How to run an Exhibition Stand

I've run more exhibition stands than I can remember: here's what I've learned...

DON'T

• waste money advertising the show or your presence at it: why spend your hard-earned marketing dollars inviting people to see competition ?
  
  
• waste money on branded pens, stress dolphins and all the other crap that only ends up i) in a waste bin outside or ii) in their kids' bedrooms
  
  
• do demos on the stand: by definition they're a waste of time to a time-waster, and would you ever dream of doing a demo to a properly qualified prospect in a train station concourse ? No.

DO:

• Make your presence strong, memorable, but above all your message must be SIMPLE and CRYSTAL CLEAR , just single words or phrases about what you do - they must be so big that they can easily be read from 20 metres away. Don't blow up your datasheets into posters. To bring your message to life, have pictures of customers, the company name readable from 10 metres away, and with short, punchy quotes (10 words max.) readable from 5 metres away. I once saw a great stand backdrop which was a parade of life size pictures of all the employees at the show, their name (2 words), job role (2 words), and what they do for customers (10 words) all cleary legible from the corridor. Very effective, and massively motivating for the staff, too, because...
  
  
• ...the most important thing is not to have the best, most expensive stand at the show, but to have THE MOST MOTIVATED, SMART PEOPLE WORKING THERE. Treat it like a military operation: no cosy huddles, staff chatting in defensive groups, blocking the stand from view. Identify and train two types of people...
  
  
• Greeters: friendly, attractive, likeable people. Have them stand in the corridors, in front of the other stands around, blocking the opposition, and your stand has clear sightlines from all angles. Greeters engage with everyone who walks by, asking engaging, chatty questions like "Hello...so, why have you come to this show ?". Their job is to pre-qualify, moving the tyre kickers along to waste everyone else's time, and guiding real suspects to the Meeters. Greeters have a big incentive scheme for the day and the whole show: spend the money you didn't spend on branded Rubix cubes on a prize weekend for two at a country hotel for the person who i) met with the most people ii) produced the highest number of well qualified suspects.
  
  
• Meeters don't work the corridors, the stay to one side of the stand, only talking to those the Greeters have pre-qualified, picking up the part completed clipboard form from the Greeter and completing it seamlessly. Meeters are those who can talk intelligently about what you do, but they MUST NOT get into 20 minute selling conversations: their job is to further qualify, and if this one's a prospect, make them feel special, and arrange a followup meeting, demo, whatever.

GENERAL:

Aim to have at least 3 or 4 times as many Greeters as Meeters - but some of the best shows I've run are where we've had Meeters at all: the Greeters were well prepared, and handled the whole conversation. This is only an exhibition, isn't it ? You're looking for qualified leads, aren't you ? Proper sales activity comes later.

Then make sure after the show you take everyone out, drink the local bar dry, hand out the best performer awards, and stop over in a local hotel: if you can avoid it, don't let them stop over the night before (curry and beer are nice but the worst show fuel). Shows run well are very, very hard work and need to be rewarded - but only afterwards.