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Top 10 tips for exhibiting success

Posted on July 18, 2011 by admin

Maybe the recession isn’t all bad. If it makes us sit up and pay attention to what really works and what doesn’t for our business then that’s no bad thing. When times are good, we can coast along, doing what we’ve always done, pencilling in the year’s activities up front and going to the shows we’ve always gone to (because it’s expected, we should be seen to be there, it’s a bit of a jolly after all). What did we do there last year? Yes, that looked good, worked reasonably well – let’s tweak it a bit and re-use it.  Saves hassle, saves time.

But the business climate can shift, competitors can step up their game or change the market and our customers can change their buying behaviour. We can find that what worked before (at least we think it did, we don’t really know…) doesn’t now, and we’re about to throw a pile of money down the pan doing what we’ve always done. These days exhibiting, even at smaller shows, requires a substantial outlay of not just money, but also time and resources in planning and execution. And when we’re forced to sit down and really evaluate the return on ‘our usual bunch of shows’, it can sometimes lead to some uncomfortable truths.

Take some time now to think clearly about your upcoming events. Think about your business aims and objectives. Have you aligned your stand messaging, your team selection and training, lead capture and show targets with achieving those objectives?  Read on for some top tips to keep in mind when evaluating and planning your next event:

  1. Have some clearly defined objectives. What is your reason for attending this event? Reasons can include sales lead generation, media/PR purposes, building and cementing customer relationships, driving brand awareness, market research, achieving sales volume, new product launches. Think about what you want to specifically achieve by being there.
  2. Critically look at the show profile and whether it helps you achieve your objectives. Pull together attendee profiles and numbers, previous congress publicity or PR, post congress feedback from attendees and other exhibitors. Look at your previous stand visitor numbers, profiles and return on investment. Does this show and its target audience stack up against your objectives? Will there be key users or decision makers attending that can be directly influenced?
  3. Start your planning well in advance. Don’t just rely on just repeating what you did last year to save on time or costs. Treat every show as a unique opportunity to really maximise the return from it.
  4. Take the time to do a stand brief and communication plan. It’s tempting to jump straight to the detail and to start to buy premiums and design artwork. But taking the time early on to thoroughly work down from your high level objectives to the lower level detail will mean that don’t miss anything and you stay on message. Ask for input early on from sales teams and people on the ground, who will know your customers and any nuances in the market.
  5. Make your sales targets or show objectives SMART, that is, specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time-bound.  Where an aspiration is more woolly e.g., Drive brand awareness – think about how you can make this objective and measurable. Will you do pre-and post-show market research to quantify?
  6. Check the paperwork. Go through your exhibition pack in detail and book any suppliers, stand builders, hotel accommodation etc early on, to get best rates and give yourself enough time to meet any show deadlines.
  7. Don’t ignore the Health & Safety requirements. You don’t want to have your stand built and ready to open, only for it to fail the pre-show H&S inspection and have to make costly last-minute adjustments.
  8. Pick the right people and brief them well. 80% of your show success is down to your team*. Think about your objectives, choose staff accordingly and brief/ train them well. Make clear what is expected in terms of behaviour, dress, attendee interaction, sales lead capture and follow-up.
  9. Think about your lead capture mechanic. It doesn’t have to be complex. Many shows now offer attendee bar-code scanners, but smaller shows can work just fine with pen and paper. Just make sure that any forms are completed accurately and in full and prioritised with respect to follow-up. Nothing lets a company down more in the attendee’s eyes than not receiving the article or the phone call from their representative they were promised. Giving your team a little time to sort the leads while they’re at the show can mean they can hit the ground running when they get back to the office to do…
  10. Post-show attendee follow-up and ROI evaluation. There’s no point in having spent money going to the show if you’re not going to use the data you captured or contact the leads you worked hard to get. Schedule time specifically for lead follow-up or have the systems in place for post congress contact, even if it’s just a ‘thank-you for visiting our stand’. Aim to contact all your stand visitors within 2 weeks.

Give yourself some dedicated thinking time to look at your upcoming shows and really make the most of them –  a little time taken now will certainly pay dividends going forward.

Watch out for our next post on training your show team!

* Nomadic Display