Month: April 2016

I really wanted to scrap my column this month and have an enormous Simon Burton-style rant about something. You see, I have recently returned from an exhibition where I was a visitor. Not just any old exhibition, mind, but one aimed at the exhibition industry. Populated by people in the industry serving the industry. Allegedly! There were hundreds of exhibitors and thousands of visitors. On one of the three days I happened to walk from my engagement at one end of the venue to an exhibitor I wanted to see at the opposite end of the hall. Being a few minutes early, I took a more scenic route, walking up and down several aisles until I reached my destination. It was ‘interesting’ that I managed the exaggerated journey without being engaged by a single exhibitor.

With this experience fresh in my mind, once I had concluded my meeting, I walked back this time tracing a different, but as elaborate route back to my original position. Again, I was not spoken to or engaged with by a single visitor, although I did acknowledge two smiles en route. On the final day of the show, I planned to walk slowly and leisurely up and down every single aisle – a task which took more than a few minutes as you can imagine. With the exception of a handful of exhibitors whom I knew personally, I was only spoken to by one exhibitor and smiled at by three more.

Now I fully acknowledge that I caution stand personnel against the dangers of pouncing on visitors, or saying, “Can I help you?” but I failed to realise the consequence of the other extreme. Please all you exhibitors out there do something to engage your visitors. If you do not have a mechanism for attracting people to your stand think about the mix of staff you put on show and their roles and skill sets. I fully accept the fact that not everyone is able or motivated to engage with visitors, but surely some thought about how you will achieve this important task should be attempted? There are organisations that provide people who are skilled and trained at hooking visitors and introducing them to the more reserved employees. Better still, give your people some basic training and help them help you. It’s really not that difficult. Using a combination of open body language and a smile together with a few well chosen open questions anybody can engage with a visitor. Even a simple; “Hi. How’s it going?” would do. A couple of minutes in advance thinking up some cheeky or creative questions would pay huge dividends. Perhaps we should run a competition for the best / cheesiest / most effective opening lines? If the worst comes to the worst, think about the ‘disco-a-go-go’ and recall how you initiated a conversation with a potential suitor – “What’s a nice girl / guy like you doing in an exhibition hall like this?” or paraphrase Humphrey Bogart; “Of all the aisles in all the exhibition venues you chose to walk down my one. . . .” well maybe not, but you get the idea. Visitors are often overawed by the experience as it is, so make it easy for them to find a friendly face. You never know, they may even have a budget!

There is a seasonal flavour in the air at the moment and at the time of writing; many of our thoughts are turning to Christmas and the festivities that materialise around now. There is an air of expectation and general benevolence. A few weekends ago, I re-visited the site of my last blood donation. This time, there were no nurses or needles as the venue had thrown its doors open to a seasonal craft fair. There we were, in the process of chugging past in our over laden vehicle heading home after a day fighting against the steady tide of people, shopping. Actually it was more like a day multi-tasking as we had to shop and keep all our six kids together and out of trouble. Like a magnet, “Ye Olde Antique Crafts Fair” sign beckoned us and interrupted our journey home.

I smiled as the ‘CAR PARK FULL’ sign proved no obstacle to determined shoppers looking for yet more presents, who scoured the surrounding countryside for a kerb or muddy embankment to double up as a car parking slot. Having disembarked we were not in too bad shape as we queued in the drizzle and fog. What little money we had left was blatantly burning a hole in respective pockets and needed to be spent. After the riot act was read and re-read to the assembled company we gained entry (for a moderate consideration naturally) and before us lay sixty or seventy exhibits competing for our spend.

So there you have it, the ‘visitors’ had been through a not inconsiderable amount of effort to arrive, albeit damp and steamy, ready to spend money. The range of exhibits ranged from a few pence to several thousands of pounds. Expressions like taking candy from a baby and shooting ducks in a barrel should at this point spring to mind. I am both frustrated and relieved to reminisce about what happened next. My frustration is that with no exception, all the exhibitors seemed bored, tired or generally ambivalent to the visitor. A collection were outside watching the queues form whilst partaking of a smoke and a coffee (yes, another fascist no smoking venue) and they were muttering about how busy it was. Inside some stalls were empty (their owners presumably outside imbibing and indulging) and others were populated by people who were reading, knitting and in some way ‘occupied’. Two exhibitors did manage a ‘hello’ as we walked past. Most ignored us, some tutted, others stared into the distance or cowered at the prospect of engaging the visitor.

