In our latest article we reflect upon previous articles to produce the definitive Top 10 key tips for exhibition success.

1. PREPARE A WRITTEN PLAN

Having a short-written plan of 1-2 pages detailing key objectives, how you expect to achieve them and crucially who will do what, increases your chances of success by 65%. Simply put, the written plan should include 3 key areas.
• Marketing
• Sales
• Operations

2. SET 3 CLEAR OBJECTIVES

The number 3 is critical for exhibition success. Although there are lots of reasons to
exhibit, establishing your top 3 will ensure that you remain focused on the key objectives.

3. THE 80/20 OF PRE-SHOW MARKETING

One of the biggest reasons companies don’t do well from exhibiting is poorly executed preshow marketing. Many companies choose to allocate all of their time and budget into online but in completely omitting offline channels
they alienate a huge part of their market. When it comes to pre-show marketing you should be doing 80% online but also 20% offline.

4. SCHEDULE A TEAM BRIEFING AHEAD OF THE SHOW

Very often the person who books the booth and the people who work it can have different objectives, so it’s crucial that everyone involved understands the company objectives as well as their own.
Scheduling a team briefing ahead of the show sets the team ethos and shared expectation of the show.

5. BOOTH DESIGN

Trade shows are a great environment to launch new products and services. However, this often leads to cluttered booths as exhibitors attempt to fill every inch of space with display and presentation areas. An overcrowded booth can act as a barrier to visitors who simply haven’t got space to walk around.

Working closely with your contractor will give you peace of mind. They are experts in the field and are best placed to advise on a booth design that will achieve your objectives. Considering a couple of small rules of thumb may also help.
Keep 60% of your floorspace free for visitor access and your graphics should be readable and visible from 15-20ft away.

6. PRE-SHOW INVITES/CALLS

A lot of exhibitors assume that the organiser will handle all pre-show marketing but sending out invites and calling our top 10/20 clients ensures we invite the visitors WE want to see. This personal approach works and if we want to maximise our investment, we should factor in time for this type of activity.

7. CHOOSE YOUR TEAM WISELY

Selling at exhibitions is different than day to day selling and our approach needs to be adapted to
suit. Trade shows demand a reactive approach to selling. The sales cycle is often a slower process and is more focussed on building relationships, ensuring that visitors remember us after the show. Although it can seem logical to put
our best sales person on the booth, a member of staff that has a natural ability to foster relationships can be more valuable as the first point of contact.

8. THE RAPPORT QUESTIONS

Building rapport is the cornerstone of every great sales conversation at an exhibition, but unfortunately a salesperson usually opens with “Can I help you?” and 95% of the time are then met with ”No thanks, I’m just looking” – Conversation over. A really simple but highly effective tip is to just put the word “How” in front of that sentence. When you do this, you open a dialogue not a monologue and that’s what builds greater relationships.

9. DEFINE YOUR POST SHOW FOLLOW UP STRATEGY BEFORE YOU EXHIBIT

81% of leads from trade shows are never followed up. You put in all that hard work and effort to get those leads and then fall at the final hurdle by not chasing them up. The key is to have a follow up strategy and plan decided BEFORE you exhibit not after when you are tired, fire fighting at the office and out of time.

10. TICKING THE BOXES OF THE A-Z CHEAT SHEET

There are lots of strands to exhibiting and not much margin for error. Working alongside our good friend Stephen, The Exhibition Guy we have developed an A-Z Cheat sheet for Exhibitions which covers the questions you need to ask yourself before you exhibit.

Please get in touch and we will share this with you hello@driscoll-brothers.com

SUMMARY

There’s no rocket science to exhibiting. It’s not easy, but it’s also not difficult if you do the simple things right. Hopefully you have picked up some tips from the article above that will help turn your show from a good one to a great one.