Exhibitor Tips | 2012

Increase your success at the 2011 Gauteng HOMEMAKERS Expo!

Increase your potential for success before, during and after the expo! In order for you and your company to maximise the benefit from exhibiting at the Homemakers Expo take the time necessary to read these tips. Please don’t hesitate to contact our offices should you have any further queries.

Pre-show Promotions

• Invite potential and past clients of yours to visit your stand. This will promote higher targeted attendance at the show and at your stand in particular. Personal invitations, tele-marketing and advertising promotions all work in getting people to your stand.
• Issue press releases announcing new products and services and special show promotions.
• Change your company postage meter to announce the show.
• Mail out cards or special coupons redeemable for a gift at your stand.
• Put stickers promoting the show on all company correspondence, including faxes.
• Personal telephone calls just prior to the show always help.
• Announce the fact that your company will be at the show in all advertising you place.
• Remember: all printed material must give location, stand number, dates and times.

Promotion at the show will include:

• Price discounts or value-added promotions.
• Targeting prospects on-site and scheduling appointment times during the show.
• Collect business cards and keep a lead book.
• Handing out unusual giveaway items with your name and phone number printed on them.
• Distributing discount coupons valid only for a specific time period after the show.

Demonstrations at Expo’s have proven to be a key success element in show strategy.

So:

• Be aware of people’s first impressions.
• Practice your demonstrations, anticipate questions and prepare answers prior to the show.
• Know every aspect of your product/service.
• Position yourself so that you can see the audience and the product. Keep people from standing behind you where they can’t see you or the product properly.
• Make eye contact, i.e. show you are interested and acknowledge newcomers to your demo’s.
• Use body language to convey confidence and conviction.
• Adjust to the audience, stress benefits and solutions to the problems.
• Use the demo to qualify sales opportunities.

Post show promotion

• Immediately following the show, contact all prospects/customers who visited your stand.
• Analyse coupon redemption patterns and build a database for the future.
• Ask for referrals from prospects and customers.

How to dress for expo success

A general rule of thumb is to dress the same or slightly better than your customers.  As most show visitors are dressed casually, a more relaxed dress code is in order.  A casual appearance can make you more approachable.

If you choose to create a uniform look for your stand staff, be specific.  If you decide to use matching jerseys or shirts printed with your company’s logo, make sure you are also specific about the colour and type of pants, skirts and shoes your staff must wear to complete the look.

Take advantage of the unified look to promote team atmosphere among staff.  Your staff also become easily identifiable anywhere on the show floor.  Uniform wearing also eliminates the inevitable poor wardrobe choices.

How “not” to greet show visitors

It is critical that your staff create a welcoming atmosphere that makes it appealing for visitors to
want to stop by.

• Do not sit – This gives visitors the impression that you don’t care or you’re lazy. Visitors won’t approach or interrupt you.
• Don’t read – You aren’t able to make eye contact with visitors as they walk by your stand.
• Don’t eat or drink – it’s rude and can be messy. Potential customers are too polite to bother you when you’re eating.
• Don’t ignore visitors – If you’re busy when someone approaches, either acknowledge them or try to include them in your conversation.  If you’re speaking to a colleague, break it off immediately.
• Don’t talk on the telephone – Why do you need a phone on your stand?  Time on the phone is time away from potential customers and tells everyone you have better things to do!
• Don’t be a border guard – Don’t stand where you become a barricade or block the visitor’s view. Stand near the aisle and off to the side.
• Don’t hand out literature freely – Try to be discriminating in who gets literature.
• Don’t underestimate prospects – Get out of the habit of sizing up somebody simply by the way they look.  Qualify them, don’t classify them.
• Don’t cluster with friends and colleagues – Nobody will approach a group of strangers, it’s too intimidating.  Be more approachable.