Is it just me or is the whole point of exhibiting at an event like this, to engage visitors and sell products? We had money in our pockets, we had paid to enter and managed to find a parking space and get through traffic and a nightmare day shopping to be here. We wanted to buy things – and many of us were not fussy about what we bought! We just wanted to buy and nobody it seemed would let us or help us. That was frustrating. My relief was that we left (with purses and wallets still unopened) to get home and recover. Whilst most of the events we might attend are more professional (whatever that means) I couldn’t help realise that Ye Olde Antique Crafts Fair was just an exaggeration of some events I visit and it is good to realise that an exhibitor on a mission can convert a visitor who has put in effort to be there and who typically wants to spend money. Churlish to disappoint I say! Happy Xmas one and all.

Why exactly does the early bird catch the worm and what has this got to do with exhibiting? Well for one thing if you have decided to participate in an event why wait? The main motivation seems to be deposits. The quicker you book in the sooner a deposit is required for most shows. The fiscal argument therefore is what do I get for early payment versus waiting until later? Let’s see. . .[1] choice of location [2] hyperlinks to the organiser web site and the traffic that it can generate prior to an event [3] name and logo associated with the considerable pre-show marketing activity undertaken usually without cost to you [4] extra planning and briefing time [5] less hassle and if you need any more reasons, [6] cost savings.

Think about it from the organiser’s point of view. Early in their show cycle they want to generate as much publicity and interest as possible. They would be delighted to publish and re-publish your company name and details as an exhibitor. Then they will send invitations and mail shots (paper and electronic) which no doubt will contain your logo or details as well. Their floor plans will have you proudly outlined on stand number 666. Your entries in the show guide and catalogue will be entered and PR agents hungry for news stories will have less to sift through in the early stages of a campaign. I know clients who have picked up considerable contracts in advance of the show via web enquiries from a smaller pot than at show time.

On top of all this positive stuff, the often dreaded exhibitor manual will contain deadlines for ordering everything from your electrics through to your floral and furniture requirements. Depending upon the type of show there may be a range of furniture (say) that becomes increasingly popular and most contractors understandably have limited stock. You get your preferred choice and someone else has to worry about whether something else will do.

Additionally most contractors are quite rigid with their deadlines and therefore if your order arrives after their cut-off date, they incur additional charges which are typically passed on to the exhibitor directly. Whilst there are rarely ‘discounts’ to be had for booking early, there are most certainly penalties for booking late and some are severe.

The only other argument that I have heard for delaying booking a stand is one borne from the ‘advertising habit’. All too frequently the publishing world tends to reward late bookers with discounts. Rather than go to press with yet another filler advert, their yield can increase even with offering substantial discounts. As I media buyer I know that when I am called for advertising my first question is rarely about circulation figures or distribution statistics. Rather it is the question, “When is your copy deadline?” You see from experience I know that if I book at five to deadline, I get a great deal. If I phone up ON the deadline with my credit card, I get an even better rate. . . . and if I phone up at five past the deadline it’s always my ‘lucky day’! Sadly with more and more organisers this strategy just doesn’t work. Increasingly if they are in a position with a few unsold stands, they can widen the aisles or incorporate a feature area. So there you have it. Get in there quick – you know it makes sense.

“If I cannot have my stand at the front of the hall, on the left, then I’m not exhibiting!” How often, I wonder, do exhibition organisers hear such statements? Other favourites include; “I must be near the (insert as appropriate) press office, VIP lounge, bar area, front or back of the hall”.

A myth seems to exist about the impact of the location of your stand upon show effectiveness. Some exhibitors believe that the typical visitor enters a show and instinctively turns left. When the appropriate research is done it is indeed the case that fifty percent of visitors do turn left. Guess where the other fifty percent turn? Right! Some argue the case that the front of the hall is the best location as all visitors must pass the front stands before meandering towards the back. Actually if you observe visitors in action, they seem to adopt a sprint as they first enter a show and then slow down to a more leisurely pace towards the middle / end of the hall. Arguably then, the middle is a better position given that visitors take longer to wander past your frontage. Or is it? Some factions are proponents of a location next to the bar, on the premise that most visitors will indulge during opening hours. Yet others take the view that whether visitors imbibe or not is irrelevant because nirvana is a location next to the toilets (though not in certain cultures!). The facts seem to be that unless you have a pillar in the middle of your stand (something which you no doubt will have spotted at the time of booking), there is no such thing as a bad location. Even if the venue is unfortunately arranged on several floors, organisers should be aware of this and take proactive steps to encourage traffic and footfall to any potentially isolated areas.

