Attending an exhibition as a Sales Professional is a big responsibility, the costs associated with exhibiting are usually significant and your company will be looking to ensure a ROI.
Exhibitions can also offer a considerable ROI of your personal time and energy. Consider all the resource invested on your individual customer site visits throughout the year. Whilst you can never replace these invaluable visits; with exhibitions, large numbers of your customers will all be in the same place at this same time, what a great opportunity!
Exhibitions are about maximizing customer exposure, educating and generating awareness of your current and future product portfolio. With the aim of generating leads which you can later develop into qualified opportunities.
Below are my 10 tips to ensure a ROI from your Sales Exhibitions, starting with carefully selecting the exhibitions you attend. Exhibitions closely aligned with your market, and where decision makers and budget holders will be in attendance;
- Carefully Select the exhibitions you attend – to ensure an ROI
- Advanced Preparation – externally marketing campaigns, internally to prepare Sales
- Differentiate your booth and collateral – unique giveaways can create a buzz and a queue!
- Bring High Energy to every exhibition – maximize customer exposure and lead generation
- Orientate yourself with exhibition booth – and all product and marketing collateral
- Proactive – Prepare your Ice Breaker Questions, step out of the booth
- Efficiency – keep conversations to 5 minutes
- Be Present and Focused throughout – take regular short breaks
- Non-Verbal communication is crucial – appearance, no phones food or drink, Smile!
- Take notes throughout – record your Data in your CRM
Ultimately the above is a cycle take detailed notes throughout the exhibition and record any exhibition generated leads in your CRM, this will help you to quantify ROI and select which exhibitions you attend in the future.
One of the key points above is Differentiation. I would love to hear from you about your exhibition experiences. Next time you attend an exhibition, take 5 minutes to stand back look closely at your exhibition booth and look as closely as you can at your competitors. What are your colours, what tag lines and other buzz words do you see. Please contact SalesAde with your findings.
Social media can be extremely helpful in promoting your exhibitions, however, I highly encourage creativity. A photo of Sales professionals standing behind an exhibition desk and a pile of product brochures, using a tag line come and see us is not creative!!
Remember to enjoy your exhibition, but not too much in the evenings!
I’m passionate about exhibitions. A significant ROI is possible by following the above top tips. If you would like to learn more about Ice Breaker Questions and Enterprising Exhibitions , please contact SalesAde.
