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The principles and techniques of participating in domestic and international exhibitions

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Exhibitions are considered to be the largest advertising arena in the world, therefore, a targeted presence in them will provide a favorable outcome for the participating institution or team. The reasons for attending exhibitions have changed over time because people's demands from exhibitions have changed over time. For example, if in the past they looked at exhibitions as markets where everything was found, now they look at exhibitions only as huge commercial and advertising enterprises, and the participants are more interested in buying and selling. They try to update themselves in the world's modern industries.

In this article, we will review step by step the steps, rules and techniques necessary to attend exhibitions in three main parts as follows:
A) Principles and necessary measures before attending exhibitions
B) Necessary principles and actions while attending exhibitions
C) Principles and necessary measures after the end of exhibitions

A) Principles and necessary measures before attending exhibitions

1- Purpose of attending the exhibition:

The most basic and important thing in relation to participating in the exhibition is determining the main purpose for attending. In general, the main goals of attending international exhibitions include the following:

    • Improving the sales force and increasing the market share of the final sales
    • Creating a suitable name and reputation for yourself and the team under your supervision
    • Receiving and obtaining ideal work orders as well as creating a suitable work resume
    • Direct communication with a wide range of consumers and getting to know their tastes
    • Presentation and introduction of new and innovative products

Deciding on the presence of each product in the exhibitions is of special and fundamental importance for the participants in the exhibitions. Many companies that participate in exhibitions for the first time clumsily try to transfer a large number of small and large products produced and available in their warehouse to exhibitions instead of displaying selected and attractive products. Research shows that 75% of visitors from international exhibitions are formed by people who are looking for new products and new technologies. Therefore, making a decision in this regard is very sensitive and important.

2- Choosing the right exhibition to attend:

Choose the right exhibitions for your presence. Participation in the exhibition, especially for small companies, involves high costs. Therefore, it is necessary and inevitable to check the costs and know enough about the quality and quantity of different types of exhibitions and to evaluate all their aspects. In this regard, before booking a booth and building a booth, you should know the location and the general prospects of the exhibition that you intend to participate in. In it you have to review and review strategically. Prepare a list of major exhibitions, including location, logistical considerations, expected attendees, costs, and your competitive edge. Most of the required information about the previous participants can be requested from the officials and organizers of the exhibitions. After collecting all the information needed to participate in the exhibitions, put them in front of you and make the final decision according to the desired budget. The experiences obtained indicate that the effectiveness of a strong and powerful presence in an important and expensive exhibition is far more than frequent and moderate and weak presence in small and cheap exhibitions.

3- Setting the budget

To attend the international exhibition, we will have various and numerous expenses. These expenses include:

    • The cost of renting a booth and setting up a booth in the exhibition
    • Transfer of team members
    • Food and accommodation for the team participating in international exhibitions
    • The cost of transporting exhibition equipment and displayed products
    • Exhibition staff wages
    • Special production costs for products that are sold in exhibitions
    • Printing and media costs related to advertising and marketing: printing various types of brochures and catalogs will greatly help to spread the information of your work. Many people will only read catalogs without asking questions and will enter into negotiations with you if they find something interesting in your field of activity. Use the venue of the exhibition.
    • Another side cost is related to exhibition gifts. An exhibition gift is very effective in recording a sweet memory for visitors, and the more exquisite it is, the more it affects the audience. Consider setting aside a step up from the gift you have in mind for regular visitors for senior executives who visit your booth.
    • Catering fee: You should have all kinds of chocolates, sweets, tea, coffee and cold drinks in your booth so that you can serve them according to the taste of the visitors. Of course, this reception is only for people who enter the booth and intend to conduct business negotiations.
    • The last cost that most companies may not have been related to prizes and raffles. If you want to have one of the busiest booths at the exhibition for a while, it is better to hold a contest or raffle. Of course, the lottery costs a lot and you can be successful only if you make use of the gathering of visitors in front of your booth.

