It’s cliched to say “Fail to Plan, plan to fail” but that is what happens if we don’t have a plan when we begin organising our exhibition presence.

"Hope is not a strategy."

Planning is a critical part of exhibiting success and the reality for post covid exhibiting is that we need to be even better prepared than before.

Budgets and value are becoming even more important and getting a strong ROI/ROO (Return on objectives) cannot be delivered by “winging it”. The good news is that it doesn’t need to be complicated.

By keeping it simple and compartmentalising your plan into 3 different sections, not only will you be less stressed, but your booth will deliver the results you want.

3 KEY ELEMENTS

There are 3 elements to cover in the written plan. These are Marketing, Sales & Operations. Considering these 3 areas will ensure you are setting down the marker of what you want to achieve.

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MARKETING - HOW?

One of the biggest reasons companies don’t do well from exhibiting is poor (or lack of) pre-show marketing. Exhibiting enables you to deliver a more personal and targeted approach to attracting the ideal customer so it’s worth exploring the below questions.

SALES - WHAT?

What KPI’s are we assigning to our sales team and how do we ensure these are achieved? One of the biggest Which KPIs are assigned to our sales team, and how do we ensure they are met? One of the biggest challenges is miscommunication about the true objectives. To avoid this, clearly write down and share these goals with the entire team. This builds stronger relationships and ensures everyone understands the key metrics. The actions listed below are crucial steps that lead to increased sales.

OPERATIONS - WHO?

So now that we have Marketing and Sales objectives, we can look at perhaps the most obvious, but often missed element …. who is doing what? The operations side of exhibiting can often be seen as trivial, but if we commit the below questions to paper, we are far more likely to value their importance, leading to a stress-free show.

Questions for your plan…

• Who are we targeting?

• Who are the top 20 buyers we want to visit our booth?

• What’s our key message or ‘draw’ for them to visit us?

• Which social media or other channels are we using to reach these people?

• When are we starting our pre-show marketing?

• What budget do we have for our pre-show marketing effort?

• What non-social media marketing are we doing?

• When are we sending out invites? Postal or digital?

• What marketing collateral do we need?

• How are we allocating the budget (money/time) between now & the event?

Questions to ask & answer…

• How many leads do we need to get each day?

• What number of meaningful conversations each day?

• How many EXISTING clients do we need to meet daily?

• Who are the best people to work the booth?

• How many demonstrations per rep per day?

• What is our special offer pricing for the show (if we have it). Is everyone aware?

• How many appointments have we got/can we pre-book for the event? How many do we need for the diary post event?

• What is our follow up plan/ template/strategy post event?

• What is our “Hero” product for this particular show?

Questions for your plan…

• Who is working the booth?

• Do we need hotels/transfers? Who is booking them & when?

• Do we have standby people if there is an issue?

• Who is building the booth?

• Do we have all relevant mobile phone numbers? Couriers, Organisers etc.

• Who is bringing what?

• Have we run through the exhibitor’s manual with the team?

• Confirm show dates, times, booth number, hall, location etc.?

• Date for team briefing for pre-show?

• Do we have a follow up plan for after the show?

Summary

There is no doubt that some shows are better and more successful than others, but this also applies to a plan. The exhibitors who are prepared and set aside a small amount of time to write a plan get a far higher return from
exhibiting and considering your investment, this is time very well spent.

Hopefully these tips are of help and all that remains is to wish you happy and successful exhibiting. It’s absolutely worth the effort.