In talking with many exhibitors, one of the things that comes up frequently as an issue is “How should my booth look?”

Now you don’t have to have a person bungy jumping through the floor or hanging from the cross beam like these guys did, but what can you do to stand out and still reflect the values of your business?


A common suggestion I make to my clients is look at the big players in your category.  If you are selling a low to medium priced product, check out the department stores.  Department stores spend millions of dollars on their visual merchandising and store layout.  Get inspiration on what you think appeals to your customer and what can be adapted to your product.  Maybe they have a certain rack or shelving system or types of posters or backdrops that would work well for you.  Be open to anything.


If you sell higher priced items, make sure the quality and presence of your booth reflects your product.  If you are selling high end, high quality products, you can’t afford to have a cheap, dodgy or low quality looking booth.  Again, inspiration can come from your own product.  Like our bungy friends above, maybe you product shown in action is what your clients would like.  Or a large replica that your prospects can interact with how they never could before.  For example, if you sell high end data storage, imagine a hard disk device about 10 times normal size that a prospect can touch the insides of.


Inspiration can also come from other displays in a completely different industry.  As an example, if you are selling custom made clothes, you could display your range of fabrics and accessories like a Lexus dealer displays their car colour charts.


You will be amazed at where your ideas come from.  The secret is that you have to go out looking for them.  You are far more likely to get the burst of brilliance when you are submersing your senses in possibility rather than sitting at your desk willing the ideas to come!


So what inspires you?

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People want to touch it!!


They want

to feel the new product. They want to see photo’s of the service. They want to experience what it’s like. Brochures can be good but the real thing is better.


I was speaking to my brother who is big in Send Out Cards (among other entrepreneurial ventures!) and he was describing a booth he was going to show Send Out Cards at. We talked about different ideas but just seeing cards was not enough. You could hold the cards or see big pictures on the walls. You could talk about how easy it is to send out personalised cards to your clients, prospects or family members but it’s not the same as doing it yourself.


I suggested that he let them do it. Let them work through the whole process

so that they are doing it and can touch and feel the process not just hear about it. So he was going to look at setting up at the booth with his camera and laptop. Prospects get their photo taken and then use the system to send themselves a card with their own message. So not only do they see how simple it is to use, two or three days later they get a card with their photo on it showing them how cool it is to receive the card.

Let them touch it!


If you can find a way, get the prospect physically touching your product or service. This makes it personal, memorable and way more sellable.


So what about

your next show? How can you take your product or service and make it touchable? Make it real for your prospect and very soon they will be your client!

Let me know if you need ideas to make it touchable.

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I am often asked whether it is worthwhile having “Hired Beauty” (what I call Booth Babes and Booth Blokes) on your stand.


This is what I think!

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