There is ONE central idea, one key concept that I want you to understand. If you get this right, your show (exhibition or event) will reward you with customers buying what you have to sell. If you DON\’T get this right, you\’ll be paying a fortune for next to nothing, your competitors will eat you up, and your whole exhibiting experience will be very, very unpleasant.
The one thing that you must do right now long before the show, is to…
Set Objectives!
There are many things that drive success to your show, but none more so than setting objectives. Without objectives you are down and out before you even get in the ring. Yes they may not sound exciting or urgent but believe me they are incredibly important.
The vast majority of exhibitors do not set objectives - they book a show because their competitor does; they don?t know who really goes; they don?t know what image to portray or products to display; they don?t know, don?t know, don?t know!
Paying good money and then turning up at your event without objectives is like going to war without knowing why and of course you\’ll never know if you?ve won or lost!
Objectives are not just about what you want to get out of the exhibition or show, they include how you are going to get the results - for example - How are you going to measure your success? Or how will you follow up leads?
Up to 80% of your competition at any exhibition, trade show, trade fair, conference or event will be what we call ?logistic exhibitors? - not ?strategic exhibitors?.
What?s the difference?
Most exhibitors focus on the logistics of the event (for example, ensuring the stand is bought, that the staff are booked, that the transport is laid on, that the products are ready, that the hotels are booked etc) and making sure they don?t miss that critical deadline.
Strategic exhibitors of course focus on all of the above but realise that there are equally (if not more) important tasks that whilst not seeming urgent right now are absolutely critical to the show?s success; these include setting objectives, how to measure their results and how they will follow up leads to name but a few.
So why aren?t more exhibitors strategic? There are many reasons, but in most cases logistic exhibitors fall into one of two categories:
1. Small Business ? Who don?t have the time, the knowledge, resources or know how. If this is you, then you need to spend time doing all of the above or think very seriously about not attending at all - It could save you a fortune and a very big headache!
2. Big Business ? With fairly typical communication problems. This often develops when the senior management doesn?t communicate what it expects to the organiser (that?s probably you!), who in turn is busy trying to achieve what they think the senior management wants to hear ? the result mixed messages and mixed results. If this is you, then you need to start knocking some heads together or at the very least send an email to tie up the loose ends.
Become a Strategic Exhibitor?
Becoming a strategic exhibitor is easy; you just need to do two things to make it happen. Firstly, with the best will in the world, your show will not become a success just by you reading our e-course ? you must implement the information and make it happen! Secondly, become a strategic exhibitor, stay focused, follow our system and do everything that is required to make your show a success ? not a logistic exhibitor who just does the obvious.
Do not under-estimate these two simple steps - by you doing just these two things will have a serious impact on the success of your show.
Setting Objectives?
Your first question should be ?Why are we going??
If you?re in a business-to-business selling situation then you might think you should be exhibiting and your reasons might be to generate leads, find new customers, or maintain or improve your current customers perceptions of you.
Whilst this is fine in general, you need to get to the very heart of why you (or your organisation) are going and what would ?success? actually look like? What would have to happen that would make the event a great one?
By sitting down early and getting these objectives on paper now, will ensure that you (and your colleagues) follow a course to exhibiting success.
How? Simple; keep your objectives continually in the forefront of your mind ? every time you make a decision think objectives - the end result will be nothing short of a roaring success
Visual display guru Matt C Fiore has been helping small and big businesses, marketers and entrepreneurs get the most from their visual marketing space for the last 20 years. Matt\’s passion is brought to life with his business Precision Display, which is based in the United Kingdom. Precision Display is committed to helping people solve their display problems by writing unbiased guides, offering free help, advice and consultancy all backed up with a guarantee of no hard sell. You can find loads more help and advice at http://www.precisionexhibition.co.uk along with thousands of ingenius display products and solutions at http://www.precisionmegastore.co.uk