Exhibitions

Surprisingly, quite a bit. There are some very strong similarities between Winnie the Pooh and the other inhabitants of the Hundred Acre Woods and many tradeshow exhibitors. Don’t believe me? Take a look and see how many of your staffers you recognize:

Winnie the Pooh

Pooh Bear may be cute, cuddly and approachable — but he’s also got one thing on his mind. What makes this roly poly bear happy? Honey, of course! He’s obsessed with the golden sweet — when he’s not enjoying a meal, he’s in search of the next smackerel to fill his rumbly-tummy.

A Pooh-style booth staffer is hungry. He might be talking to attendees, but he’s thinking about lunch. If someone walks by with a sandwich, his eyes are instantly drawn to it. Scents from the food court get his nostrils quivering. When he gets a chance to eat, he takes it: even if that means eating in the booth!

Piglet

Piglet is a very small animal, made even more timid when confronted with unfamiliar surroundings, loud noises, bright colors, and crowds. His reaction? Why, to run and hide under the bed, of course, or behind his good friend Pooh.

A Piglet-style staffer may be naturally shy or someone who is easily overwhelmed. Their reaction, inspired by fear, is to fade into the back of the booth and hope no one notices them. More often than not, they get their wish — which is good for them, but bad for your bottom line.

Owl

Owl is an exceedingly well educated bird. He’s got a brain just cram-packed full of facts and figures — and he wants you to know it. No tidbit of information is too small to escape his attention, nor to avoid being retold to anyone who will listen.

If you have an Owl-style staffer, you might count yourself lucky. After all, she knows EVERYTHING! However, watch your Owl in action. Their overwhelming compulsion to ‘show off’ their knowledge can easily alienate attendees and send them in search of a salesperson who knows how to listen.

Rabbit

Rabbit is the busiest creature in the Hundred Acre Woods. He’s always rushing around: planting seeds over here, pulling weeds over there, chasing crows and watering daffodils. There are a million and one tasks required to keep his beloved garden blooming, and they’re all very important.

You can always tell a Rabbit-style staffer. They’re the ones with a cell phone constantly in their ear, fingers flying over the keyboard as they check e-mails or text message the home office. They’re so obviously busy taking care of business that they can’t be bothered with trivial distractions — like talking to show attendees!

Tigger

Tigger is full of energy. He bounces around, springing from one thing that catches his attention to the next. Full of laughs, high spirits and infectious energy, Tiggers are a lot of fun to have around.

Put Tigger at a tradeshow, however, and you might have a problem. Enthusiasm and high energy can attract traffic to your exhibit, but without some focus and control (concepts foreign to most Tigger-types) there’s no way to capitalize on your crowds.

At this point, you might be feeling a little like Eeyore — down in the dumps. After all, with a booth full of Poohs, Piglets, Owls, Rabbits & Tiggers, your chances for success are looking pretty slim. Don’t despair! The hero of the Hundred Acre Woods is on his way!

Christopher Robin

The human companion to Winnie the Pooh and all of his furry friends, Christopher Robin encompasses the best traits of all five and adds a crucial element: perspective and understanding of how things actually work.

A Christopher Robin-style staffer combines Owl’s knowledge, Tigger’s enthusiasm and Pooh’s approachability with an understanding and appreciation for the tradeshow attendee. They realize the importance of giving all their attention to their visitor, setting aside the cell phone, the lap top –even the sandwich! — to focus on what’s really important.

Every exhibitor needs to have a Christopher Robin on their team, preferably more than one. Now’s the time to take a look at your team.

How many Christopher Robins do you have?

How many Poohs? Piglets? Tiggers?

What can you do to change the makeup in your Hundred Acre Woods?

(Winnie the Pooh, Piglet, Tigger, Owl, Eeyore, Rabbit, Christopher Robin and the Hundred Acre Woods are all ™ Disney)

Appearances can be deceiving. What you don’t see is the long, grueling hours of training and practice star athletes put in behind the scenes: the endless laps around the track with no one watching, the skill drills where that star player practices jump shot after jump shot after jump shot.

The same is true for exhibiting. The truly great exhibitors don’t just show up at the show and automatically know how to turn in a great performance. They’ve trained for the event, making sure that they’ve got a good grasp of the fundamental skills needed and the game-day strategy critical to ensure success.

What type of training routine does your exhibiting team have? Most companies, if they answered honestly, would have to say little to no time is devoted to practicing the skills needed to do a good job on the show floor. It’s assumed that the skills necessary to be a good salesman or manufacturer’s rep in the field will automatically transfer over into the show environment.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Someone who jogs everyday, even if they run for miles at a time, does not automatically turn into a top-notch marathon runner. You can work out in the weight room twice a week at the gym. That doesn’t mean you’re anywhere near ready to go compete in Olympic level power lifting!

