A JOB WELL DONE

I do have to say that over the years involved in this business I have witnessed some very poor attempts at exhibiting and some quite good as well.  I am delighted to report that over the last few days I was working with a company that has come as close to perfection as possible in terms of giving themselves the best chance of maximising their event.

Their plan is simple.  Their objectives are simple and their approach inspired to others who seek a successful event. They have researched their market and identified a show that will deliver the prospects they want. Roughly 53% of the visitors are suitable candidates for their product / service. They have bought an island site in the middle of the hall and they have branded extensively.  They have posters and banners in the entrance foyer to the halls and the registration area will feature 10’ high and 21’ long posters.  They have plasma screens playing a short DVD at each of the eating / drinking points and they have an on-going speaker slot in the seminar area as they have also sponsored some of the rest / relaxation areas.  In short it will be impossible for a visitor to attend the event without at least being aware of their presence at the show.  Their objectives are simply data capture of prospects with a budget threshold and they hope to be able to convert between 10 and 40 into business. Their secondary objective is to create awareness.

Their staff will all be wearing branded ‘uniforms’ on the day and each stand member has a rota so no one will remain on the stand for more than 90 minutes.  They have had a team briefing four days before the show and objectives were communicated to all.  They role played likely scenarios and have a list of questions they can ask as well as a set of suggested answers for uniformity. Every staff member understands their product and how to meet, greet, qualify and politely move on to the next visitor. They have had a refresher on body-language and are keen and enthusiastic because they believe in their product and having been involved from the start, understand where they fit in – they also appear to be genuinely nice people!  Two hours were spend considering the ‘what-if’ scenarios and they have debated all the likely and some unlikely outcomes as well.  They understand the information they have to gather, how to get it and how to record it for follow up.  They have even graded enquiries so they can be more readily and efficiently followed up afterwards.  They have considered inviting key prospects and decided upon a pro-forma follow up e-mail to thank the visitor for attending the show and promising a timely call once the event is finished.