From time to time GovEvents will come across information we feel our members and audience would benefit from. Here's something we wanted to share:
Originally posted on www.eventmanagerblog.com
Time and time again I witness exhibitors making the same common mistakes at exhibitions. Avoid these top 20 sins of exhibiting to ensure that you maximise your investment and have the best chance of achieving your objectives from every show!
1. Not Reading the Exhibitor Manual - Ensure you read and digest every piece of information the exhibition organiser sends to you. Don't just presume that everything will be provided - check the specifics. Likewise ensure that you return all the paperwork by the deadline to help ensure a positive streamlined exhibiting process and avoid last minute panic and unnecessary stress.
2. Not Thinking About Your Objectives - How can you know if exhibiting has been successful for you and the return on your investment unless you know what you want to achieve and plan accordingly for this beforehand? What are your reasons for exhibiting at the show? How many leads are you looking to achieve? How can you quantify the resulting business?
3. Being Shy - Choose confident friendly staff that are happy talking to strangers and comfortable 'interrupting' people passing by in a cheerful, friendly manner. These staff are representing your brand so warm people skills are essential to ensure a lasting impression for all the right reasons.
4. Your Exhibition Booth Doesn't Communicate Clearly What You Do - Think carefully about your stand design and graphics to ensure it effectively communicates what you do. Always presume that people have no prior knowledge of your company. Pictures really do tell 'a thousand words and so ensure your graphics clearly illustrate your offering.
Get into the mind-set of the consumer. How does your product or service make their life easier/simpler/more pleasurable? What problems can you solve for them? What are the key features and USPs? Is this information communicated through your exhibition booth?
5. Not Making an Effort or Giving Enough Thought to your Presence - On the busy exhibition floor it is vital that you make a good first impression (many say within 7 seconds) and encourage people to pause, engage with you and cross that threshold.
Why should people visit your stand? If you have a lot of money to invest in your stand this can definitely be money well spent but even if you are working on a shoestring budget there are lots of simple inviting touches which can make a difference such as offering refreshments or cup-cakes on your stand, running a fun competition and theming your stand.
I highly recommend you read this post for more do's and don'ts and ideas: 20 Tactics to Drive More Attendees to Exhibition Booths
6. Acting Disinterested - No matter how long the day has been exhibition staff should smile and make eye contact at all times. I expect to see staff on their feet, engaging with visitors to the show. If you are on your mobile phone, sitting down, yawning, eating, looking grumpy, have your back to the walkway, etc, etc I may simply walk right on by!
7. Having Too Few Staff - It can be difficult to judge how many staff you need at a show, however people will only wait a limited amount of time to speak to someone before they move on and potentially won't ever call back to your stand so it is important to have plenty of staff available to ensure every lead is captured and likewise that your staff can take regular breaks to eat, drink, check their phones and rest their weary feet and voices!
8. Having Too Many Staff - On the other hand it can also be off putting and overwhelming to have too many staff at a stand clamouring for your attention. Monitor the balance.
9. Staff Who Know Nothing about Your Product or Company - I have visited stands before and asked the simplest of questions to be told "I have no idea I am just helping out" with no other staff on hand to assist. Following on from this I was also once told to "look at the website and contact the company directly if I want more information." Charming!
Ensure all staff representing your company are fully briefed and armed with all the key information. Even if they are experienced current employees you should ensure they are prepared with a coherent message and approach. Hiring promotional staff may be inevitable but realise how damaging it can be to have the wrong or no information available to give to a visitor and ensure it doesn't happen EVER!
Allow plenty of time for briefing and questions of casual staff and enable less knowledgeable staff to shadow senior staff until they learn the ropes. Make sure staff are confident how to deal or pass on detailed enquiries/any questions they can't answer efficiently on a busy exhibition stand.
10. Not Perfecting your Elevator Pitch - You will need to explain your company and products/services countless times during the show so make sure you can explain succinctly and effectively. Practice and perfect this before the show rather than learning how to pitch on real live customers as you go along!
