#1 Retention Rate
Based on Forrester research acquiring new B2B customers costs significantly more, like 5x than retaining existing ones. While I don’t know the stats for B2B exhibitors, I am sure the salespeople will agree it is much better to retain exhibitors.
Organizers should ask themselves:
- What is the exhibitor retention rate?
- What is their satisfaction level?
- What is the average for similar show?
- How exhibitors measure success?
Retention rate depends on the experience of exhibitors and visitors as they speak with each other. Remember to align what booth visitors want with exhibitor goal to promote their brand and product. This is where mismatch often happens, both want to have genuine conversation and connection so that they can learn from each other effectively.
We need to gain insights from exhibitors & visitors, which is often done using feedback form. Unfortunately many forms are not designed well and can be:
- Too quantitative: eg number rating/scale without description
- Non contextual: eg asking #booth visits even if the person just arrived
- Non sequential: eg question without flow (arrival to leaving)
- Unclear: eg question/answer that can be interpreted wrongly
- Too long: eg I once had to complete 40 questions!
- Too troublesome: eg Lazy to input DIY though have lots to say
- Non rewarding: ‘What is it in for me?’ worse if too long & DIY
That is why we also recommend Interview to not only gain qualitative & in-depth feedback, but also to repurpose the testimonials for next promotion.
Aside from Self-Report Measurement, we can also gain insights from field Observation since people might say one thing but do other things instead.
When we combine Self Report and Observation with Tools & Tech to track and measure digital engagement (eg exhibitor profile visits + favourites, name card exchanges) and in-person (eg #people nearby booth, passerby, visitor, visit duration), we get a full 360 Feedback on areas we did well & need to improve for exhibitor & visitor engagements.
#2 Exhibition Offers
Exhibitors always want to know how good the offers are & whether realize-able. Instead of just offering exhibition space, booth, & facilities, there are other areas that interest exhibitors and can be monetized (sponsorship revenue):
A) Insights
Ideally organizers should share Quantity & Quality of Exhibitor Audience Profile attending.
For Quantity ‘How many of them can be reached via organizer promotion?’, while offering promo sponsorships to enable exhibitors to reach out to them (pre-exhibition), attract to their booth (during-exhibition), & continue the engagement (post-exhibition).
Whereas audience Quality goes much deeper beyond (a) Industry (b) Categories (usually surface level) (c) Authority (eg researcher, influencer, user, buyer, decision maker) as highlighted by Mala Dorasamy on her post:
- Product-Fit: The products might have same name, but different usage eg drills used for mining are different than manufacturing. There are also different mining drills.
- Deal-Readiness: Some visitors are already looking for solution, while other might still be unaware of their problems or effective solution. The more exhibitors can provide ready-to-buy visitors, the more willing exhibitors to invest.
- Budget Alignment: Even if buyers are ready, they might not have enough budget, thus gaining budget insights is crucial via registration or conversation.
- Market Relevance: Example, buyers only want products which exhibitors have presence or distributor in that location, or are sustainability-certified.
B) Support
After having consulted for, trained & visited many B2B exhibitions in Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia, I realize even the frequent exhibitors can still Strategize Engagement better to attract, engage, and follow up with visitors more effectively.
Organizers need to reflect on: How well they help exhibitors to…
- Reach out to target audience pre-event?
- Engage, qualify & interest visitors in-event?
- Capture & transfer insights & leads easily?
- Follow up leads swiftly & effectively post-event?
- Repurpose content for continuous engagement?
#3 Exhibition Sales
Even the best exhibition offers won’t sell by itself, the sales team must plan and execute their sales strategy effectively by understanding Exhibitor Buying Journey.
At each stage, exhibitors will have their specific challenges, needs, and concerns that we need to address before they can proceed to the next:
A) Problem/Opportunity Unaware
They might have never thought of exhibiting and thus wonder:
- What are the pros and cons of exhibiting?
- Needed if we already do digital marketing?
- How different from organizing own event?
They are still unaware how tradeshow can help get new prospects, accelerate existing opportunities, and up+cross sell to clients.
B) Solution/Opportunity Unaware
They might have considered exhibiting, but still unsure and want to understand:
- What are the different ways to participate? (eg attend, speak or exhibit?)
- What are the comparative benefits of each participation?
They are still unaware how to participate effectively in tradeshow and the benefits.
C) Product Unaware
They might plan to exhibit or finished exhibiting somewhere else, but don’t know about your tradeshow. They might not have any experience exhibiting or bad experience exhibiting elsewhere, thus wondering:
- How to evaluate which tradeshow to exhibit?
- How to plan a successful booth activation??
D) Fit Unaware (Solution)
They are interested to exhibit in your tradeshow, but unsure how suitable it is:
How good your Exhibition Offers are, and whether they are realize-able? If organizers give great Audience Insights, Support to Strategize Success, & Exhibitor Testimonials, they will likely want to exhibit.
E) Fit Unaware (ROI)
Now that they already want to exhibit, the last hurdles are:
- Will this generate a positive ROI?
- How much return to expect & by when?
- How to ensure and measure success?
- How to continuously learn & improve?
The tradeshow marketing and sales team must work in alignment to guide prospect exhibitors across the buying journey and address the above questions.
LiveLife have customize-able contents (posts, articles, & talks) to help convince prospects to exhibit with you. We can also help strategize your sales plan and find exhibitors, especially from Singapore and Indonesia.
#4 Agency Partnerships
Most B2B tradeshows need to get overseas exhibitors, which might be difficult to do it by themselves, thus it is advisable to partner with exhibition sales agencies and explore:
- How effective are the current agencies?
- How long they require to bring exhibitors?
- Average exhibitors & sales per agency?
- How do they do marketing & sales?
#5 Circularity
Retention is about making our exhibitors come back again. Exhibition Offer is about improving our offer based on repurposing the insights gained. Exhibition Sales is about making sure our offers circulate to prospects. Sales Partnership is about repurposing our exhibition offer.
Just like how nature wastes nothing as everything goes in circulation benefiting the whole ecosystem, so should an exhibition be, which is an ecosystem that comprises of multi stakeholders from the organizing team to the exhibitor, sponsor, visitor, speaker and even local community & environment.
What IF all tradeshows are able to:
- Make its exhibitors successful, thus great Retention Rate?
- Learn effectively, thus create great Exhibition Offer?
- Optimize circulating Exhibition Offers by its own?
- Have predictable sales Agency Partnerships?
- Benefit the local Society & Environment?
How can organizers circulate back all of the insights, contents, & contacts gained back into the exhibition, resulting in win-win collaboration, thus forming a sustainable community, which works much more effortlessly like a Natural Ecosystem.
By understanding the above, organizers can better estimate potential exhibitors, revenue, & sales duration thus better strategizing sales plan better, while also continuously learning and improving more effortlessly.