10 Tips For Manning Your Exhibition Booth with Limited Sales Experience
After 6 years in the corporate events industry and an even lengthier stint in various customer-facing roles beforehand, I can say with authority that in-person conversations remain one of the most powerful channels to build relationships and develop business.
If you are in a more technical or organisational role, you may now be required to offer your unique insight at events as sales processes are increasingly complex with more stakeholders on either side of a deal.
However, without direct sales experience, how do you make the most of your time at an event and make sure you’re a great ambassador for your organisation?
Whether you’re a seasoned professional looking to get back to basics or an event newbie, read my top 10 tips for exhibiting below:
1. Preparation Is Key!
I know this is an obvious sentiment, however, you will get a lot more from an event if you arrive with a clear plan of action. In advance, you should have:
- Your marketing collateral and signage in order.
- A good supply of business cards, no one wants to be the person handing out their email address on scraps of notebook paper…
- The delegate list to hand and know who you want to speak with and about what.
- Connected with key contacts and arranged meetings; between 4 to 2 weeks beforehand is usually a good window for this. They are actively thinking about meetings and you are fresh in their mind at the event.
- Discussed your plans with your colleagues who will also be on the stand, this will give you fresh ideas and help you refine your pitch.
2. Define your goals
Smart targets are achievable, measurable and effective. Consider what you want from the event and find ways to quantify and measure this. Do you want to develop your network? Count how many new connections you can get on Linkedin. Do you want to build a marketing list? Incentivise new subscriptions to your newsletter.
3. Prepare for conversations
Consider what you want to learn from your potential customers, formulate questions that will open conversations and get them talking. No one expects you to know everything about their business, be interested in them and their role and the conversation will naturally lead to opportunities.
Prepare your pitch – start with why your organisation exists and what problem you solve for your clients. Not every selling point will be applicable to everyone, so use open questions to identify each delegate’s pain points and customise your pitch accordingly.
4. Collateral
My first piece of advice here is to know how your stand is assembled! Put it up in your office before it’s shipped to practice. It’s not a great look when every other exhibitor’s booth is up and running and you’re wrestling with a sock banner…
Make sure your brochures are relevant to the target audience, succinct and there aren’t too many different versions to choose from. Having a table that is too busy is the same an empty booth, attendees won’t pay attention either way.
5. On your feet
The biggest mistake I often encounter is booth staff hiding behind laptops or playing on their phones during networking breaks. You may feel productive working through your inbox, but you’re not present in the room. No one is going to approach someone who looks busy for fear of interrupting! Stand up in front of your table, remove all devices and be as approachable as possible.
6. Mingle
Now your laptop and phone are away, there should be nothing on your stand that you don’t want people to take. This means you aren’t tied to your stand, go out and mingle with the crowd! The coffee machine or buffet queue are great places to break the ice and begin conversations. If they go in the right direction, you can walk people to your booth to give them more information.
7. Be memorable
Everyone walks away with hundreds of new names and companies to remember after an event. To ensure attendees remember who you are when you follow up, make sure you have something to jog their memory.
This could be something simple that you remember from your conversation like where they are going on their next holiday or their dog’s name. Be interested in them and make notes to ensure you get a response.
Every exhibitor is vying for delegates’ attention, boost your company’s profile by creating a competition or incentive. Make sure you have an activity that is fun, simple, adds value and, most importantly, gives you an opportunity to open and continue conversations.
8. Avoid cumbersome technology
I will caveat this point by saying that there are some elegant solutions available especially when demonstrating software solutions. However, for the most part, having to interrupt a conversation to unlock your laptop and navigate to the right file in order to pitch your business is not the smoothest process and is often unreliable. Utilise leaflets and brochures strategically to make your conversations flow.
A lot of events will offer you badge scanning or lead capture devices. Make sure you know how these work in advance, test them out and work out the easiest and quickest way of entering notes. Again, you don’t want to spend your time fiddling with your phone while potential customers walk past!
9. Don’t dine with colleagues
This can be a frightening concept but remember, people who attend events expect to meet new people. Spending the entire lunch break with the same colleagues you sit next to in the office is counterproductive. Instead, I have found some of my best customers by finding a gap at a table and asking to join the conversation. If you find this too daunting at first, ask for a colleague to accompany you but make sure you’re both speaking to new people, not just each other.
10. Follow up!
After your throat is sore, your feet are aching and your pockets are full of business cards, the most important step is yet to come. Make sure you have allocated time to write up your notes and follow up with all of the contacts you have made.
Timing is everything here, you want to make sure that you and the event are still fresh in their minds and keep the momentum going so don’t keep them waiting to hear from you. Follow up with something memorable from the event and your discussion, add value by passing on useful information and establish next steps. The goal here is to continue your conversation and nurture the connection into a mutually beneficial, long lasting relationship.
Best of luck at your next event, the above tips are by no means exhaustive. Get in touch with me on Linkedin with your thoughts and let me know what works for you!
Kind regards,
Chris
Senior Business Development Manager
Brightelm are a team of association event experts, we make it our mission to ensure our client’s event are a success. If you are looking to save time, resources or improve your event offering, get in touch at hello@brightelm.co.uk.