriplePlay Real Estate Convention in Atlantic City, NJ last week. Since I don’t like being pushy or direct selling, even though I totally believe in the benefits of my NJ home staging services, I decided to take the tack that I DO like meeting and talking to people. It made for an enjoyable experience! This is what I learned about being an exhibitor:
1) Even if people don’t ask for help, they will be receptive if you offer free literature or ask them a couple of questions such as: “do you have any questions?”/”have you ever had a need for or have you used a home stager -(fill in your service/product)?”/”did you know that using our service or product can provide X benefit to you?” In our case, we also asked “Where are you located? Would you like a flyer on the benefits of using a stager for your listings, and a directory of stagers in NJ?” Virtually everyone said yes
2) Offer a freebie that will draw people into your booth – we had Ghirardelli chocolates and a drawing each day for a $50 HomeGoods gift card. HomeGoods is one of our favorite sources for home staging accessories, of course! Other booths offered pens, tote bags (a great idea for carrying all that literature you pick up), magnets, notepads, etc.
3) Be sure to put the promotional item in plain view, preferably at the front of the booth – when we moved the chocolates from inside our booth to the front, we drew a lot more attention and visitors.
4) Offer a drawing for some prize or service to collect business cards to add to a mailing list.
5) DON’T ignore any visitors (it happened to me at a couple of booths and gave me a bad impression of that real estate office or product). DO smile and talk to anyone who even pauses to look at what you are selling.
6) If you have a video or Powerpoint display, put it near or at the front of the booth so visitors can view it more easily without having to walk into the booth to see it (we didn’t do this, but I’m hoping we do next year, since I noticed some passersby craning their necks to see the monitor at the back of our booth).
7) Make sure your booth is attractively presented, especially important for home stagers and designers! CORT Furniture graciously provided free rental furniture for us that made our booth look like a staged room in an upscale condo (gold and purple tones), and generated a lot of positive comments.
I really enjoyed meeting so many nice, receptive agents, even though most were not from my area of northern NJ and not prospects for me. But spreading the word about our industry will help all stagers, and you never know where a future referral will come from – even a couple of minutes of building rapport might lead to business later. Happy Exhibiting! <!--EndFragment-->
Comments (18)Subscribe to CommentsComment