4- Booth selection

The first thing that visitors encounter in the exhibition halls are the booths, and without a doubt, its attractive designs will attract the audience and make you stand out from the sea of participants.
In principle, in order to have a suitable exhibition stand, we must consider the following points in its design:

    • A booth must have the necessary attraction
    • The booth should be in harmony with the type of displayed goods
    • Have a good location
    • The created plan must have a concrete and understandable message for the public
    • Having the right size and having different sections including: a space for displaying products and services, a special section for information, a specific place for negotiation, consultation and signing a contract, a suitable place for audio and video shows, a service and reception space that plays a role It will be helpful and effective in concluding a contract, a warehouse for collecting items that are not needed, and a section called training.

4-1- Types of booths:

The design of exhibition booths has different definitions according to the position placed in each exhibition and they are analyzed in a separate division that covered space like exhibition halls (covered aria) and open space (open aria) are effective in defining the types of booths.
Among the types of design of exhibition booths, the following can be mentioned:

4-1-1- Normal booth or linear stand (linear stand or row stand)

A normal or linear booth has common walls on three sides with neighboring booths, and it leads to the corridor from one side and can be seen by visitors, which is also known as a one-door booth. Usually, the best options for choosing linear booths are the ones that have more width and proper depth. In fact, to choose a linear booth, you should pay attention to the width and depth of such booths. These booths are also referred to as row booths because they are placed next to each other and in a row.

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4-1-2- Corner booth or corner stand

Corner booths have a higher value compared to linear booths, because they are adjacent to other booths on two sides and are open to the corridor on the other two sides, so they can be seen from both sides. Design And the arrangement of these booths is more expensive and difficult than linear booths. Such booths are also called double or double corner booths.

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4-1-3- Peninsular booth or end stand

Compared to corner booths, peninsula booths are more popular among visitors because such booths have three sides that can be seen by visitors and only one side is blocked and attract more visitors. These stalls are also called three-door stalls due to the fact that there are three sides to the corridor.

غرفه شبه جزیره ای انتهایی
4-1-4- Island stands

The best option for choosing exhibition booths are island booths because they have access to the corridor from four sides and are visible and accessible from all angles. These types of booths have high value and have very good features for display and advertising. These booths are often used to display machinery and heavy industries, and for other products, they need a different design in order to have a proper effect and be able to have a proper performance.

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4-2- Five key elements in the display composition of the booths

According to the experiences gained and the opinions of experts in the exhibition industry, the condition for the efficiency and effectiveness of any trade show is to use the following five components in the composition of each booth:

    1. Color: the chosen tonality plays a significant role in making a stop, showing your position and conveying the message. Cold colors such as blue, green and white evoke simplicity,
      honesty and professionalism, but at the same time they do not have the characteristics of attachment and passion. Warm colors such as red, orange and yellow attract more attention, but at the same time, you should Selective form and appropriate to the type of industry in which we work and the product we display should be chosen so that they have their own meaning.
    2.  Light: The right light is effective in helping to focus on your booth by using the right spotlights and reflecting flat lights on new products and creating a warm and inviting atmosphere, you actually invite visitors to the booth.
    3. Movement: Usually, few exhibition officials or designers pay attention to the principles and techniques of movement in attracting visitors. Meanwhile, the use of video projectors and colorful and moving light columns and moving objects will have a great effect on attracting the attention of the audience. had
    4. Sound: Playing music suitable for the product and the theme of the exhibition, performing live music or other attractions related to the sense of hearing are effective in drawing people into the booth, but don't forget that the tone of your booth should not disturb the neighboring booths. be made
    5. Smell: pleasant aromas and the emission of pleasant smells from your booth will make the visitors stop and pull. In this regard, in addition to the scent of good perfumes, some foods and sweets with special and aromatic essential oils can also help you create this atmosphere.

