WHITE RABBITS IN A SNOW STORM

To many people, attending an exhibiting can be likened to winking in the dark – you know exactly what you’re doing – it’s just that no one else does! Just like other marketing activities, it should help promote your business objectives. Prior to exhibiting, you should to be clear on why you’re attending, what you hope to gain and how you will know if you have succeeded. Allow me to be picky if you would, but you should also communicate the above to the people manning your stand, so that they hopefully will in turn communicate your message to the visitors!

Woefully, experience shows that when you ask ‘robo-stand-person’ why they are exhibiting, replies include: “because it’s my turn… ’cause Snook was off sick… or because we always come”! Quiz them further about their objectives and replies include: “to survive… to give away brochures… or to get ‘networked’ into a stupor”!

Don’t get me wrong, many people are there with good intentions, aiming to do business and generate sales, but their objectives are too vague and either non-measurable or unrealistic. Broadly objectives can include:

Sales Generation Direct Sales, Leads, Database Building, Registering Interest, Current and New Relationships Customer Relationships Sales, Confirmations, Incremental or Additional Business, Referees, Re-vitalise Lapsed
Brand Building Awareness, Positioning, Education, Demonstration, Expansion to new Markets, Investors / City Product Launches Interest, Prototypes, Design Studies, Feedback Data Acquisition, Timing and Sales
Market Research Awareness, Perceptions, Surveys and Opinion Data, Targets, Budgets and Campaign Robustness Channel Building / Support Partners, Dealers, Distributors, Agents, Support for Current Agreements / Channels
Media Relations Coverage, Titles, Press, Editorial and Journalist Relations, City / Investment PR Audience, Coverage, Profile, Methodology, VIP Profiling

It is important, however, to be more specific with your objectives. For example if your objective is to Generate Sales, then you can ask questions like:

New or Existing Accounts?
How Many?
Leads by Order Value or Number of Accounts?
Demographic Splits?
Sales Conversions or Enquiries?
What Timescales?
Most people use some system for establishing good objectives and will ensure they use something like S.M.A.R.T. to test them.

S – SpecificThe More Specific – The Better!
M – MeasurableHow will you measure?
A – AchievableCan it be done? Is it Possible with your Resources?
R – Results BasedIs it results based and not a process?
T – TimescalesDeadlines – during the show and after.

Once you have established what you want, it is relatively simple to work out how best to achieve that using your stand and the flexibility of an exhibition.