How to achieve maximum effect through your participation in an exhibition:
Exhibitions are an excellent way to promote your business to existing and prospective customers and partners. On the other hand, they are a challenge that, if not handled properly, will consume energy, time and money without delivering the expected results. The secret lies in choosing the most appropriate exhibition to showcase yourself, but also in two of the most important factors that ensure the success of any business initiative : proper planning and adequate preparation.
As absurd as this may seem, surveys show that only 1 in 20 companies implement a well-structured plan to participate in an exhibition. Through a series of mistakes and omissions , participation does not have the best outcome and burdens the company with the consumption of critical resources (time, money and energy - effort).
The most common mistakes businesses make when deciding to participate in an exhibition are :
- Inadequate research on the suitability of this report to serve business objectives.
- They leave "to chance" the traffic on their site. They do not work in advance to maximise the number of potential visitors.
- They fail to include participation in one or more exhibitions as an integral part of their marketing strategy. Exhibitions are treated as mere 'events'.
- They present a crude or unspecialised exhibition space (pavilion or stand). Often designed spaces that, while costing a lot of money, are not attractive and do not give the visitor a feeling of intimacy and security to enter. Designing the right stand or booth requires expertise and is not just a matter of design. It must be done in conjunction with the location in the exhibition space, lighting, visitor flow, adjacent exhibitors, the season, the time the exhibition is open and take into account specific features that connect the visitor with the product or service being offered.
- Staff representing the company (employees, managers or temporary partners) adopt a defensive, cautious or defiantly indifferent body language. They sit with their arms crossed, smoke or talk on their mobile phones. Some address the visitor by drinking from the bottle or make unintentional, aggressive gestures. We often visit stands where no one is paying attention or where no one seems to be smiling. How will the visitor feel comfortable under such circumstances? Sometimes we have found visitors feeling like "outsiders" and walking past stands of businesses they had intended to visit. As trivial as it may seem, these are all characteristics that negatively affect the visitor. After all, it is well known that non-verbal communication accounts for 80% of all communication. And communication is what brings people together. Customers and partners with your own business.
- Several times, exhibitors tend to talk about themselves more than necessary. Let's not forget that a critical factor for a successful relationship with a (current or prospective) client is the ability to conduct a healthy and balanced dialogue with them.
- Non-existent or inefficient "marketing toolkit". The choice of the material that will be on the exhibitor's stand as well as the way it is exploited, the possible promotional gifts or even the brochures that will be available play an important role in the performance of the effort to be present at an exhibition. For example, the selection of certain gifts for visitors at one show may have a completely different effect than the same gift at another show. A limited number of gifts may dissatisfy visitors who did not arrive in time which requires special management. Any promotional material, gift or brochure must be designed with a specific benefit to the business in mind and must be properly costed for use. It is common to design brochures that are simply a catalogue of products and services, not tools that communicate benefits to the customer. Of non-negotiable importance is the existence of properly designed business cards given to visitors by the cardholders themselves (otherwise the existence of the business card is devalued). Absolutely essential and the "visitor form" that, even if accompanied by a business card, demonstrates professionalism and allows recording information necessary for the proper use of the contact after the exhibition. After an exhibition with a collection of hundreds or thousands of cards, it is practically impossible to have a detailed picture of each case with only the card details. And yet, only one in 30 businesses have a "visitor form" as the data from a recent survey shows.
- They leave the exhibition space for a long time with incomplete, untrained or no staff in charge of the responsibility of contact with visitors. Quite often it is observed (especially towards the final hours of an exhibition) that staff have started "packing up" or tearing down the stand before the exhibition is officially over. There are always instances of last minute visitors who come to the show with a genuine interest in meeting and engaging with exhibitors. Imagine also the image left even to competitors of the business by the sight of an early dismantled booth.
- The success of an exhibition now depends on the right actions before, during and especially after the exhibition. Business cards and visitor data were collected (even using a visitor form). There is even information on customer and partner interest recorded. All this effort and investment is literally wasted if the right follow-up (the right follow up) is not done in time. Many companies either never take the next steps in following up a contact at an exhibition or do so too late, with the result that either the interest has been lost or the opportunity has been presented to the competition, who by acting faster have taken advantage of what others have ignored. Perhaps nothing plays a more important role in a business effort than a consistent and well-planned follow up. And as overwhelming as it may seem, proper follow up must be planned and scheduled BEFORE participating in the show.
- Finally, a common omission is not evaluating a participation in an exhibition. How much it actually cost and what it actually brought to the business. Not only the cost of participation should be assessed, but also all related costs, such as material distributed , travel expenses, meals, overtime and time that could have been invested in other activities. And this should be done, of course, before a decision is made to participate in a subsequent exhibition. Many exhibitors , participate in a show because they were given an impressive presentation by the organizers or because the competition is involved. But this is not a decision factor. Especially when a participation has not been properly measured and evaluated and compared to other business development initiatives.
The article has also been published on the site of the Professional Chamber of Athens, at the link:
https://www.eea.gr/gr/el/articles/p-papagapioy-pos-tha-petyxete-megisto-apotelesma-se-mia-ekthesi
If your company participates in exhibitions (in Greece or abroad), then you may be interested in our "Exhibition Coaching" service package. Find out more by contacting us.
English (UK)