It is essential to justify every decision to invest in promotional or marketing activity based on potential return or coverage (ROI). You may be reluctant to spend on marketing activity, but cutting back on this will have an effect on your business. Exhibitions can be seen as a large investment, particularly by small and medium-sized businesses, but by investing in the short term, you can reap the benefits in the long term, turning the leads collected at an exhibition into loyal customers.
David Palmer, Head of Sales at Green Duck and regular exhibitor at B2B agrees “Even when you factor in our time, as well as the cost of our stand, the return far outstripped our investment. Our Training and Recycling divisions came away with significant sales from B2B.”
So, do you have a sales plan for success at exhibitions? What are you looking to achieve by being there? Below are my top tips to make sure you’re sales savvy for your next exhibition.
1. Decide why you are exhibiting and what you want to achieve. Have some specific, measurable targets in mind. For example, get 30 qualified sales leads or conduct 50 research interviews.
2. On average 75% of visitors to an exhibition are there to buy or plan to buy in the future – use this to your advantage & have a post event follow up strategy. Get all the contact details and information you can from your prospect.
3. At the show, let people know you are there, advertise. Every exhibitor at B2B has the opportunity to advertise for free in a supplement in the Eastern Daily Press, printed 49,000 times and circulated digitally. Read more about the promotional package here.
4. Conduct a show debrief with the stand team and identify what went well and what didn’t. Be sure to learn from each experience and put this into place for your next exhibition.
Bob Prior, Sales and Marketing Director at Heritage Contract Services goes further ‘On our stand at B2B we had virtually no ‘down time’ because we were busy all the time. We trained and prepared for it, and it paid off. Because we had the opportunity to engage with them our visitors said they had a terrific experience. Being at B2B generated real business, and we still have active leads that came from it. Put simply, for us B2B meant business’.
If you’re exhibiting at our B2B Exhibition on 15 October, make sure you visit our Exhibitor Toolkit page. It is FULL of ways to help you promote your stand and maximise your promotion. 80% of stand success is down to staff, so train them. We are running a FREE Chamber Session on Exhibiting Success on 30 September, full details here
If you haven’t booked your stand at The B2B Exhibition 2014, there’s still time. We are now over half full so if you’re looking to be at B2B, complete your stand booking form today. For more information about The B2B Exhibition 2014 click here.
