The Exhibitionist. Steve Reeder

advocates the role of trade shows and seeks to inspire exhibitors to deliver better events, we’re even suggesting that trade shows might not be the best tactic. This comes from decades of working with a wide variety of brands and organisations that have spent tens of thousands on individual trade events that were never going to return much value. Before we get into the excitement and specifics of making your trade show brilliant, let’s talk about whether it even has the potential to be brilliant to begin with.

      Where is your business now?

      Before you invest in any trade show or event, or any marketing tactic in general, stop and ask yourself where your business is now and where it is going. If you’re the owner of the business, where do you want to be in the next 3–5 years and who are the customers and stakeholders who will help you get there? If you’re employed by an organisation, do you understand the corporate vision and mission and are you clear on where the business is looking to grow?

      For example, imagine you’re working in a business that develops a product or service that will exclusively be sold online to the end user without the need for an intermediary wholesaler or retailer. Your business is based on an e-commerce model where the consumer visits your website or app to buy your product or service and can receive additional content and information about you direct to their inbox. You are the only provider in the market for your niche product and your target audience, while incredibly loyal, are spread across the globe. Having recruited a consumer, usually by referral from within their online community, they are frequent and high-value buyers and you build a relationship by adding value to their experience with you. Your ambition is to grow your current sales by extending your portfolio of services.

      In this set of circumstances, it would be difficult to justify the cost of investing in trade shows as a marketing tactic. Certainly, a B2B event would deliver little value as your route to market is directly to the consumer and therefore visitors who are attending an event on behalf of their business would not be relevant for your specific growth objectives. A B2C event might have more potential if it were in a complementary industry but the relative costs versus the limited number of possible customers you might meet would make it a very expensive and low-value investment. Building online advocacy and enhancing the user experience would be far more relevant in these circumstances than a trade show would be. Understanding who and where your audiences are is a critical first step in deciding whether trade shows will be the right tactic for your business. Before even thinking about which trade show to attend, what your stand looks like and who’s going, ask yourself honestly if trade shows are a tactic that could reach an audience that can contribute to your growth aspirations?

      Case study: ASOS

      1. Organisation: ASOS – As Seen On Screen

      Objective: To become the number one global online fashion destination for 20-somethings

      Execution: ASOS delivered revenues in 2017 of £1.9 billion, exclusively through an online platform of affordable, trendy and authentic clothing ranges, aimed at 20-somethings but purchased by a much wider age group. ASOS’s success has been driven by significant investment in delivering a brilliant online user experience, supported by good customer service and seamless integration across desktop and mobile. Their audience grew up surrounded by digital and live their life on and through their devices. Although some advertising has been executed offline, with print and outdoor media, it is largely done online, where their audience spend most of their time. In these circumstances and with this objective it would be difficult to argue the merits of investing in trade shows with the possible exception of perhaps some consumer clothing and fashion events.

      *Even despite this digital success, ASOS has been a victim of the consumer desire for a more in-depth and tactile relationship putting-out a profits warning 17th Dec 2018 based on slowing sales growth.

      Are you ready to sell?

      The key long-term objective of any trade show is to establish new relationships, or build on existing ones, in order to achieve profitable sales growth. But what if you don’t have anything ready to sell? Many new businesses, or existing businesses with a new product, rush to exhibit at their industry trade show with a few mocked-up samples and a rough product cost but without any thought to a solid route to market strategy. One of the most common complaints we hear from visitors is that they have found an amazing new product at an event, but they can’t actually buy it yet. Or they can only buy it direct from the manufacturer in either small or huge quantities which just aren’t appropriate. When you’re passionate about your product or service, and need it to start earning money for you, it’s tempting to get lost in the excitement and forget about the practicalities of getting your product to your customer. However, if you disappoint a potential new customer during the first interactions you have with them, it is much more difficult to rebuild that trust when you are ready to sell. As we will keep coming back to throughout this book, trade shows are not about what’s important to you or your business, but what’s important to your customer – and if you can’t make the transaction easy you might question whether you should wait.

      This also raises the question of scalability. Trade shows attract a range of visitors with very different buying authority from different sized businesses. There is always the potential you might meet someone who wants to order more stock than you could ever produce based on your current capacity – how would you manage that conversation so that they work with you rather than taking your idea and asking a company with a larger capacity to manufacture it for them? Equally, if everyone you meet wants to place orders for immediate delivery would you be able to service the demand? We’re not suggesting that you wait until every piece of the jigsaw is in place before you unleash your brilliance on the market, in business things are rarely ever perfectly finished. The point is to really think about whether you’re ready enough to be exhibiting and whether you have good enough responses for the areas where you’re not quite ready yet?

      

The No. 1 reason for visiting (not exhibiting at) trade shows is to see new products. More than 90% of trade show visitors say they are looking for new products. It has been the No. 1 reason to attend for 25 years! Trade shows are a great place to introduce or feature your newest products.

       (Lincoln West, 2016)

      Is your customer ready to buy?

      You may have put in all the hard work to ensure that your product or service is market ready (or as close to market ready as possible), but do you know that your customers are ready to buy? If you’re operating in an established category or industry, where your product is an enhanced version of something already available, there is less risk. You know your customer wants this product or service and as long as you can clearly articulate why your proposition is better (faster, cheaper, easier, adds more value) than the competition, you have grounds for a credible commercial conversation.

      However, if you’re looking to build an entirely new category or industry with your product or service can you articulate why this is currently missing in their life? In these situations, customers and consumers might not even realise that they have a need for your product, meaning you will have to educate them about both the need and why yours is the best solution. A crowded trade show environment, with lots of distractions and minimal space to articulate your message might not be the most conducive place to start engaging with your audience.

      Again, this comes back to grounding your trade show investment in customer need, understanding what their problem is and clearly articulating how your product or service provides the best solution for it. Therefore, in considering whether trade shows might be the best tactic for your business, it is helpful to think about the likely problem a visitor is going to be bringing to your stand and whether you can clearly articulate the solution you offer.

      

Forty-six per cent of trade show visitors are in executive or upper management roles. That’s a lot of valuable attendees with top titles