A couple of times I have recently got involved in helping people make the most of their opportunities at events or exhibitions, and someone suggested that I put up a few hints for anyone planning to do a demonstration or have a stand. The notes below are just a short taster of the thought process that can really give you results.

How do I choose the right exhibition to attend?

It can be so tempting and flattering when you are invited to attend or exhibit at a show – with privilege tickets, a guaranteed audience, early discount or other carrot. So always do a bit of research to find out and decide:

• who typically attends
• what competition will be there
• do people visit the event to sell or buy
• what do you expect your time and money to get you?

What resources do I need?

To some extent, that depends on the answer above – what your aim is. Do you want people to take a sample, book an appointment, experience your product or style of presentation?

If you want people to stop to talk with you then make sure that you have some refreshments ready and space where you can talk undisturbed. All too often people are geared up to give away leaflets and samples but have not planned to help anyone who is really interested. Always have a diary and plenty of business cards, but avoid thinking that success means how many cards you have given out.

Who should be on a stand?

If you are just attending an event, then people on the stand need not necessarily be the subject experts, but they should know what your business or organisation does and does not do. As a minimum they should be able to:

• make a visitor at ease
• enquire what the visitor wants and be able to understand their answer
• explain what your organisation does WITH RESPECT TO the visitor’s needs
• be able to get them time with the ‘expert’ e.g. book a time for them to chat now or later
• be able to take detail and make an appointment for a follow-up discussion
• know when to stop talking and let the visitor think!

Be very aware of the keen helper, who loves what you do but cannot explain it in simple terms or relate it to a visitor’s needs. Equally, a keen helper who is not an expert can provide a good welcome and act as a very good triage system to make you as effective as you can be.

What should I give away?

Basically, something that will remind people of you and which they will not take purely for the sake of it. For example, sweets and pens disappear rapidly but have little benefit to you. Ensure that anything you give out is asked for rather than thrust into people’s hands, and it must contain your contact details and ideally a hint of what you do.

What about doing a demonstration?

In crude terms, do a demo or presentation either when people would not understand what you do from a description, or if they need to see you do it in order to spot the difference from your competition. So a presentation should fit the audience needs, not be a sales pitch. And a free taster session should educate the recipient about you, not just give them something for nothing.

A golden rule is that when you want to demonstrate your skills and not all of the audience can interact, you must have helpers on hand to give people some sort of commentary. Very often an expert can be doing great things and getting a lot of interest, but their helpers cannot capitalise on it by highlighting some of the special bits that they have done to the visitor standing next to them.

Keep your demonstration relatively short (it is not a free training session after all), so that people who found it engaging can speak to you within a very short time and take it forwards. If your slot is too long, they may hang on until you stop but then dash to look at the rest of the show.

Summary

• know what you want to achieve
• aim to provide a useful and memorable experience, not a sale to every visitor
• give away things for a reason
• have enough help on hand
• ensure your help is fully briefed
• even if your aims are low key, be prepared for a flood of enquiries
• make sure that ‘experts’ are regularly on hand to deal with the post-demo interest
• make the demo useful, and leave them wanting more!

I hope that you have found a few pointers, and remember that each bullet point is a subject in itself. Have fun!

Today I had one of the occasions which anyone in the coaching world loves – an invitation to the opening of a new business, them launching a new product or a new product or service.

This time the invite came form Caz and Dave, who run the Two Hoots campsite near Alresford in Hampshire. They were opening their new camping pods, washing block and kitchen area.

Having had the vision when they acquired the campsite, they have been working on the plans for well over a year. I helped them with their business planning and finances, which benefited hugely from the support of a LEADER grant from the Fieldfare area. All credit to the Fieldfare team, especially Ken Brown and Eloise Appleby for their support in making this happen.

What now? Well, with bookings ahead of the budget and superb facilities, Caz and Dave will be working on the presence of Two Hoots campsite in a many places as possible, and of course making sure that their visitors get the best experience from their stay. I wish them the very best in building on their success so far.

Find the site at www.twohootscampsite.co.uk.

As there is a flurry of shopping happening at this time of year, I thought is worth spending a few minutes looking at peoples’ rights.

It can often seem that the SALE of Goods Act is interpreted differently in every place you go to, so I thought that you might like to see some great resources produced by the Office of Fair Trading for both buyers and sellers.

More comprehensive information will be in the Simply Work for Yourself course (launched in January), but meanwhile here is a link to the Office of Fair Trading site for you to have a look at the information yourself. To save time, a couple of the key downloads are listed here.

Sale of Goods Act – guide ‘at a glance’

Sale of Goods Act – explanatory booklet

I heard a debate on the radio this afternoon about whether leaving a shop door closed puts customers off. Amongst those giving their opinions was an organisation called ‘close the door‘, and there was also mention that keeping doors closed when it is either very cold or very hot is compulsory in New York.

What do you think? Is it a myth with no evidence? Is it company policy? Do you work in a draughty shop?

Well, my personal preference is to avoid waste, whatever the proven impact on global warming. So I respect a shop that keeps doors shut but also understand that the business decision is to pay today’s bills, whatever happens to the climate in 30 years time. With my business hat on the issues are:

1. Do more customers come in if you have the door open?
2. Is the profit from those extra customers more than the cost of the heating?

How do you get more retail customers?

In short, you need to understand your customers and what they prefer. In this case your role in running the business is to get accurate answers to the two questions above.

1. The ideal situation is that people know about you, have decided to buy from you and therefore they will come into the shop. So ‘regulars’ are less likely to find a closed door to be a barrier. The focus is to find out why passers-by would notice your window and what would make them come into an open door. Now we are getting to some quality, focused questions:
   1. What makes a casual visitor slow down?
   2. What do I want to say to them?
   3. What extra difference does the open door make?
   4. What can I do that will be as powerful as an open door, in encouraging people to come in?
   5. Could part of my brand be a green or environmental policy and the fact that my shop avoids waste?

      Notice that we are making an assumption that shop windows are to attract new customers; service and value keep them.

2. To know whether the profit from the extra customers is worth the expenditure on fuel, you need to take careful note of the number of people who come in, at what times, what percentage of those people buy something, how much they spend on average and what your fuel costs are. If you are not measuring this you are only guessing.

   Now you can get back to the kind of questions that will help you find the best answer for your shop:

   1. How can I make those who do come in, more likely to buy something?
   2. Am I open for the most effective hours? Should I work earlier, later or even reduce my opening hours?
   3. Can I get a better deal on my heating, either by better equipment or fuel supplier?
   4. Do the casual customers turn into long-term supporters?

There is no  right answer – what works depends on how your customers behave. Your job is to use focused questions to understand what makes your customers behave like the do, and become an expert on customer psychology.

Have fun finding out, and use my enquiry form if you would like me to help in your decision-making.