Prepare trade fairs correctly

Participating in a trade fair is an ideal opportunity for craft businesses to reach out to the public and directly address their target audience. However, good, and especially early, preparation is crucial.

This article is part of the special topic Trade fairs for the craft industry

Meet customers, get to know competitors, make contacts, have interesting conversations, present services and new products – Trade fairs are an exclusive and rewarding forumwhere you can present yourself to customers.

To ensure your investment is worthwhile, you should prepare your appearance as early and as calmly as possible. For example, if you are planning to International Crafts Fair (IHM) in Munich in March, you should start preparing in good time.

First, you need to set your goals!

• Which products do you want to show?
• Which processes or services do you want to present?
• How should your stand convey this?

A goal could also be Market research be, so more about the to learn about customer needs or to gather information about industry innovations and competitors.

Selling successfully at trade fairs

Certainly are Contract conclusions also an important trade fair goal, but you should be aware that the fruits of a successful trade fair presence cannot always be harvested immediately. Trade fair visitors often only remember the interesting product or the company's friendly employees six months later.

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The relief bonus is overwhelming many craft businesses.

This is the reason why the Trade fair preparation not just a matter for the boss is. You must intensively train and prepare the employees involved, the stand personnelThey represent your company externally, they address and advise trade fair visitors, and they are also the ones who provide the data for the follow-up to the trade fair.

When the visitor makes eye contact

You should therefore inform the stand staff, for example, which brochures are being issued for what purpose. Your employees need to know exactly, what data the company wants to collect about interested visitors. A contact report is important for follow-up, in which the visitor's business card details and the conversation history are recorded.

Trained Trade fair staff only become active when the visitor has made eye contact and obviously seeks advice. Conversation even should be conducted with open questionsThe visitor must have the opportunity to express their wishes. Ideally, each partner should contribute 50 percent of the speech.