5- Notification

In order to have a well-visited booth in the exhibition, you must have done good advertising and informed people about your presence and position in the exhibition. In this section, we will introduce you the advertising methods that inform your presence in the exhibition so that you have well-visited booths:

    • Online advertising using social media Instagram, Telegram and...
    • Advertising with TV media
    • Advertising with billboards in the city
    • Print advertisements with tracts and brochures
    • Mass SMS advertising using SMS systems
    • Sending honorary invitations to special people by post or email two weeks before the start of the exhibition

6-Determining the managers of the exhibition booths:

The host of the booth and its managers have a significant role in achieving success and achieving the common goals of the company, so the host of the booth must choose the managers carefully and competently so as not to face problems in managing the booth.

Information of the booth host:

To increase work efficiency and achieve greater success, the booth host must have complete and useful information and provide all that information to the exhibition booth managers, which includes the following:

    • The purpose of participating in the exhibition
    • Knowing the company's competitors
    • Knowing the conditions of sale of goods and their prices
    • Information about the type of company's products and the services that the company provides
    • Knowing interested customers
    • Having sufficient technical information of the booth
    • How to record conversations and negotiations of booth visitors
    • Sufficient information about the venue and booth

Duties of the booth host:

The booth host is responsible for managing all employees and creating coordination among them. In general, the duties of the booth host include the following:
Accept the responsibility of the booth before the start of the exhibition
Inform the management of the institution or company about all the important news of the booth
To determine the duties and responsibilities of booth employees and how they deal with customers
Supervise the process of holding the exhibition.
Check the compliance of the booth location with the specifications of the map
Explain and guide the booth staff before the start of the exhibition

Features of the booth host:

    • Have the experience of holding an exhibition and managing a booth
    • Have the power to make decisions
    • Having a neat appearance
    • Having sufficient self-confidence and a sense of responsibility
    • Having sufficient information in various technical and commercial fields
    • Having a strong memory to identify people
    • Having leadership power
    • Having initiative and creativity
    • Having management and leadership qualities

The managers of the booth are:

    • The booth manager, who is responsible for leading all booth employees
    • Company representative who is a member of the board of directors, CEO, etc.
    • Technical staff who are present in the booth
    • International trade expert and export expert
    • The sales manager who is responsible for sending goods, concluding business contracts and activities related to sales
    • Translator
    • public relations expert
    • Crews who are responsible for catering and guarding and cleaning the booth

All these people play a very important role in managing the booth and helping the host of the booth, and they should use all their talent and intelligence to succeed.
How does the booth manager choose the managers? The host of the booth must pay attention to the following things in order to choose the managers of the booth:

    • having a neat and tidy appearance and appearance
    • mastering the English language and the language of the host country
    • bearing a lot of work pressure in All day long
    • having attractive faces to attract customers)
Exhibition

B) Necessary actions while attending exhibitions

1- Maintaining order in the booth

One of the actions that is important and must be observed while attending the exhibition. Order is in the booth, chaos and disorganization make visitors nervous and confused and eventually drive them out of your booth, and a visitor leaving is equal to a lost customer. Therefore, it is necessary to manage the location of the personnel. Chairs and tables should be in their place according to the layout of the booth designer, you can even put one person in charge of maintaining the order of the booth.

2-Giving information to visitors

The information given to the visitors should be completely correct and there should be no hesitation when talking and giving information to the customers. Also, giving a lot of information in bulk is not the right thing to do and it will confuse the visitors and make you lose customers. will be, so try to make the information useful and concise.

3- Advertisements while attending the exhibition

During the time you are at the exhibition, try to use all the advertising abilities for sales and marketing or advertising, in addition to the fact that your marketing and sales team should be active in the booth, using catalogs and distributing them or giving Promotional gifts that you prepare in advance will be effective in achieving your marketing goals.

4- The art of customer recognition

The employees and personnel of the exhibition booth should have the skill to distinguish real customers from ordinary visitors, as a rule, more time should be spent and more attention should be paid to real customers, in the meantime, never judge the visitors by their appearance, behavior Check customers and identify target customers.

