Here is the second part of four of Roy’s rules for exhibiting – before each Security TWENTY show, Roy Cooper, MD of Professional Security magazine, holds an informal training session.
Have enough help on your stand, so that if one wants to take a break, another can cover. Before the exhibition opens, find your way around, so that you can advise visitors; make yourself familiar with the floor plan. Check out where your competitors are, although it may be that you don’t have any. On the other hand, you may have one of your distributors or a potential partner at the show; so you can visit them at some point.
Read the welcome pack. That’s the red folder on each stand. It holds your identity badges, and details everything you need to know – what time the doors open, and the welcome reception the evening before.
Make sure all your team are briefed about the stand; your staff have to understand what they are selling. If a particular product is Jim’s area, and he’s not on stand, and you can’t explain it to the customer who is asking, you are not going to make a sale.
Don’t pounce or sneak up on visitors as they walk near your stand; it’s not natural, and will put people off. Instead, show your stand is welcoming and open for business; don’t stand as if on guard, don’t stand with folded arms; and don’t hold a clipboard.
Roy offered the idea that a stand has ‘the invisible line’. As in a shop, once a visitor crosses the threshold into your space, you can talk, rather than pull them into your space. Keep your stand clean and tidy; remove coffee cups and plates. Make sure it is obvious to people what you do; and don’t assume people know your product.
Remove barriers between you and the customer; a common one is that stand-holders use their table as a barrier. Think of your stand as your shop window – if people don’t walk into your shop, you don’t make a sale.
Get creative. Use objects of different heights, and hire a monitor if you have to, all to create an impact (pictured; Vivotek at the ST20 Birmingham show last month at the Hilton Metropole at the NEC). Sounds like alarm sirens create an interest – ‘it always attract people’. You don’t have to have a give-away on your stand, though as Roy said a large show such as IFSEC will see people who walk around for the freebies – the memory sticks, the mugs and bags. It’s always worth running a competition, although be careful due to the new (2018) data protection law.
Make your stand bright, and full of colour. Use lights, if you have them. ‘Make your stand a happy place.’
Part three of four: examples of good, and bad, practice.
