In sharp focus: the series of images collected by Han Leenhouts(pictured, below, right) forms the basis of his exhibitor training classes’
back, similar to the way print media is starting to fight back against online. Tere is a still a very human need for live communication, he insists, and that cannot be replaced by a bot or a keystroke. “At the same time as we spend
every hour looking at screens the desire and the necessity to see someone increases, at a human level. I think the smarter CEOs have started to realise this.”
LEEHOUTS HAS worked in the industry since the early 90s. Before forming his company, salesandpep- per, he worked for an exhibition stand-building company. You might expect him to be supportive of the notion that a nice stand can im- prove your chances. Not a bit of it. “I remember a company were
about to have this really great stand,
“EVERYONE THOUGHT THE MARKETPLACE IDEA WOULD GO AWAY AND IT WOULD STOP HAPPENING WHEN THE INTERNET CAME ALONG”
but the builder went bust and when they turned up there were only chairs,” he says. “But they had their best year ever.
Because they had nothing to rely on, no gimmicks.” He has a deliberately prescrip-
tive approach to making exhibi- tions work and when he takes me through the logic, it makes sense.
THE FIRST STEP is to work out what you have to offer and who you are selling it to. If you have an existing product you want to sell to an existing customer, you need to spend money on pre-contact and hospitality, making sure that the client feels valued so they are more likely to buy. If you’re selling new products to existing clients, the stand can be an environment in which to demonstrate the benefits,
so spending money on set design and samples is a must. If you’re sell- ing existing products to new clients, you need to invest in a strong sales pitch, employing ‘hunters’ to bring the potential buyer onto the stand. Te last category is new products to new clients. “Tat’s market diver- sification. I wouldn’t advise that,” Leenhouts says. “Tat’s a hard one.” In the Netherlands, Leenhouts
is working on an idea of creating a National Exhibition Academy, through a partnership venture between big exhibitors and venues. It strikes me as being a very sensible idea, and one perhaps we might benefit from in Scotland, as argu- ably we don’t like talking about sales. “We need to educate our exhibitors; if they come to the show prepared, they will go away with more leads. It’s as simple as that.”
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