How to showcase your business

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Last night I went to an interesting event organised by the great team at MCEI.  The guest speaker was Joe Dorfman from Tradeshow Coach who talked about how businesses can get the best possible results from conferences and expos.  If you put the right strategies in place, customers will come to you rather you having to chase them (wouldn’t that be great?)

Briefly, Joe took us through the 4 P’s of maximising your attendance at a tradeshow…

  • Planning – set clear and specific goals for your presence at the show and be thorough in your pre-show preparation to get the most out of it.  Exhibiting at a tradeshow is an significant investment in your business so you want to get the best possible return.
  • Promotion – If your customers don’t know you’re there, how can you expect them to visit you?  Send out personalised invitations and give them a reason to drop by your stand.  If you’re launching a new product, your customers will definitely want to check it out.  Don’t forget to promote your exhibition attendance on your website.
  • People – For some people, being in the public eye just isn’t their thing.  But when you’re at a tradeshow you can’t avoid the public – they’re all around you!  And it is the public who are your potential customers.  So shying away from them and not proactively encouraging them to chat to you to see if you can help them in some way won’t get results.  There are specific skills and expertise that are critical to the effectiveness and success of you exhibiting at a tradeshow and investing time in training and grooming your people is important.
  • Productivity – Say you’ve collected a heap of business cards and completed questionnaires that tell you who has visited your stand and what they’re interested in.  There’s no point dumping them in the “to do” tray to action in a few weeks time – you need to act on those leads quickly because they’re hot!  Before the show, establish a follow-up process that ensures productive results and benchmarks to evaluate show activity and all the effort you put into making it happen.  It will be well worth it.

Visit The Tradeshow Coach website to find out how they can help you get the most of out your next exhibition.  If you need any help promoting your attendance at a tradeshow, whether it is writing copy for invitations or organising publicity, send me an email ruth@purplechameleon.com.au.

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