The key to a successful exhibition is what you do afterwards,' says John Blaskey. You need a well-primed and committed back-up team. If necessary, call in reinforcements to cope with processing all the leads as quickly as possible.

1. Prepare correspondence

Prepare letters or emails to be sent to interested prospects each night. It's essential and impressive, lo contact prospects while they are still hot, preferably still attending the show.

Thanks to email, it's simple and efficient to keep in touch with a whole group of prospects.

You can also email faithful long-term customers who may have visited the stand and who you didn't have much time for. Here's an opportunity to thank them for coming and strengthen the bond you have. It's also a good chance to pass on information about your latest and upcoming products and services, especially those which you know are particularly interesting for them.

2. Follow up in person

Arrange to have staff, if necessary extra staff, ready to follow up all the leads to set up appointments the following week.

Team effort

Finally, remember that you are exposing your entire organization at an exhibition - so either do it properly or don't go at all.

An exhibition can transform your company, so get ready to cope with success. The key to a successful exhibition is your staff. If you've motivated, prepared and trained them well so that everyone feels part of a team effort, you'll be able to rely on their support however busy and pressured things get.

Tip

When you're deciding whether to take part in a trade show, don't judge it on the number of people the organizers predict will come through the door. 'An exhibition where there are few visitors can still be successful because you bring the right people onto your stand,' says John Blaskey.

Magenta Net Logic, which designs telecoms networks, had a stand at Olympia's Communications Solutions Europe last November. It was the season of rail problems and flooding problems, so we had half the projected number of delegates,' recalls sales director Nigel Meacham. 'A lot of people were moaning to the organizers, but we found that because the aisles were relatively empty, people were better able to walk around and appreciate the stands worth looking at. We had a conjuror, which was a great draw. Two minutes watching a top class showman doing card tricks is welcome and lightens the load at a serious trade show. In our case, the conjuror was well briefed and his routine incorporated a few questions which were relevant to our product.'

Triumph of networking

And if no one at all comes? John Blaskey tells this heartening story. I was once exhibiting display panels at an exhibition during a rail strike. No visitors came but I set up a £1.4 million contract from the stand next to ours. It was the Crown Supplier and we picked up the refitting work on all the government job centers!'

Moral: If you go to an exhibition with the firm intention of making it successful, you can.