Even the most experienced exhibitors can make rookie mistakes.
Don't sabotage your own efforts to make your exhibition stand a success by avoiding these common errors.
You're ready to set up your site, and you find out the walls are a totally different colour than you expected. Or there's not enough power points. Or you have no Wi-Fi for your mobile Eftpos machine.
Did you read your Exhibitor Guide?
- Most common queries are answered in the organisers' guide. Make sure you read and comprehend it.
- Don't assume! If you have questions, ask.
- Ensure you share the guide with the staff setting up your stand and manning it during the event.
- Even if you've attended the same show before, things evolve as shows are developed and improved. Check to see if there's been any changes.
One of your own products is a great choice, but may not always be possible. If you sell gym memberships, do you think your audience would be more receptive to new sports gear or a large pizza?
- Keep it simple - set one or two clear objectives.
- Establish expectations before the event so you can create a solid action plan.
- Make your targets measurable. 'Market presence' is an admirable goal, but how will you know if you've achieved it?
- Set up your stand, promotions and marketing material based on what you want to achieve.
- Clue in your staff on why you're doing this so they can work towards the objectives as well.
Your staff look bored and unhappy. One sits behind a desk staring into the distance. The other is checking his phone. Visitors are bypassing your stand without a second glance.
Your staff are even more important than the posters on the wall - distracted, unfriendly staff are a huge turnoff for potential clients.
- Staff should appear approachable. Stand near the walkway, smiling and greeting people.
- Nobody wants to interrupt somebody who looks like they have something more important to do. Focus on the customers.
- Don't eat at the stand.
- Put down the phone and look away from the computer screen.
- Overenthusiasm or pushiness can be just as offputting. Never initiate conversation with a long-winded sales pitch. Nothing scares visitors off faster than an exhibitor that appears desperate for a sale, and you won't gain anything by forcing them to pay attention to you.
- Ensure staff are easily identifiable through clothing and name tags.
The response to your stand is fantastic! You're all busy, all the time. The problem is, potential clients aren't waiting. They see everyone is frantic and they just move on.
Your staff are burnt out and unhappy - they never want to do another exhibition again.
- Anticipating staffing levels is understandably difficult. It's a balancing act between the size of the show, the size of your stand, what you're offering and who's available. This may be a learning curve.
- Event staff are not robots - make sure you have enough people to cover regular breaks and everybody is getting enough time to eat, drink and have a rest.
- If your strategy involves one-on-one consultations with clients, allocate one staff member who will be available to greet potential new customers.
This is great! You're out in the aisles handing out brochures and you've gone and tucked a few behind with wipers of cars in the parking lot.
You've got a microphone and a loudspeaker, music is pumping, and you even managed to grab an extra bit of space by building your stand out into the aisle.
Why aren't your neighbouring exhibitors looking very pleased?
- You're in a shared space and consideration is important.
- All business negotiations, including the distribution of promotional material, should be confined to your allocated stand area.
- Do not tuck brochures into windshield wipers in the carpark. Cars are private property and it's invasive to go around touching them, and many councils consider this to be littering.
- Your stand needs to stay inside the space allocated to you. Don't build into the aisles - this isn't fair on other exhibitors who have stuck to their area and the size of aisles is a careful consideration for organisers.
- If you're using audiovisual equipment or a microphone, inform the show organisers beforehand. They'll need to keep this in mind when booking the sites around you. There is an acceptable level of sound that doesn't encroach on others around you.
- Keep your litter to yourself. Confetti has a way of spreading, and helium balloons can be impossible to retrieve from the ceiling if they're accidentally released.
- Fumes from cooking and appliances has a way of drifting around. Even some products have a strong smell - great if you sell soap, less so if you sell compost. Unless it's in the context of the show - like cooking samples at a food show - try to anticipate if your stand's odour will annoy anybody.
It's the last day of the show. You're tired, visitor numbers are petering out. There's no harm in getting a jump on the rush and packing up your stand early, right?
The exhibition organisers come by and ask you to stop packing up. Why would they do this? It's nearly closing time anyway.
- Your stand is open as long as the advertised show hours. Resist the temptation to pack up early.
- Abandoning your site early leaves a bad impression. It reflects badly not just on your business, but the event as a whole.
- You are creating a potential health and safety issue.
- Just because they're the last visitors at the show, it doesn't make them the least important visitors. Why not milk every opportunity?
- Leaving a stack of brochures isn't the same as a human presence in a show display - the whole reason you're there in the first place!
It was great seeing all those potential clients at the show. Now that it's over, you can move on to the next project.
- Follow up leads promptly as promised. Said you'd call on Wednesday? Call on Wednesday.
- Stay in the minds of show visitors after the event through emails or social media.
- Don't be too pushy - incessant phone calls and emails are incredibly offputting. Keep it simple and timely.
