Planning to exhibit at a trade show? If so, you'll want your staff to bring back a lot more than memories of the parties and a fishbowl full of business cards from unknown visitors. If you'll be attending, too, you'll also want to make sure your own time is used effectively.

To get the best possible results from trade shows, decide what you want to accomplish before you and your staff leave your office. Set specific, measurable goals. How many sales do you want to make during the show? How many leads do you want to acquire? What new products do you want to look at? What sales agents do you want to meet with? What, specifically should you and your trade show staff do to accomplish those goals?

Write the goals out on paper and bring them to the show. Periodically throughout the show compare your progress to your stated goals.

Determine what sales literature you want to take with you well ahead of the show, too. If you have to have anything printed, be sure to get it to the printer with enough lead time to get the literature without paying for rush printing or shipping.

A good way to estimate how much literature to bring is to plan on bringing enough for 10 or 15 percent of the attendees for small, niche market shows. For bigger shows or shows that attract a diverse audience, make the percentage considerably smaller.

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