Often the fixation with stand location arises from either a positive or a negative experience in the past. At last year’s show we were successful and so we must have the same position again to replicate success at the next one. Alternatively we didn’t have such a good event and the culprit must have been our location!

This obsessive behaviour extends to our neighbours. Some exhibitors insist on being located next to their competitors others cannot contemplate being anywhere near them. Generally I would encourage proximity to competitors if only because that is what visitors prefer. From their perspective shows would ideally be grouped by product or service types and colour coded. It is seen as an extension of supermarket mentality. As a shopper, you like fruit and vegetables together, baking products in another easily identifiable area; canned goods together and so on. The same applies to competitors. The most common scenario occurs when an exhibitor contracts late and has no option but to be remotely located. This is more likely to confuse the visitor who can appreciate no apparent rationale for this isolation. The moral – book early and focus your efforts on issues that matter far more than location.

One of the most interesting insights is the revelation that ‘visitors’ are uncannily similar to ‘exhibitors’ when it comes to attending a show; it’s just that they do not always appear to behave like that at the same event. On a logical level, it makes sense – they are both in a neutral venue looking for something. For exhibitors it can be new business, leads, sales, orders, converts or old faces. Visitors come seeking suppliers, ideas and education. They behave the same way because in many cases they are in fact the same people – exhibitors have probably visited many shows and a good number of visitors have at some time been an exhibitor.

Why then does wearing a visitor’s badge widen the behavioural gulf from those who don the exhibitor badge and how can we narrow the chasm to the merest of gaps? The answer it seems, lies with behavioural psychology – or more specifically one branch within it; namely mirroring behaviours. From research we know that we are more likely to buy from and do business with someone we like and trust. At a typical three day event the visitor will not get to know anyone well enough and yet, they find themselves inexorably ‘attracted’ to similar, likeable and trustworthy people. Some exhibitors seem to have a knack of putting visitors at ease and talking with them like they’ve been friends for years.

In the confines of this column, (and not wishing to embark on a dissertation about Neuro Linguistic Programming) we can argue that there are three simple areas within which we can make a difference: Rate of Speech, Vocabulary and Body Language. Addressing these in order then, given that the average rate of speech is calculated to be about 140 words per minute, speaking too quickly or too slowly widens the gap between you and your visitor. Assuming you reflect the norm in terms of rate of speech, if your visitor speaks quickly the advice is to speed up slightly and they will slow down to meet you. Conversely if they speak slowly, slow down your rate of speech and they will speed up towards your rate. In terms of vocabulary listen for the level of diction and vocabulary they use and reflect this. You are easily capable of deciding whether to “impart some information”, “share some thoughts” or “spill the beans”. Finally with experts alleging that body language accounts for some 80 percent of our communication, ensure you maintain open and positive mannerisms throughout your interchange.

Remember that other than a badge signifying one party is a ‘buyer’ and the other a ‘seller’ we are probably the same as they are. We laugh at the same things and cringe at the same things. Use your own experience as a visitor at other events to formulate how your visitor prefers to be treated. Next time you look in a mirror, try to see the visitor looking back at you smiling.

The latest trend amongst exhibitors and organisers alike seems to be an obsession about measuring your ‘Return on Investment’ (ROI) – and quite rightly too. Exhibition organisers have at last realised that for the medium to be taken seriously and to deserve a decent slice of your marketing budget, some tangible return must be demonstrable. Historically when evaluating an event, exhibitors would consider such factors as numbers of visitors and . . . well that’s it really. Often it was a ‘cost-per-thousand’ justification. X thousand visitors over Y days generated a number that was used to wave under the financial director’s nose by way of justification for the same or slightly larger budget the following year. Their more enlightened colleagues would even consider such matters as the number of business cards collected, (sadly) sometimes the number of brochures dispensed and the overall ‘gut-feel’ of the personnel manning the stand. They might have factored in the list of competitors also exhibiting and the amount of column inches the event generated in their trade publications or other media.

