The perfect follow-up to your expo participation

Memos are fundamental

The foundations for successful follow-up activities have to be laid during the expo itself through effective lead management. Use a standardised lead sheet to keep good notes of discussions in order to turn interested visitors into customers. Stick with a simple design. A good lead sheet will contain, among other things, a field for a business card, the contact name and type, and a free text field. Have all employees working at the trade fair create a memo for every discussion so that no information on potential customers is lost. 

Secure a competitive advantage

In order to be in a position to process and back up all of the data and agreements on the lead sheets, the information must be stored electronically and forwarded to the relevant employees. If they then send an email (already crafted in advance) to stand visitors on the same day as their expo visit, this gives a good impression. A survey conducted by AUMA showed that most potential customers consider a timely response following a face-to-face discussion especially important. Therefore, it is good follow-up practice to focus on making contact promptly. Promise to get back to people next week and stick to this, and you are likely to already stand out from your competitors.

Monitoring the success of your expo participation

Exhibitors can use different benchmarks or a benefit analysis to evaluate the real success of their participation in an expo. It is worth comparing the results of an earlier expo participation with the latest data for this: the number of contracts concluded and new contacts, a cost-per-discussion calculation and the convergence rate, namely the percentage of invitations sent that lead to a stand visit. Debriefing employees directly after the expo in order to document their impressions and suggested improvements is equally important. 

Expo market research

Expo market research is a more in-depth area of success monitoring. The main focus of expo market research lies on surveying stand visitors. Exhibitors can easily obtain useful results by promising anonymity, providing an incentive to take part and offering simple yes/no questions. At larger stands, companies can get new insights by means of people flow or stand/benchmarking analysis. Mystery visits can also be an illuminating way to test employee behaviour (with and without customer contact) and their knowledge of the products and company. 

Whatever the current level of insight, the “Trade fair follow up and evaluation” tutorial will give first-time exhibitors an overview and inspire repeat exhibitors to introduce or extend their expo follow-up and success monitoring processes.