I have organised many exhibitions here in Spain and, worked well, exhibitions can give you a rich stream of quality referrals at low unit costs. Worked badly, however, you may as well flush the money away.

Here are my extra five top tips to help you have a successful and profitable exhibition.

1.YOU are here to WORK
I have seen exhibitors hide themselves in newspapers when people have even been on their stand. I have seen exhibitors arrive late and leave early. Why? You have paid for the full “x” hours, so use them. You may often see more prospects in three days than you will see in three months. Would you write three months off? No. So why arrive at the exhibition with the Sunday Times and determined to watch your team on Sky Sports for two hours, irrelevant of whether the show is busy or not.

2. Other exhibitors are also potential customers
Try to network with them on set-up day, when you/they are quiet or in the cafés etc. There is almost an “unwritten rule” that you have to listen to other exhibitors …the upside is that you get a chance to do an elevator pitch yourself. If there is an exhibitors’ workshop before the event you MUST attend. Apart from anything, it’s a great chance to network and you may also see that your biggest competitor is there - you may decide to co-operate with them or decide to promote something else?

3. CONSIDER doing something different
At a Spanish property exhibition a guy marketing Bulgaria had the busiest stand. There were 100 people all selling the same off-plan boxes and he was the only one offering Bulgaria. He was non-stop for three days. Likewise at another exhibition, a new agency was advertising “Only” for houses to go ONTO their books. That got them a steady stream of people who came to them and admitted they were looking to sell because they were keen to move inland/upsize/down-size etc In other words, they got a stream of new prospects for sales too.

4. After planning is important, as well as pre planning. It is not a great idea to do an exhibition the day before you go on holiday for a fortnight or have nobody to follow quality referrals. Unless you are selling low-ticket items, “the money is in the follow-up”. If you do not follow up promptly, professionally you may as well not exhibit.

5. ENJOY IT!! Nobody likes talking to a grumpy exhibitor, so if you are having a bad exhibition for whatever reason, it will only get worse if you tell all and sundry your woes!

 

© Steve Hall
Founder and Editor of www.thisisspain.info