They don't recognize time wasters!

This is the most important part of trade shows in my opinion. You only have a set amount of time at a trade show- and most likely you have paid to be a part of the show- so you better get the most bang of your buck, and don't waste your time with people who are not interested in your products or are not your potential clients. Some people have no intention of doing business with you, but they love to chat and they love whatever it is you are giving away or they love whatever products are on your table. This is a qualifying issues- you need to learn to quickly assess the value of a visitor before investing too much talk time. You need to ask qualifying questions, "could you see yourself ordering 500 of these?" and show them a product. This may seem like you are pushing away smaller orders, you can still spend time with the smaller orders, but don't let that take all of your time. Get their card and call them the next day to talk. Or if you have someone that has a lot of questions explain that you would love to talk with them, and set up a time to either meet or just say I will call you tomorrow to continue this conversation. A trade show is not the time to have a 30 minute discussion with a potential client. Trade shows are a time to get leads, you follow up on those leads after the show, not during!
So remember QUALIFY FIRST, PRESENT LATER!