When you want to ensure that you’ve got prospects coming into your sales pipeline, consumer expos can be your secret weapon. Expos aren’t just about how much product you can sell during the show. They areabout the six months of pre-show promotions of which you can be a part, and the post-show residuals from meeting people face to face.
While you may look at your budget and feel the urge to pull back on exhibiting, consider the consequences of cutting yourself off from meeting new people in your target market. It could become a self-fulfilling prophecy: You could lose sales because you don’t believe you are in a position to go after them.
Expos offer you other marketing advantages
• Expos give you a way to provide incentives for customers to switch from brands/firms they perceive as weakened by the economy.
• They give you the opportunity to dominate your product category in the minds of your target audience
• This is a good time to go after those people who are re-evaluating their current buying decisions.
• Expos accelerate the selling process. They establish contact, generate awareness, arouse interest, build brand preference and allow you to close the sale and/or keep customers sold after the initial sale (continue to build brand loyalty).
• If you are your company’s best sales person, and you feel stretched in all directions, exhibiting at an expo is important because it will let you see thousands of people over a few days. Your “cost per contact” is very efficient.
