For David Lomas, CEO of M3 Media Group, one of the biggest opportunities for manufacturers exhibiting at trade shows is also one of the simplest: having better conversations.
“Companies can spend thousands of pounds preparing for an exhibition,” says David. “They think carefully about the stand, the graphics, what they are going to display and who is going to attend.
But how much time do they spend preparing for the conversations they are going to have?”
David believes the starting point is remarkably simple: take a genuine interest in the person standing in front of you. To get the best results from this conversation, you should understand in advance, the issues your prospects are facing.
“Rather than immediately telling somebody what you manufacture or explaining your technical expertise, ask them about themselves. What does their business do? Why have they come to the exhibition? What challenges are they facing?”
This creates a very different dynamic.
“Manufacturers are understandably proud of their technical knowledge, but sometimes they can be too keen to demonstrate it. The person visiting your stand doesn’t necessarily want a technical presentation.
They want to know whether you understand their world and whether you might be able to help them.”
David suggests exhibition teams need to prepare several questions before the event, that are built around the issues their target customers are likely to be facing.
Check out how one business learned to get their questions right and consequently, achieved spectacular results from their conversations:
How Better Conversations Turned into £17,000 of New Business
“Having the right questions ready in advance, provides impact and value in your conversations on your exhibition stand. It gives your team something to talk about other than products, and once you discover an issue that really matters to the visitor, they will want to explore it further.”
Most importantly, David argues, a good exhibition conversation, followed by the introduction of a published article relevant to the discussion, naturally leads into setting up a follow-up conversation.
“Exhibitors don’t want to leave the exhibition with 100 business cards – that they still need to chase. Instead, we ensure what they get is a diary full of qualified follow-up meetings”
David Lomas, M3 Media Group
David leaves manufacturers preparing for their next exhibition with two questions:
How confident are you, out of 10, that your team is having the right conversations with visitors to your stand?
And perhaps more importantly:
How many of those conversations are resulting in the next conversation being booked in the diary, before the visitor walks away?
Sometimes improving exhibition results doesn’t require a bigger stand or a bigger budget – It simply requires a better conversation.
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