Trade fairs and commercial growth

A trade fair delivers three things: visibility, a reading of the market and contacts. It delivers the first two well. The third depends almost entirely on chance, and that is where most companies waste the investment.

This article covers how to extract contacts from a fair, and when it is worth combining a fair with a business matchmaking event.

The arithmetic of the stand

Before deciding to take part, do the calculation almost nobody does.

Add everything up: the space rental, the build, printed material, gifts, travel and accommodation for the team, and the hours of the people who will be there. Suppose a total of R$ 12,000 for three days.

Now estimate how many qualified contacts you expect. Not visitors: contacts with a name, a company and a subject discussed. If it is 60, each contact cost R$

1. If it is 20, it cost R$ 600.

Compare that with the cost of getting those contacts another way. That comparison is what decides whether the fair is worth it, and it changes completely from company to company.

How to raise the number of qualified contacts

• Define what a qualified contact is beforehand. Without a definition, the team counts leaflets handed out.
• Have a screening question. "What brought you here?" separates the curious from the buyer in ten seconds.
• Record on the spot. Name, company, what the person is looking for and the next step. Without a record, the contact does not exist.
• Book meetings before the fair. Whoever arrives with a full diary does not depend on the flow in the aisle.
• Agree the follow-up. "I will send you the proposal on Tuesday" is worth more than "we will be in touch".

What a fair does better than any other format

Direct comparison. The buyer sees you and your competitors on the same day. That is bad if you have no distinguishing feature, and excellent if you do.

A reading of trends. Walking the aisles shows where the sector is heading, and that is information you cannot buy.

Brand visibility. Being present communicates solidity, particularly in sectors where absence is noticed.

What a fair does not do well

A structured meeting. You depend on the right person passing your stand at the moment you are free. That is chance.

Time to talk. An aisle conversation lasts minutes and gets interrupted.

Coverage. You do not speak to everyone who matters, and you do not even know who failed to pass by.

It is exactly that set of limitations that a business matchmaking event solves.

Why combine a fair with a matchmaking event

At a matchmaking event, each participant talks to a lot of new people, guaranteed, with equal time and without repeating anyone. The fair provides the audience; the matchmaking event turns the audience into a schedule.

The comparison is direct. Three days on a stand may produce 20 qualified conversations. An afternoon of matchmaking produces dozens, all with a name, a company and a subject. That does not mean the event replaces the stand: it means it is the cheapest complement there is for anyone already paying for the fair.

Many fairs already offer matchmaking as an internal activity. If yours does not, that is a proposal that tends to interest the organizers, because it adds value for the exhibitor at no significant cost. See business matchmaking at fairs and conferences and how to stand out at fairs and exhibitions.

How to run the matchmaking event inside the fair

Three constraints have to be part of the design from the start.

The time is borrowed. The fair's schedule rules. If the window is two and a half hours, the design has to fit inside it with room to spare.

The noise is high. The table change signal has to be audible above the ambient noise, and the instruction has to be visible on a screen.

Absence is higher. Whoever registers for an activity at a fair fails to show up more often than someone paying for a separate ticket. Work with a margin and have a recalculation plan.

Within that window, what you decide is the experience: longer conversations with fewer people, or quick contact with more companies. You also decide how long each person gets to speak and whether the event is open or sector based.

The rest is decided by the room. The number of participants, the tables and the seats at each one determine how many rounds fit without repeat meetings. That number is a consequence of the design, not a scheduling choice.

So do not publish the format in the fair's program before checking it. Promising more rounds than the window can hold ends in repeat meetings at the table or in cuts on the day, and both frustrate the exhibitor. See how many rounds fit in your event.

In the demo, the software shows what your room can hold, with your own numbers.

Mistakes that waste a fair

• A stand with no written objective. With no target for contacts, there is no way to assess it.
• A team talking among themselves. It is the behavior most noticed by passers-by.
• Thick material. A heavy catalog gets left behind. One sheet goes with them.
• Not taking notes. A card with no context becomes a stranger in 48 hours.
• No follow-up plan. That is where a fair actually converts, and it is what almost everyone leaves for later.

After the fair

In the following seven days: separate the contacts into possible customer, possible supplier and possible partner, send a personalized message citing something specific from the conversation, and record everything in one place with the date of the next contact.

Continue with the efficiency of matchmaking against fairs and events, business matchmaking at the entrepreneur's fair and tips for strengthening relationships after the event.

A fair used well is not the one with the most visitors at the stand. It is the one that produced conversations recorded and followed up the week after.