There are some essential differences between the everyday routine your sales reps face and the high-pressure intense situation they encounter on the show floor. From the extremely limited amount of time your team has with each attendee to the length of the event to the sheer numbers of people one talks to in the course of the day, tradeshows are a demanding event. One needs to maintain lightning quick reflexes like a boxer while performing for hours on end like a marathon runner. The only way to combine these two seemingly disparate skill sets is by training.

If you want your team to break the ribbon, bring home the gold medal, claim the trophy, then you need to provide them with the training and practice opportunities they’ll need to succeed.

This training takes place ‘behind the scenes’ yet yields very visible results. Sharpening skills for tradeshows will also improve performance in the everyday sales environment: active listening, for example, will help your team focus on the customer, truly understand their needs, and deliver accordingly. This will deepen and reinforce existing relationships, as well as make establishing new relationships easier — after all, an existing customer will have no hesitation recommending a vendor who does so much for them!

For maximum results, training efforts should be consistent throughout the year, intensifying as major events draw closer. Consider having your own “Spring Training Camp” sessions before the exhibiting season begins, to refresh booth skills, learn new information, and familiarize your team with the product lines and demonstrations you’ll be featuring.

Spring Training is mandatory for the baseball crowd, and it should be mandatory for your team too! Nobody is too experienced, too important or too busy to do what is, at the core, the most important aspect of everyone’s job: focus on the customer. Additionally, training together can help form valuable team bonds, a critical resource when you’re functioning in a high pressure environment.

Many times, training is viewed as a valuable perk. This is especially true as the pool of employees skews younger: the folks entering the job market today tend to place a higher premium on knowledge for knowledge’s sake than previous generations did. They’re savvy enough to realize training comes with expectations of enhanced performance — but they also continually cite chances for education and career skills development as one of the factors they consider critical when choosing employers. If retaining your most valuable asset — your employees — is important to you, that’s just one more reason to put training on the schedule.

To recap: training is essential to ensure top notch performance for your team. For maximum results, provide training that is relevant, consistent, and of high value. Everyone should participate, with a focus on educating your staffers and strengthening team bonds.

That way, when it’s time for your team to take to the field, they too will turn in a top notch performance — and make it look like it’s the most natural thing in the world!

This got me thinking about the two types of people: gamblers and planners. Both would like to have the big bag of cash, but they take different routes to achieve it. A gambler might plunk down a dollar — or two, or twenty, or two hundred — in hopes of winning big in a lottery, while the planner follows a less exciting route of saving and investing. At the end of the day, who’s more likely to have the big bucks? Chances are, it’d be the planner.

Tradeshow exhibiting works the same way. You can gamble on having a good show, approaching it in a frenzy because ‘everybody’s doing it’ and you’ve heard there’s big money to be had, or you can approach it methodically, making a plan, doing your research, and making those actions that are prudent and improve your bottom line.

Some gamblers win. That’s what keeps lotteries going, after all. Some exhibitors show up with only half an idea of what they’re doing, a horrible exhibit and only fledgling show skills, and yet still have a triumphant show. But the odds are against most gamblers. For every winner, there are thousands of losers. For every successful ‘We just wing it’ exhibitor, there are hundreds who look at the time and effort expended and realize they could have done much, much better — if only they’d taken the time to learn what they were doing. Are you willing to take that chance?

I’m not much of a gambler myself, but even I know you should never lay money on the table without knowing what’s at stake. Ask yourself, what could happen if I leave my tradeshow performance to chance?

You could luck out and have a fabulous show.

You could also:

- Miss out on great sales opportunities because your booth staffers didn’t ask the right questions.
- Alienate would be buyers with pushy sales tactics, off color humor, or crass booth behavior.
- Make any of a dozen common mistakes that cost companies customers.
- Ruin your standing in the industry by appearing inept and poorly prepared next to your peers.
- Discourage would-be partners from considering doing business with you: after all, you obviously don’t have your act together!
- And even more!

Losing this wager doesn’t appear so inconsequential anymore, does it? When the real life cost of poor show performance is spelled out, the planning route suddenly becomes far more attractive.

Ideally, tradeshow planning begins twelve to eighteen months before the event. This is the best way to ensure your staffers know what’s expected of them, and have time to develop and practice the skills they need to do the best job possible.

What happens if you’re within that window? Do you just throw the dice and hope for the best?