5- Check the yield every day while attending the exhibition

At the end of each day of the exhibition, check the level of your marketing and sales skills, examine the disadvantages and positive points that you have had in dealing with personnel, hospitality, giving promotional gifts and presenting services and products, and try to strengthen the positive points and the negative points. correct the.

6- Preventing different people from stopping in front of the booth

Try to avoid crowding and gathering of different people in the booth or in front of the entrance door of the booth, the meaning of different people is people except potential customers of your services and products.

7- Holding contests and interesting entertainment while attending the exhibition

During the time you are at the exhibition, try to give educational lectures to the attendees and visitors so that when the visitors gather for the purpose of education, you can also introduce your products and services with branding or marketing, as well as holding attractive contests and giving a prize at the end of each contest will be very effective in attracting visitors to your booth.

8- Information on social networks while attending the exhibition

Attracting more contacts in all social networks and by informing your users and contacts about the events of the exhibition every day is another important task of yours while attending the exhibition, in this way you should engage your contacts with your booth and your presence at the exhibition.

9- Receiving contact information of visitors

Your goal is to get as many booths’ visitors' contact information as possible and keep them organized. If a visitor gives you a business card, write important notes about your conversation with that visitor on the same business card or on another sheet of paper and attach it to the business card before filing. You will use these valuable notes after the exhibition.
In addition to the above points, the following are also important:

    • Avoiding indifference to visitors
    •  Attention to the type of standing and social etiquette of employees in the booth
    • Avoid going to and from the booth a lot
    • In front of misbehavior of customers, personnel should be calm and polite
    • Preparing a list of possible questions and pre-practiced answers
    • Correct and principled welcoming of visitors upon entering the booth
    • Avoid giving hasty answers to visitors
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C) Necessary actions after the end of the exhibitions

1- Evaluating the booth's performance in the exhibition

Prepare a word file and check your performance and weaknesses and strengths in the booth and during the exhibition, this file should have a conclusion section so that you can use it for future exhibitions. Check that your performance How was it in the exhibition? How capable were you in using the advertising methods and facilities that were in the exhibition? Did your competitors appear more powerful than you in the exhibition? How and how did they do it? Why didn't we do it or were we unable to do it?

2- Checking and analyzing the performance of employees and booth personnel in the exhibition

Did the people and team who were present in this exhibition perform poorly or did they appear strong? What were the strengths and weaknesses of the team? What kind of personnel and forces were present in the booth? How many personnel have worked with all their strength in the exhibition and had a brilliant presence? In this context, it is better to appreciate them. How many of them have deficiencies in their activities, and finally investigate the causes of these deficiencies and provide a solution according to the opinion of the management team to solve it, in the next exhibitions.

3- Collection of booth documents

Categorize and collect all the information, forms and documents obtained during the exhibition, as well as archive the photos and videos taken during the exhibition of the booth and visitors to the website and social networks. And other fields and platforms of your advertisements should be used.

4-Preparation of a database of information of all visitors to the exhibition stand

Prepare a simple database like Excel so that you have the information of all the visitors in the form of a file that can be transferred so that you can use it in planning after the exhibition.

5- Checking the amount of expenses in the booth

Make an estimate of the cost and check it with the budget, check the details of the expenses incurred for the booth during the exhibition, what expenses were necessary, what expenses were extra? What was the budget for advertising and promotional gifts and what was the feedback? Would it be better to increase the budget for this part or was it enough? What expenses should have been done, which were not done due to the lack of funds? Check whether the allocated budget is sufficient or not. Also, have an estimate of the competitors' budget, see how much the budget difference is between you and the competitor higher than you, this part of the actions after the exhibition is very important and of course specialized. It is necessary to review this part by the board of directors of the company.

