The importance of post mortems
Exhibition specialists, those companies that provide stand design and construction services to companies participating in business-to-business as well as consumer-orientated shows, should take a leaf out of their own book when it comes to liaising with their clients. This is the view of 3D Group's John Beck, who believes that exhibitions are "all about shaking hands with your prospective client".
Beck, however, rates the exhibition industry's participants as 'pretty poor' when it comes to doing just that: "Too often, the service... provide[d] is all upfront - in the sales pitch, the design phase and finally the build-up and construction process. The show takes place, break-down occurs and... then what? Nothing.
Same mistakes
"We continually berate our own clients for not following up on the leads they made during their show but then we, as an industry, do the same thing. There's no follow-though and no wrap-up, no completion of the cycle. And that's wrong."
He concedes that 3D strives to avoid this type of situation and that he and the others on 3D's sales team are required to make contact with their clients after their shows.
"3D's task is to first obtain an overview of the show and get the client's feedback on how it was managed and progressed, rather than on the stand. If the input we receive will assist the organisers run a better show next time, we share it with them - anonymously of course.
Interaction
"From there, we move onto the client's interaction with 3D taking account of the entire process from design to the build up, the finishes and how they feel the stand worked for them during the exhibition. We ask them where we could improve our service and product before picking up on areas where they think they could improve - stand manning, promotional items, VIP invites and so on. These are the things that make the stand work really well for the client, as well as making it 'user friendly'.
"Finally, we like to move on to a discussion of what other shows the client participate in, and try to secure a commitment from the client that our relationship will move forward. This approach certainly ensures the client/customer relationship gets taken to the next level and helps secure valuable business for the future."
One of the tools Beck and other sales team members use when calling on clients to discuss their shows is a proprietary grading system.
Incentivise
"We use the grading system to highlight areas for improvement and define areas of excellence, as well as incentivise the sales reps and build-up teams," Beck says.
"While it is not a complicated system, the fact that it is numerically based means that we can relate performance to the size of stand, build up time, show etc. We've found the information very valuable, and believe our industry compatriots should look towards adding such a system to their quiver. This will only benefit the industry, and all our clients," he concludes.
