Nowhere else do supply and demand meet as closely as at a trade fair. Trade fair appearances – whether at the local trade show or at a regional construction, home and crafts fair – promote awareness, ensure a good image and serve to cultivate customers. Regional trade and consumer exhibitions bring together around 50,000 exhibitors and […]
Nowhere else do supply and demand meet as closely as at a trade fair. Trade fair appearances – whether at the local trade show or at a regional construction, home and crafts fair – promote awareness, ensure a good image and serve to cultivate customers. Around 50,000 exhibitors and five to six million visitors come together at regional trade and consumer exhibitions every year. However, participation costs money and the time required is immense. This is why image and awareness, especially for smaller companies, are not enough on their own as a trade fair and event objective. A stand at a trade fair or in-house exhibition should always also serve to acquire new customers. The motto: making contacts and initiating orders.
However, this is exactly what many exhibitors find difficult. Often far too few qualified discussions are held or they come to nothing. Equally important is the follow-up of the contacts made, which should not be left undone in the daily stress. When a number of customers stroll past your stand at a trade fair, it’s as if you’ve suddenly moved your business to a busy pedestrian zone. If you want your stand to be visited and the right customers to stay there longer than just for a “Thank you, I just want to look around”, you have to do something about it.
That’s why you need clear goals for every trade fair appearance and every customer event (what exactly do we want to achieve, how many and which customers do we want to address, how many contacts do we want to acquire, etc.) and good preparation and follow-up. You should also train everyone working on the stand on how to approach customers, how to identify demand professionally under time pressure and what benefits you want to emphasize at your stand.
You have to practise trade fair talks
Conducting good trade fair talks is not that easy. Either the talks are very short and don’t produce any results. Or they take far too long – while other visitors rush past the stand because the staff are busy. Sales and trade fair trainer Dirk Kreuter (author of the book “Erfolgreich akquirieren auf Messen. Five steps to new customers”) recommends thinking carefully in advance about what conversations are feasible at a trade fair or event and what kind of conversations make sense:
Smile – “Hello” – Determine demand
Trade fairs and trade shows can be real sales generators, as you rarely have the opportunity to talk to so many customers in such a short space of time. You should therefore plan exactly how you will present your company during the meeting. This also includes your “elevator pitch” (what do we do, what benefits do we offer, which customers do we appeal to), which you should definitely have in mind and present at your stand.
Make contact: In a trade fair meeting, it is important to find out quickly whether a visitor is even a potential customer for you. In other words, whether the natural stone bathroom is just an (unrealizable) dream (which you will nevertheless take a look at) or whether the plans are reasonably concrete and fit into the budget. The principle is: If a visitor is not relevant to you, politely say goodbye and move on to the next visitor to your stand. This is the only way to have the time you need for qualified discussions with the right visitors when there is a large crowd.
Read more about how to present your business properly at trade fairs in STEIN in May 2015.