6-Planning and follow-up

So, after the exhibition, we have to plan, a plan to follow up what we got during the exhibition, a targeted plan to: continue the connections made in social networks and attract visitors and customers who follow you.
After holding the exhibition, you should follow activities in social networks that will result in keeping current customers and turning them into loyal customers, and on the other hand, it should be a bridge between potential customers who have not yet decided and are looking for more communication. are, your contacts should be involved with you every day or in other words be connected with you and this bridge of communication should never be lost.

    • Follow up sales and marketing that have been exhibited and customers who are in potential status and are going to become actual customers. Follow up the customers who have gone to the steps to buy your products and services and stopped, ask them the reason, so to speak, engage them once more, follow up the people who came to the table to negotiate. and use all marketing and sales techniques so that people who have engaged with you even 20% at the exhibition stand, will contact you once again.
    • After the end of the exhibition, you have a database of information of people and visitors, including: email, phone, etc., and now you can launch a digital marketing project by an expert in this field, your online marketing activities. start, this activity
      continues until you attend the next exhibition and can continue as long as your company stands and creates millions of customers for you.
    • Track the forms filled by visitors during your stand :Depending on the goals of your forms during the exhibition, do the necessary follow-ups, for example, your goal may be to give away amazing packages to everyone who fills out the form, so do the necessary follow-ups, don't let that happen. Visitors think that they have filled out a bunch of useless forms. Keep track of visitors' opinions and criticisms of your services and products and analyze the information you have obtained from visitors. It might not be bad to analyze the level of satisfaction and criticisms and expectations of each visitor, because by analyzing one person and following his desires and criticisms, you have actually satisfied thousands of people like this person and thousands of people like this person. have turned into your customers.
    • Preparation of a report file of the performance in the exhibition and its feedback by an expert and checking the strengths and weaknesses as mentioned in the previous part, check your performance in the exhibition, whether the planning and goals you had for your presence in the exhibition were successful. have been? How close did you get to your goals? Have you done the steps before attending the exhibition correctly? To what extent was the budget placed correct and principled and did it properly meet all your needs during the exhibition? 
Well, the important question here is why should we follow up?

The most important word to describe the actions after the exhibition is follow-up, but why?! Because many of the work and marketing we do in the exhibition do not work during the same period of the exhibition or do not bear any fruit, or sometimes the visitors are interested in your services and products but for some reason they don't think about it for a while. They come out to buy, with follow-ups after the exhibition, they will have the opportunity to buy again, follow-up on social networks will make you remain in the memories and people who followed you during the exhibition will stay with you. So follow-up. never forget after attending exhibitions.

What ways should we try to follow up?

Ways to follow up communication after the exhibition include:

    • Send greeting letters or newsletters to visitors and people who are likely to be customers of your services and products on various occasions.
    • Send a thank you letter to the important people who visited your stand along with promotional gifts and ask them to come to your company and see your services and products if they wish.
    • Track follow-up meetings for executives who have been invited to your VIP, and have requested follow-up communication

Conclusion

In this article, we tried to increase your knowledge and information in the field of holding exhibitions and its goals and necessary measures to participate in it. To take stronger and stronger steps, certainly by participating in selected exhibitions and in line with the acquisition and your work, and doing the things that are mentioned in this article, you will provide the growth of your business to a great extent. Our goal in this article was to be with you step by step in order to plan correctly and purposefully for maximum productivity. Participate in domestic and foreign exhibitions. Obviously, in addition to all the mentioned items, we should try to be different from our competitors. In other words, having a touch point in your business will differentiate you from other competitors and attract customers to your business. For example, you may use a special technology to produce your products in a specific industry such as the food industry. that other competitors do not benefit from this technology. You can fully highlight this advantage during the exhibition and create a strong distinction between yourself and your competitors. In fact, the best way to make your business visible is to create a touch point, and if you are in a business where customers are hesitant that whether they buy from you or from your competitors, having a special advantage can help you a lot, to be engraved in the market and in the minds of customers and drive many customers to your products and services.

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