Exhibition Review and Follow up part 1

Your exhibition at a trade show has now finished and there are certain steps you should complete before the whole project is wrapped up.

Hopefully the stand or pop-up, all the equipment, literature and give-aways have been carefully packed and returned to office or place of storage.

Check that all items have been returned.
Unpack boxes where literature needs to go back on the rack or in the literature cupboard.
Assess how many give-aways you have left and, if they will be required for your next exhibition, keep record of the number. Order replacement stocks as required.
Check that the pop-up has been correctly stored in its box or container and note any breakages or things that need to be fixed before next show.

The same process should be used for both paper lead forms and leads collected from a scanner in the form of data files.

Review leads and grade each according to their urgency, for example as hot prospects or as courtesy follow-ups.
Arrange a meeting with all sales personnel and sales management regarding the leads and allocate the leads to appropriate representative or product team.
Follow up leads with the required action, for example send out an email or letter thanking attendees for visiting the stand or showing interest in your company, send out literature as requested, or follow up by phone to arrange a meeting etc.
Track results.
Remind all stand personnel to make sure that any business cards collected are input into the sales database or CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system so that they are updated with relevant information.

Send out a feedback form asking stand personnel for their feedback on specific aspects to do with the trade show that you are interested in and also ask them how they felt it went overall. Ask for any suggestions for improvement etc. Once you have the feedback forms returned analyse them for any learning points or actions required.
Follow up with a debriefing meeting for all stand staff and sales and marketing personnel, so that they can share findings and discuss how to improve exhibit performance for the next show.
Track the trade show organiser’s analysis of the show attendees by number and type to check whether this is a show you would like to attend again.
Review lead contact details and analyse their job titles and profiles to check whether this is a show where the people with the appropriate job roles you want to reach are attending.

The next blog will include reviewing the original planned objects and follow up ROI

B2B Event Management