Pre-Home Show Preparation: The Make-or-Break Phase
Most contractors fail at home shows before the doors even open. Smart exhibition booth planning turns foot traffic into booked jobs and real revenue.
KickStart: Most of the work for a wildly successful Home Expo happens long before the first attendee wanders into your booth. Read on…
NOTE: This article is Part II in a 5-part series on Home Expos.
I’ve said it before… I love, love, LOVE💖 home expos for any residential services business… IF you “do it right”. Sadly…
Most home service pros’ home expo efforts fail long before the event even starts. Let me diss on just a few reasons why…
These clueless folks 1) show up unprepared, 2) have no visual marketing “props”, 3) don’t bring their own professional booth lighting, 4) SIT😯 passively in their booth texting (GRRRRR!) 😡 while lucrative prospects stroll by and then complain that “this show is a loser”! Seriously?
Meanwhile, savvy, proactive residential service contractors are booking pre-inspections and jobs like crazy!👌
Steve Reflects: Heck, even in our small town of 30,000 people my little residential services business would sell over $70,000 in work during our home expo.👍 Over the 16 years I was in business I watched a steady stream of “one show wonder” competitors that would slink out bitterly complaining, “What a waste of time!”
What was the difference? My success (and their massive failure!) was decided in the months and weeks leading up to the show.
Create Your Visual Arsenal
In the chaos of a busy home expo, prospects won’t stop to read detailed brochures or listen to long explanations. You need “props” that deliver a visual impact to attract people over to your booth at a glance. For example…
Before-and-after photos: Large format prints (at least 11x17) showing dramatic transformations. Pet stains removed, landscaping makeovers, pest damage repairs, painting makeovers—whatever showcases your expertise.
Don’t have enough photos? Create some! Do some work on your own house or family members, or offer discounted jobs to neighbors and friends in exchange for photo rights.
Video demonstrations: A large flat-screen TV (minimum 40 inches) running a video loop of your work in action has far more impact than even the best static photos in a noisy, bustling environment. Show your team setting up, your equipment working, your results happening! 😁
Professional lighting: This is non-negotiable! A dark, dingy booth screams ‘amateur’ and prospects instinctively avoid it. 💡 People are drawn to light! Invest in good portable lighting that makes your booth the brightest spot in your section.
ProTIP: Bring duct tape along with lots of extension cords plus 3 and 6 outlet connectors.
Design Your Marketing Materials
You need three different marketing material subsets for three different types of prospects:
For tire-kickers: Simple color brochures they can grab and go. Keep these inexpensive—many won’t even look at it. (But you never know!) So, the design and logo should still match up to your overall marketing concept and image.
For warm prospects: Contest entry forms on small clipboards. Include spaces for name, phone, email, zip code, and a checkbox if they would like a ‘Free home pre-inspection.’ Make the form easy to fill out while standing.
For hot prospects: Nothing except your business card. You’ll be talking to them personally and can capture their information directly.
ProTIP: When judging a home show’s success you’ll need to cover your initial investment, the staffing costs of the expo and get a return on the blood, sweat and tears you’ve invested! But before you get depressed factor in your long-term return in contacts made! (This principle applies to any marketing effort. More on this later in this series.)
💡Steve Reflections: We printed discount coupons that looked exactly like a business check. Same layout, same actual check paper, our logo and tag line. Then we printed “$50.00 in goods and services” on the payment line. Our booth staff would create respect for these coupons by signing their “authorized signature” before handing them to the home expo attendee.
Folks, this idea works! Your prospects will treat these “checks” like real money and save them for years! We had coupons redeemed more than 10 years after our original show.
Obvious ProTIPs: 1) Don’t put an expiration date on these coupons, 2) make them transferable, (you WANT people to “gift” them) and 3) don’t require a certain amount of work to qualify for the $50.00 discount. NOTE: Don’t freak out! You’ll be protected by your minimum charge so at the very worst you’ll work for 50 bucks less than minimum. But this almost never happened to us.
Now… let’s git ‘er done! 😎
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