You can: or you can choose to do the best you can in the time you have. Any preparation, even a few hurried hours before the event, is better than none at all. Obviously, the more you have, the better off you are.

Priority items to cover include goals and objectives: Why are you at the show and what do you want to accomplish? Go over qualifying questions: what type of attendees should your staffers be spending time with, and what type of information do you want them to collect. Establish a lead collection and follow up procedure to maximize your return on the show.

All of this is obviously a lot of work — which is why the planner types start well in advance of the show. However, when you consider the alternative — winging it through one of the highest profile marketing exercises you’ll engage in all year — you’ve just got to ask yourself one question:

Do you feel lucky?

It’s almost impossible to realize positive ROI when you don’t know how much you’re spending — and what you’re spending it on! If you ask most exhibitors what they think the largest expense associated with tradeshow participation is, chances are they’ll tell you the display space.

It’s true that exhibiting space is expensive. That 10X10 booth can set you back a pretty penny — and price tags go up for larger spaces and prime locations. However, exhibiting space itself is generally only 30% of the total cost associated with exhibiting.

That 30% of your budget is fairly fixed. A fabulous negotiator might be able to get show management to shave a few hundred off the price of exhibit space, but that’s the exception rather than the rule.

Instead, you’ll want to concentrate on that other 70% of your budget. The expenses that make up the bulk of your participation cost are, to some degree, variable. They’re under your control — which means, with time, planning, and oversight, you can keep them down. The lower your costs are, after all, the easier it will be to generate a positive ROI on your show!

The reality is, however, that most exhibitors don’t pay close attention — or any attention at all! — to some of the items that make up the remaining 70%. The cost of their show creeps steadily upward, bit by bit, as small charges mount up and up until they’re a sizable chunk of change. This is particularly common among new exhibitors — although it also plagues seasoned pros who fall prey to the assumption trap. This is when an exhibitor assumes that things will be done this year the way they’ve always been done previously. Like all assumptions, this one can prove costly!

Here are some of the items that make up that 70%, as well as some thoughts on how to keep these costs manageable.

Display Materials

Your display can make your show: attractively presenting your merchandise in an eye-catching and innovative way helps capture attendee interest and draw them to your booth. However, you want to make sure that you’re not overspending on your display. There’s the initial cost of your display, not to mention the storage and maintenance expense. Consider renting or leasing a display (especially if you are a first-time exhibitor or only attend one show a year): you can often get a high level of customization while saving money and reducing headaches.

Freight

Shipping displays, products, promotional literature, giveaway items and all the other show stuff to the tradeshow can eat up a lot of money. Consider your shipping options carefully. Take the time to do some comparison shopping. Who can offer you the best deal and ensure timely delivery? It does no good to save money if your material arrives after the show closes. Often, shipping companies have experts on staff who can help your crew pack material in the most cost-efficient manner possible. Again, a minor point, but one that can save you big money.

Show Services

Read your exhibitor manual! In there, you’ll find information detailing how and when you need to sign up for show services — items like electricity, floor coverings, and so on. The earlier you sign up, the more you’ll save. On average, costs go up by at least 25% for these services after the initial deadline passes. The closer you get to the actual show, the more you’re going to pay — and if you forget about needing utilities until you arrive on the show floor, you’ll pay top dollar.

This is one clear instance where planning ahead will save you a substantial amount of money.

Pre-show Promotion

Pre-show promotion is critical to your success. Show management often offers several free and low cost promotional venues: explore your options. This may include participating in a product display area, an Artist’s Alley, having your name included in category listings in the directory, website advertising and so on. Always consider: will participating in this effort help me reach the target audience I’m trying to reach? If you sell widgets and the show organizer is putting together a directory listing of Widget Sellers online and in the guidebook, and charging $35 to participate, it may be the best $35 you’ve ever spent.

Booth Staffers

Transporting, lodging, and feeding booth staffers can eat up a considerable chunk of change. Most people have a tendency to live a little grander when they’re on the company dime — you know they don’t order the $65 steak dinner at home!

Keeping your corporate culture in mind, you may want to introduce some restrictions into the booth staffing budget. Offering per diem meal allowances is one way, requiring receipts is another. Explore lodging options: some hotels offer convention specials if you can book early enough. Again, pre-planning is your best friend. Travel costs can fluctuate wildly, based on fuel prices and other variables beyond your control. Again, giving yourself enough time in the schedule to find good transportation deals can help control costs.

They say time is money. That’s certainly true when it comes to the tradeshow arena. By planning ahead and allowing yourself enough time to explore options, sign up for services, promote your participation, and other critical steps, you’ll be able to enjoy maximum results for minimal expense!