Home shows and trade events: how contractors make them pay

Is a home show worth it for your trade?

A home show gathers people who are thinking about their houses, often with a project in mind, in one room for a weekend. That is a good audience for some trades and a poor one for others.

The trades that tend to do well sell projects people plan ahead for: remodeling, roofing, siding, windows, decks, fencing, landscaping and hardscape, HVAC replacement, basement finishing, solar. A homeowner can stand at your booth, look at photos, and book an estimate for next month.

The fit is weaker for low-ticket and urgent trades. Nobody plans their drain clog at a home show. Recurring services like lawn care, cleaning or pet waste removal can still find customers, but the math is harder because each sale is smaller. For those trades, a community fair with a cheaper table, or the ideas in our offline marketing list, may fit better.

Before you sign up, add up the real cost: the booth fee, the display, printing, giveaways, and the wages or lost jobs for everyone standing in the booth for two or three days. Then ask how many booked jobs you need to cover it. Run it with your own close rate and average ticket; our cost per booked job guide shows the arithmetic for paid leads, and a show works the same way.

How do you choose the right show?

Ask the organizer specific questions before you pay. A good organizer answers them easily.

• Where do attendees come from? You want the towns you serve. A regional show in a far suburb may draw from areas you can't reach.
• Who attends? Homeowners planning projects, or families out for the free samples? Shows tied to builders associations or remodeling often draw more serious buyers.
• How many competitors in your trade? Five roofers in one aisle split the room.
• Where will your booth be? Near the entrance, food or main aisle beats a back corner.
• What does the fee include? Power, a table, carpet, Wi-Fi, a listing in the show guide, lead scanning.

If you can, walk the show as a visitor one year before you exhibit. Note which booths are busy and why.

Trade events are a different animal. A property management expo, a builders association meeting or a facilities conference puts you in front of people who hire vendors for many properties at once. One relationship there can be worth dozens of homeowner leads. The approach is closer to sales than marketing, and our guide to working with agents and property managers covers it.

What should the booth look like?

People decide whether to stop in about the time it takes to walk past. Make that decision easy.

• One headline that says what you do and where. "Roof replacement and repair, Lake County" beats a large logo and a slogan.
• Big photos of your own work. Real jobs, before and after, with town names. A tablet on a loop of project photos draws people in. Stock photos make you look like everyone else. The before-and-after photo guide covers how to shoot them.
• Something to touch. Shingle samples, a cutaway of a gutter guard, paver samples, a filter that came out of a real furnace.
• One clear offer for the show. A free estimate booked at the show, a priority slot in the spring schedule, a free add-on with a signed project. Keep it honest and easy to explain.
• A way to book right there. A tablet with your booking calendar, so a visitor leaves with a date and time instead of a brochure.
• Open floor. A table across the front of the booth is a wall. Put it at the side and stand at the aisle.

Who should work the booth, and what should they say?

Staff the booth with people who know the work and like talking to strangers. The owner, a project manager, a senior tech. Two at a time is enough for most booths; three gets crowded. Schedule shifts so nobody stands for nine hours.

Give everyone the same short opener and the same three questions:

1. "What's going on at your house?" Let them describe the project.
2. "Where's the house?" Confirm they are in your area before you spend ten minutes.
3. "When are you hoping to get it done?" This sorts this-month buyers from next-year browsers.

Then offer the next step: book the estimate now, or take their details for a call back. A few rules: no sitting, no phones, no eating in the booth, and no chasing people down the aisle. Write a note on every lead while the conversation is fresh: the project, the timing, anything personal they mentioned.

How should you capture leads?

Use one form, on a tablet if possible, that feeds straight into your CRM. Paper slips get lost, smeared and typed in wrong on Monday. Collect name, phone, email, address or town, project type, timing, and the note from the conversation.

Get consent right. If you plan to send marketing texts, federal rules require prior express written consent for many marketing texts, and that consent can be an electronic signature or checkbox. Spell out on the form which kinds of texts you will send, and state that signing up is not required to buy anything. Our guide to SMS marketing rules under the TCPA explains what the wording should cover. For email, give every follow-up an easy unsubscribe, as the FTC's CAN-SPAM guide requires for marketing email. Have a lawyer look over the form wording; this guide is general information only.

What if you sell a job at the show?

Closing at the show is possible for some trades. If you do, know the FTC Cooling-Off Rule. Under 16 CFR Part 429, a covered sale includes one made at a location other than the seller's place of business with a price of $130 or more if it is made somewhere other than the buyer's home ($25 or more at the buyer's home). The FTC's consumer guide to the rule names convention centers and fairgrounds as examples of a seller's temporary location, and says buyers can cancel for a full refund through midnight of the third business day following the sale.

According to the FTC, a covered buyer is owed a copy of the contract or receipt plus two copies of a cancellation form. The rule has exclusions, and state laws can add their own requirements. Build the notice into your show contract before the show, ask a lawyer to check it, and don't start ordering materials until the cancellation window has passed.

How fast should you follow up?

The same day if you can, the next day at the latest. A visitor talked to many booths. By Tuesday they remember the two companies that called them on Sunday night or Monday morning.

1. Show night: import or check every lead in the CRM. Sort by timing.
2. Next morning: call the near-term projects. Text or email the rest with a short note that names their project and offers a time.
3. Within a week: book estimates for everyone who wants one.
4. After that: longer-term leads go into a follow-up sequence and your newsletter, if they agreed to it. For the steps after an estimate, see how to follow up on quotes.

Speed matters here for the same reason it matters with web leads. The research behind that is in speed to lead for contractors.

How do you judge whether the show paid off?

Tag every lead from the show with the show name and year in your CRM, then wait. Home show projects often close months later. At the end of the season, count booked jobs, revenue and gross profit from the show, against the full cost including staff time. Compare it with your other sources.

A CRM built around your process can hold the show form, the consent record, the follow-up tasks and the final tally in one place, so the decision about next year's booth is a report instead of a guess.

Frequently asked questions