The Power of Exhibitions for Small Businesses
Many small businesses overlook the power of using local exhibitions to showcase their business to potential customers. From local Chamber of Commerce and Business Link exhibitions to larger more corporate/national events. Chose the right exhibition with the right people relevant to what you are offering and make sure you follow these 5 tips to ensure it’s a storming success.
1. Decide what your objective is for the exhibition. Is it to sell or is it to collect data/email addresses (answer - you should be able to do both!). Some prospects will be ready to do business with you on the day so make sure they have the opportunity, but others will want to walk away with your information to mull things over. Don’t just let people leave with a bag full of leaflets without getting their contact details and having a reason to follow up. You can offer to email them your information rather than hand it over or what about a useful guide or free report that they can sign up for.
2. Have a special show offer – make sure it’s a good one, don’t be frightened to invest upfront to get yourself a new customer. What’s the lifetime value of a customer to you and what would you be prepared to invest to get a new customer? Make sure you shout about the offer on your stand with a big banner. You have a very short period of time to catch people’s attention.
3. Make it easy for people to understand what you do and how it can help them – your stand should clearly tell people how you can help them and how it will make their life easier, not just what you do. Time is short to get your message across as people wonder past so make the message clear and use the special offer to draw them in.
4. Watch out for time vampires – make sure you qualify your conversations and spend time with the hot prospects. Don’t feel obliged to speak with people that just want a chat and are not interested in your product when hot leads could be walking over to your competitors. Don’t just use your elevator pitch with everyone that you speak to but instead ask them what it is they are looking for and if they have found what they wanted at the show.
5. Work in teams – save your best people to have the conversations with the hottest leads. If you have one or two people helping you on the stand get them to qualify people and then introduce the hot prospects for you to deal with. This means less time wasters for you and more good conversations with the best prospects.