11. Not Listening - Ask some key questions and really listen to your customer to best understand how you can help them. Talk to them, not at them!
12. Not Having Information to Take Away - Many people will not want information overload however some will request simple or detailed literature to take away with them from the show. Ensure you can provide for both requirements. Think about if your stand becomes so busy that the team can't physically talk to everyone.
At least if you can hand out some brief information you have a chance that the individual will keep hold of the information and engage with you at a later date or perhaps even venture back to your booth later in the show if they think it is worth their while.
13. Being Cagey about Pricing - Be prepared to answer questions about price and be upfront. Even if you offer a bespoke service find some way to quantify this and give an idea of minimum and maximum costings on the spot, with the offer of a more detailed proposal to follow. Without being willing to talk frankly about figures you could both be wasting each other's time and missing out on more suitable leads passing you by.
14. Taking Forever to Record Leads - Exhibitions are exciting and I want to ensure I make the most of it. If I agree to share my data with you please ensure that you do this quickly and efficiently, ideally through scanning my badge and quickly taking brief details about what I need more information on.
Asking me to complete a form myself or laboriously watch you complete a handwritten form is not acceptable in this day and age, particularly if there are a million and one questions! It is in your best interest to capture and qualify the lead painlessly so that you can move onto the next visitor too.
In my opinion if you commit to exhibiting an effective way of capturing leads is an essential part of the investment you make.
15. Spamming - I will let you into a secret; I purposefully have two sets of business cards with two different email addresses listed purely because of the amount of spam emails received before and after exhibitions. When registering for an exhibition and on the show floor I use cards with a general email address.
A very privileged few receive business cards with my direct primary email account. Perhaps it is sad that I do this but believe me my inbox is bursting at the seams already without the hundreds of spam emails often sent through from larger shows. This drives me up the wall!
It is also a real lost opportunity as you will lose my attention or be confined to the spam folder forever if you persist with uninspiring email content and/or add me to your email list without expressly gaining my permission!
16. Exhibitors Commandeering the Time of Other Exhibitors - It can be exciting to meet up with industry colleagues and suppliers at an exhibition but please talk to them at the bar at the end of the day, don't steal their time and attention while the show doors are open to visitors.
Even at quieter times respect that this is strictly time for business. Don't deny yourself or others a potential lead walking away whilst you are gossiping to your peers.
17. Uninspiring Tweets - Just because you continually tell people to come and visit your stand using the exhibition hashtag that doesn't mean it will happen! Give your social media messages some thought, tantalise people with a reason to make a visit and have online conversations, don't just broadcast to them! Use pictures and video to full effect and to maximise engagement.
18. Badmouthing Competitors - Focus on your own selling points and be professional at all times. I don't want to hear your assassination of a competitor or rival product. I will make up my own mind thank you very much!
19. Packing Up Early - As an exhibitor you are generally expressly forbidden from packing up your stand early and surely should commit to milking every last minute of your presence at the show you have invested in. Packing up isn't just a potential health and safety issue but it reflects terribly on your organisation and also the show organisers.
Leaving a few brochures spread out for people to take does not make up for human interaction and if you have left the exhibition early the opportunity to secure my business is potentially gone forever.
20. Not Following Up Leads Post Event - You may have heard the shocking statistics that 75% of leads are not followed up after the exhibition. Live events change minds as outlined in these stats from FaceTime so this is really frustrating to hear and such a wasted opportunity!
However please also take heed of point 15 and do not under any circumstances send spam to my inbox! I want a personalised response with the information I requested, not a blanket untargeted and uninspiring mailing!
In Conclusion
Exhibitions are a great way to meet face to face with organisations you are interested in doing business with. For me it isn't necessarily the most impressive stand build and design that captures my attention and business, it is those exhibitors that avoid these mistakes and perfect the basics of exhibiting and engagement that stand out. Ensure you get the most out of your investment in attending the show by avoiding the 20 simple sins of exhibiting outlined in this post.
What frustrates you when you visit an exhibition? Are there other pitfalls that exhibitors should avoid to win your attention and business at the show? I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!