It stands to reason that using the above metrics, exhibitors with high value goods and services would often find the exercise rewarding whereas those selling a low cost item or service would rarely be able to ‘justify’ their attendance using such evaluation measures. People exhibit for a whole raft of reasons and therefore their criteria for measuring success should vary to a similar degree. Go back to your original objectives for attending the show. What were you trying to achieve? If your intention was to generate a set number of new leads and see a certain number of your existing customers and make contact with a dozen overseas buyers you suddenly have your criteria for measuring your success. As we have discussed earlier, focussing on the overall number of visitors is a complete waste of time. If you got to meet the people you planned to see you were successful. It doesn’t matter whether the one hundred leads came from an audience of one thousand or ten thousand – you still have one hundred leads! The Association of Exhibition Organisers have on their website (www.aeo.org.uk) listed twenty one goals to help you develop your matrix to assess your success. You can make your evaluation as complex or as simple as you like – the important thing is that you have some way of knowing that the event you attended was worth repeating or best avoided. Most good organisers will also go some way to helping you as it is as much in their interest as it is yours. Remember, a happy exhibitor is a re-booked exhibitor and they are quite partial to those!

A particular business practice that has always fascinated me is the activity of the professional ‘body-snatcher’. You know the sort; marketing trained, intelligent, qualified and understaffed. They have booked their company into an event and now realise they need bodies to populate their stand. All marketing personnel are duly enlisted, a quick call to sales and ops, possibly logistics and technical and, “Voila!” problem solved.

Well no, actually. Problem created rather than solved. As can be seen on the latest AEO training video/DVD; ‘Make a Stand – The Secrets of Successful Exhibiting’ some people are just not cut out to man the stand. One of the pre-requisites of an effective stand person is the desire to be there in the first place.

What you have essentially is a three way split between Knowledge, Skill and Attitude. Knowledge can be imparted and skills can be practiced and learned, but attitude is considerably harder to influence.

There are typically two models of ineffective stand personnel. The first, at face value at least, appears to have the right attitude – i.e. they ‘want’ to be there. Their problem is that they want to be at the show for the wrong reasons – because it’s fun, so they get a night or two away from home, to look for a new job and a whole raft of other possible reasons. Sometimes their eagerness is less Machiavellian – they just do not know better. This is fixable through training. The other model is the version that doesn’t want to be there, and would rather, to quote Jack Dee, “covering their tongue in paper cuts and sucking lemons” than be interacting with strangers.

The body snatchers would be well advised to remember the story of the 4 Ps.

PARTICIPANTS
PASSENGERS
PROTESTORS
PRISONERS

Participants are your best recruit for manning the stand. They want to be there and they will behave appropriately to ensure you achieve your objectives. They will smile; and look genuinely pleased to meet new prospects and clients alike. They are well versed and knowledgeable – in other words professional.

Passengers, as their collective name suggests, are just along for the ride. They are there for the crack and not too serious about objectives or ambassadorial responsibilities.

Protestors are harder to identify. They are glad to be at the show (hey, it’s better than another day at the office!) and often have a hidden agenda. They potentially could sabotage the best laid plans in the quest of their own objectives.

Finally the Prisoners – they are there under duress and do not mind who knows it and are indiscriminate in whether it is the company or the clients who bear the brunt of their behaviour.

I am a realist and understand that at times we have to work with resources that are available. I also believe that rather than populate your stand with Protestors or Prisoners it is more cost effective to hire in, albeit on a temporary basis, agency staff who can work with your best people to make a success of your participation at a show.

Whilst at a logical level, the majority of people see the positive benefits that are derived from attending the right show; it can present a dilemma for some. A few years ago I was working with a successful organiser of an event aimed at parents of small children and toddlers. One exhibitor manufactured beautiful hand carved, wooden rocking horses, which took him a month to finish. He worked alone and had no apprentices or any other way of sharing the workload. His attendance was so successful he secured five orders. As the next event was three months away and he felt unable to attend because he would be turning orders away or have such a long waiting list that prospective buyers would not want to wait. In addition he felt he would get behind with his workload and lose a minimum of three working days, which he really couldn’t make up. Working closely with the organisers, he took a stand that was a replica of his workshop and he sat in the middle working through his orders, wood chippings flying into the aisles, turning out masterpieces in wood. He placed a sign indicating the current waiting list and the suggestion that for a premium, new buyers could jump the queue. He contacted his customers who had previously placed orders and if they agreed to a later delivery time, he offered to split the ‘premium’ with them. He took three ‘premium’ priced orders and one for a customer who was prepared to wait six months!

