Are exhibitions worth it?

Do you find yourself asking “Are exhibitions worth it?”

Are you thinking about exhibiting and are worried about the spend and whether you will see a return in terms of leads or sales?

Are you a sales leader who has to see a return on the cost of exhibiting?

Do you have a nagging doubt as to whether exhibitions are worth it? If they feel like a lot of hassle, a real grind, buy you fear what could happen if you didn’t exhibit – then we can help.

Whether you are measuring cost per lead or factoring exhibition costs into your cost per sale, you need to be organised and focused to make the most of your time exhibiting.

That’s why we’ve written our Go To Guide for Successful Exhibitions

The real world

Exhibition organisers will quite rightly tell you all the positives and benefits of appearing at their trade show, conference or exhibition.

The reality can be a logistical headache. A daunting experience for your sales team if they are not sure what to do and a strange environment to operate in. You are vying for the attention of visitors along with your competitors. Your feet will hurt, the air conditioning isn’t in your control, there’s always a queue for the toilets, there could be a hangover or two along the way and your top customer will visit you when you’ve just left the stand.

Despite that, exhibiting can be exciting AND you can see an improvement in your sales figures. A highlight for the team on exhibition duty.

It connects them with their industry, new ideas and innovations, gets them chatting to customers and prospects in a way that sitting in an office or being in the field doesn’t. It reinforces your brand not just to the market, but also to your employees as well.

To get ahead, your planning must be concrete so that you can arrive confident that everything will go smoothly, and that you can ENJOY ( yes enjoy ) the opportunity, rather than fret about your investment or the pressures of the target you must achieve.

The devil is in the detail

You might be fully briefed, clear on your goal for the exhibition, stand looking amazing ( proud moment ), promotional material at the ready, and then you discover that you’ve left your phone charger at the hotel, so you can’t tweet in the way you wanted to.

There is a mountain of things to remember, and that can become overwhelming. Manage those by checklist; we’ve included on in our free Go to Guide to Successful Exhibitions – get your copy by clicking here

People are there to buy, but your competitors are there too

You are vying for the sales that will made during the show. Your competitors are there, their stand might be bigger, better, they may have more people. Your team need to make contact with visitors, spread the word, work the show, and make the most of every opportunity as people arrive on your stand.

Thinking through with the team how they will approach visitors, how they engage them in conversation, qualify them, make the most of the opportunity is an often overlooked step.

So once you’ve read the Go To Guide for Successful Exhibitions, circulated it among your exhibition team, why not take that extra step to ensure that your time and energy exhibiting is worth it?

We’ve developed a great training course on exhibitions to enthuse your team, build their confidence, and achieve your objectives whether that’s lead capture or sales orders. This is the feedback that it gets.

“I reached out to Diane at Intelligent Dialogue to put together some training for my sales team for an upcoming exhibition. Our team are telesales-based, and it’s not often they get to meet customers face to face. I wanted them to proactively go after leads, ask the right questions when trying to close a sale, provide an exceptional customer experience and feel confident about our overall exhibition strategy. The feedback from the team was exceptional and left them buzzing; they found the situational role-play very helpful. They left the training with increased confidence and couldn’t wait to get to the exhibition to smash our sales target; which they did! I would highly recommend Diane as a sales trainer and will be using her again for next years exhibition team.”

Grant Long

General Manager, Kent Express Dental Supplies