We all want life to be easy. Challenges, obstacles, and difficulties abound, and although we do our best to overcome them, the truth is it’s a long and exhausting process. Unless we have a real, concrete reason to keep going, it’s far easier — and much less work — to give up and abandon our efforts.
This is true in our personal lives, and it’s true in our business lives. It is especially true when it comes to tradeshow exhibiting. On the surface, exhibiting sounds simple enough: you go to a convention center, set up a booth, talk to a few hundred people and walk away with new prospects and leads, perhaps even a few substantial deals more than halfway started.
Yet simple is seldom easy. What appears to be a straight-forward process turns out, in actuality, to be fraught with nuances and subtle strategic decisions, any one of which can mean the difference between success and failure, at the event and beyond.
The reality is, exhibiting is as easy as drawing pictures in water with a fork: if you don’t know what you’re doing, you can go through the motions all day long without accomplishing anything at all. It might be easy — but it’s certainly not effective, and when exhibitors who have this experience are asked to demonstrate a positive return on investment on show participation, they invariably falter and fail.
That’s one scenario. Another situation, unfortunately too common, occurs when exhibitors come to the show with preconceived notions about how exhibiting is ‘supposed to be’. They believe everything is supposed to be easy, so any challenge, frustration, or set back is viewed as proof positive that something is wrong — either with their performance or more commonly, with the show itself. Frustrated and annoyed, they give up, convinced exhibiting is just not right for them.
Both groups are suffering from a type of tunnel vision. They can’t see past the difficulties to the destination! Being a successful exhibitor isn’t necessarily easy — but it is impossible if you give up before you truly get started.
The way we meet and address challenges on the show floor determines our effectiveness as exhibitors. If exhibiting successfully was easy, everyone would be doing it and doing it well. Instead, there are many, many exhibitors who try the show once, fail to be satisfied with the experience, and never return, and even more who keep ‘plugging away’ at exhibiting, even though they know something’s just not working for them. Both groups are reacting to challenges in different ways: however, neither group is acting in their own best self-interest. Abandoning exhibiting substantially reduces the number of B2B marketing tools you have at your disposal, while exhibiting ineffectively is a waste of time and money.
What can be done? How can one master the simple art of exhibiting, even if it’s not particularly easy?
Largely, the answers to these questions are to be found after a show. To understand and overcome exhibiting challenges, post-event analysis is critical. This is more than an informal ‘Monday Morning Quarterback’ session. Effective exhibitors take the time to compare results to objectives, analyze booth staff performance, assess the efficacy of show specials and marketing initiatives, and more. It’s only by recognizing what worked and what didn’t that a team can identify a baseline point to start from and improve upon at the next show.
Post-event analysis allows a team to create plans for subsequent shows that anticipate and address difficulties. The most agile exhibitors are the ones who have contingency plans in place for almost any event — what happens if the demonstration model doesn’t work? What happens if the literature doesn’t arrive? What happens if half the booth staff is stuck in the airport in Wisconsin and the show is in Florida? Being able to adapt and overcome challenges of an extraordinary nature makes it far easier to handle the everyday bumps in the road that are part and parcel of exhibiting.
Exhibiting is a process, not an event. The show is not the entire journey. To be successful, it is critical to view each show within a larger context: understanding what role the show plays in an overall marketing strategy. This understanding is essential to avoid the two pivotal mistakes outlined earlier: exhibiting the ‘easy’, inefficient way, or abandoning the show floor at the first sign of difficulty.
Consistency and commitment aren’t trendy buzzwords right now, as economic pressures bear down on every industry. However, they’re essential elements of any effective exhibiting program. Maintaining a constant, effective presence at industry events is one way to add a dimension of trust and reliability to the relationship you’re developing with attendees.
You’re demonstrating that you’re in the game for the long haul, and not likely to abandon ship once the water gets choppy. Exhibiting does come with its share of difficulties — but so does the larger business world. Your customers and potential customers all have to navigate dangerous waters every day, and they expect the same from you. Show them you’re more than up to the task, by sticking the course and not giving up too soon!
If you are interested in publishing/reprinting any article, you need to have the following byline: Written by Susan A. Friedmann, CSP, The Tradeshow Coach, Lake Placid, NY, internationally recognized expert working with companies to increase their profitability at tradeshows.
Author: “Riches in Niches: How to Make it BIG in a small Market” and “Meeting & Event Planning for Dummies.” www.thetradeshowcoach.com & www.richesinniches.com
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