Making The Best Of The Expo
How To Achieve Exhibition Success
Whichever stand you choose, at Samantha’s fair we make sure the floor plan is laid out well with a flow of traffic that moves through in such away that you get visibility and within just a few hours of opening, thousands of people will walk by. You have only a few minutes to make an impact.
Presentation is everything. Bridal shows are usually noisy with a lot going on. You need to attract attention. Try and use a cohesive color scheme. Make sure your table linens go to the ground. Invest in a nice sign. It doesn’t have to be expensive. Sarit centre usually provides signage so your logo on canvas with a stand will work.
One of the most important things will be your interaction with your prospective clients. You will mainly be talking to brides and their mothers or friends. Greet each person. Ask questions about their wedding. Brides love to talk about their weddings. You can quickly get an idea of what style of wedding they are having and how your service or product will fit in. Be friendly and genuinely interested in them. I notice that the suppliers who have outgoing personalities but who don’t sound like insurance salesmen get the most business. Some suppliers last year chose to serve sparkling wine both alcoholic and non-alcoholic and others handed out cake for tasting.
This is a fantastic idea and certainly draws people to your stand but do not plan to do something like this unless you have help. You don’t want to be too busy serving wine and cake. You want to be able to answer questions and give out information about your business.
How To Get The Business
Think of the last time your company participated in a trade fair, Did you work it to its fullest potential? Did you market your stand properly, and did you get all of the sales possible? Chances are you left some business on the table. Creating and implementing a successful strategy requires more than buying a stand at a trade show to make it work. You need to:
- Remember the most important part is to meet brides and share with them what your company can do to make their wedding special. Your main goal will be to get as many people to book with you as possible. Offer incentives for booking with you right there at the show. You can offer discounts or free products or services. Have your calendar or whatever else you need on hand to take reservations as well as deposits.
- Promote your company’s attendance at the show to motivate attendees to visit you at your booth. For example, send invitations to your entire customer list to tell them you will be in attendance, and what type of specials you will be running. Mail out invitations before the event, offering a special if they turn with the printed message or voucher to your booth.
- Have the right personnel on location to fully capture every potential lead. This is a sales event. If you don’t like to sell, get a salesperson to man the stand for you. Your goal is to get names and contact information for everyone interested in your company, and that stopped by your stand. Follow up is very important, because sales contact “Will be very short” at an event. Train your personnel working on the stand to know exactly what their mission is, why they are there, and what they do with every contact they meet.
- Finally, take advantage of all the advertising opportunities you can, including offering prizes to be won.
- Not all brides come prepared to make deposits and book suppliers. They are just there to look and see what is available. Have literature to hand out and make sure it gets into every bride’s hand. At the front desk where the brides get tickets to enter the show they are often handed bags with free samples and flyers in it. Brides will walk from supplier to supplier and collect information and drop it in their bag. When they get home they will turn their bag out and go through everything they collected. You want your literature to be something she will notice.
Think creatively. You will spend a little money on your handouts but you want them to stand out. Remember that there are a lot of suppliers at the show and you don’t want potential customers to forget about you. Make sure you give them something to take with them such as a brochure, business card or special advertising item. Some great handouts that I have seen include:
* Candy bars wrapped with the company logo and information.
* Small gift boxes filled with a sample of your product and information.
* Envelope tied with a pretty ribbon containing information.
- Don’t expect them to linger long. Make them comfortable moving on; they will remember you if they need your services.
- Establish a lead generating system that captures the right information, and puts it into the proper pipeline. How are you going to contact people after the event? Email? Phone? Mailing? Capture the right information. It’s also a good idea to have your, emails or SMS scripts ready, so you can begin follow up the very next day after the event.
- Be sure to contact other professionals at the event who have display tables. Someone asking for a specific service at a different table could be guided to your table if you have networked and made yourself known to other participants.
- Support the show to its fullest extent, and this requires all exhibit personnel to be on the floor at all times, network at all possible functions, and be fully engaged with the entire event. What can you do to volunteer? Can you help run the fashion show? Can you help stuff the bags to be handed out to attendees? Get in there and help - it’ll help you in the long run.
Without each of these key characteristics in place, companies would be better off not exhibiting at all. Having a good solid plan is what separates most exhibiting companies from their competition. Make your people aware of why you are there, and what you want to accomplish. If you establish realistic goals upfront, there will be less chance of failure in the overall marketing strategy of attendance at the bridal show.
Something To Keep In Mind
Expos are a fabulous way to also check out your competition. See what others are doing so you can compare their business efforts to your own. Learn new things happening in your industry. Remember that the old style of competition is dead. Today’s competitors search for ways to augment their services and place themselves in parallel aspects of their business so they can give and receive referrals. Businesses that once would have been considered “the enemy” are now seen as allies with the common goal of growing commerce and creating abundance in our economy.
Collect ideas from others. Great minds are everywhere and creativity flows from one to another. Be a participant in the flow of ideas! Embrace the possibility of simply having fun. There is all air of festivity at the Samantha’s bridal fair. Participate in the prize drawings; enjoy the “give away” as well as the food and beverages. Expos are a real network happening. Be in the middle of the action rather than looking on from the sidelines.
Make A Difference!
Whether you have an expo display table or attend as a spectator, you will make a difference with your participation. Expos are empowering for everyone involved. Empower yourself by attending the Samantha’s bridal Annual weddings fair.
Psss-
If you are in the wedding industry but chose to come only as an attendee, professional courtesy requires that you do not use this as an opportunity to distribute your own materials throughout the expo area. This is a privilege that participants pay for. They have spent time and money preparing for the event. You will however have a chance to see people you have not seen for a while and get to network with them and catch up on what is happening in the industry. You can collect names and cards, leads from a variety of sources and approach them after the expo. You can call the people you met and arrange to discuss important matters in a more appropriate setting, whether business or even just for friendship.