Often a creative solution can result in having your cake and eating it. Sole traders and smaller companies can equally face this sort of dilemma. A common rationale offered for not participating is the fact that an organisation is so small that the owner cannot be in two places at once – for example in the shop as well as at the show. Most organisers have lists of professional stand personnel who can be hired by the day to staff your stand. This is very useful if you need demonstrators or data collection on a scale that you cannot normally resource. In some circumstances this solution will not be ideal due to the technical nature of potential enquiries or where only the owner can handle such technical enquiries.

In this case reverse the destination of the temporary staff, and engage the services of a temp to staff the shop or office and any enquiries that are urgent can be faxed or telephoned through to the owner on the stand. In order to maximise the opportunity it would be prudent to invite your existing client base to visit you at the show and make them aware of the temporary cover for the duration of the event.

Most organisers are sympathetic to logistical issues and are flexible enough to develop a solution that will meet most eventualities. I guess the old adage is true – where there’s a will to exhibit, there’s a way to exhibit!

Most organisations who exhibit need to address the issue of pre-event mailings and ‘phone calls. It is an essential part of the exhibiting process and can make a large impact upon the success of your attendance and more importantly, the attendance of your would be visitors. If you think about it, most exhibition organisers spend a significant chunk of their promotional budget on attracting visitors through the doors to their event. Without an effective visitor promotion campaign there would be no show – at least not for the second year. So it follows that you too should take a lesson from their books.

The difficulty facing most exhibitors is that the sales person from the organising company waxes lyrical about how fantastic their own visitor promotion campaign is going and how their pre-registered visitor numbers are already swollen. . . The hapless exhibitor thinks, “In that case, why should I bother to generate my own traffic. The work has been done for me.” That is the first assumption to squash. Organisers generally attract visitors – your job is to attract the right type of visitors for you. In line with your objectives for exhibiting in the first place, you need to identify whom you wish to see and then think about what they would consider to be a suitable invitation. In some cases it may be simply that – an ‘invitation’, in others the promise of some hospitality or a ‘secret’ to be revealed on the day. The particular case study I am going to outline was typical of circumstances faced by many exhibitors. Xibex are an IT consultancy whose main offering was a service rather than a product. They wanted to get to speak with small businesses that ran between 5 and 30 computers. They offered certain products like broadband, web hosting and suchlike, but most of their revenue would come from a subscription to their support service. They knew that if they could engage visitors for more than a few seconds, they would be able to arrange an appointment to visit and sell to them. They had tried a gimmick on their stand previously, but it made visitors smile and then walk away.

They bought in a thousand pounds worth of promotional goodies (mouse mats, pens, stress balls and so on) and spent just under seven hundred pounds designing their mail shot. They photographed their promotional goodies (£500 photography fee) against a white floor and produced a colour photo, which was then enlarged and overlaid with a regular jigsaw pattern. This became the template, which filled the back wall of their stand. A second copy was made and made into card and was cut out along the jigsaw marks. Their mail shot contained a letter inviting them to attend the show and enclosed a piece of the jigsaw. Whatever the jigsaw piece matched on the day would be their prize. There were 1200 pieces sent out in the post, one hundred and seventy eight were ‘redeemed’ on the stand. That’s a staggering 15% response. Moreover sixty appointments were made, fifty-two were kept and 31 new customers signed up for the subscription service.

Makes you think.

The show is finally over, you have provisionally held your space for next year’s event and you are now wondering how well it worked for you. There are a number of factors to consider when evaluating your success most of which should relate to your original objectives for attending in the first place. Review your objectives and establish how many new clients you made contact with, how many existing and how much business on the day? Then quantify and evaluate your leads; were they the right sort or value or from the target market? What about your physical presence; did you have enough space for all your staff? Were you swamped or could you manage with fewer stand personnel? What did your stand look like? Did you generate any press and media attention? Which parts of your pre-show promotion worked well and what was less successful? Can you maintain the PR momentum by reporting show successes or newsworthy items?

It is well worth asking your staff for their views and perceptions. How did they view the event? Did they think they were successful? What suggestions for improvements would they offer? Remember they will have most likely walked the floor and seen their competitors in action. Ask them what they think you could do next year to ensure they had an even better time? Were there any gimmicks or crowd stoppers that they saw? Could you do something creative and different for the next event? How well did your graphics convey your message? Did you have enough stock, materials and promotional giveaways?

It is also worth contacting the organiser and finding out whether the numbers were up or down on forecast. Was there an explanation for this and what will be the prediction for next year? It is by asking questions like these that you can ensure you continue getting the right return on your investment.