Exhibitions are known to be a fantastic place to expand your lead numbers and to forge great new business connections.
Booking your place and putting up your stand can help attract visitors to your brand, but there are some secret benefits you’ll find once you attend as a visitor rather than an exhibitor. We’re here to spill all of the exhibition secrets…
Remain Incognito
If you’re working for a big brand, it may help your personal or business goals to attend and exhibition as a visitor and stay on the down-low.
Many people may only visit a stand due to the brand name being one they want an ‘in’ with, and those manning the stand are the best route to this.
Removing the branding and showmanship from your attendance can help you source the more truly interested, valuable leads for you or your business.
It’s also a great way to scope out the competition – often when you’re manning a stand you’ll be wearing some form of branded materials, whether it’s a shirt or even a badge.
Seeing competition hanging around a stand can make people wary, whereas when you’re an individual this threat is removed, and you stand more of a chance in being able to talk to your competitors and find out what they’re doing.
Get Contacts without the Expense
It can be expensive to attend exhibition after exhibition, especially when you’re buying stand after stand rather than investing in a portable stand that will last throughout multiple exhibitions.
Visiting an exhibition allows you to talk to vendors and attendees, swap contact details and arrange deals without factoring in the expense of booking your stand space.
It’s likely you will come away with just the same amount of business contacts to add to the database as you will if you exhibit.
You’ll Sound Less Sales-y
Whether you network with other attendees or exhibitors, if you’re attending as a visitor your sales pitches are less expected and can be worked into conversation organically.
When you’re not on a stand vying for somebody’s attention, you can allow your sales pitch or product to come into discussion in a much more natural way, which can be more appealing to people if they find its what they’re looking for but they’re not being forcefully sold to!
Less Pressure to Deliver
All too often when you’re planning a stand, visitors will expect you to wow them in order to gain their attention over others.
One of the benefits of attending as a visitor is that people will not expect wonders from you, they’ll want to impress you!
You can really take this chance to let your brand and charisma be what sets you apart, not flashy technology or stand designs.
More Chances to Explore
Participate in seminars and conferences, network and gain connections – these are all things you can do when you’re not stuck manning a stand all day.
It’s all very well listening to the suggestions of ‘bring enough staff that you can rotate and allow one to wander at a time’, but smaller companies will often only have one or two people at the exhibition.
Attending as a visitor means no worries about how your stand is doing – and you can focus all your time into developing your relationships.
If you decide to attend, whether as visitor or exhibitor, check out our website for plenty more exhibition and follow up tips, or to design the perfect stand for your company.
