Why are exhibitors less professionals than they used to be?

by Jan 4, 2025Lastest Posts0 comments

(AI-free post)

Ever wondered why are exhibitors less professional than they used to?

If you’ve heard Simon Sinek speak, you might have picked up the moment when he said in a “normal” world there would be no need for a guy like him and what he has to talk about (the start with Why was already around with Aristotle).

So why is he needed? Because universal truths are only universals because they are kept alive generation after generation (yes like your grandma’s recipe).

Simon Sinek is no exception with teaching about being a decent human, as are trade show specialists with teaching about being a decent salesperson.

The art of selling on market places is 10 000 years old

Me and my colleagues have kept alive an old tradition that dates back from as long as they were humans selling on markets.

And the common sense we teach has stopped being common practice because practices have changed.

The same way companies have left the why out of their minds and needed a Simon Sinek to bring it back to their consciousness we bring back to the consciousness the elemental bricks necessary to run successful shows.

What are the new practices that have changed the landscape and brought back the need for these reminders?

I would be tempted to say the Internet (I leave the Walkman for another day).

Internet has changed trade shows practice

How has the internet changed trade show practices? It hasn’t per se, but as with any new media, it has affected the previous one.

For the oldest of you, you probably remember a time where the best way to reach potential customers in MASS was through trade show participation. Imagine, hundreds, thousands, tens, hundred of thousands of visitors depending on the venue, in the same time and space. What an opportunity.

To Seize it companies would prepare, sharpen their engagement and sales techniques like a vegetable cutter salesperson on a street market.

But the internet has broken this monopoly.

Now you can reach MILLIONS, at a click of a button.

New skills are necessary for that, and since companies have limited resources a choice has to be made of which plant to water.

Internet sales or traditional trade show sales?

And with new generations coming into the workforce, new skills and old skills left fallow.

Why am I telling you all this? Shouldn’t I just let it be and drop the old fashioned ways?

Because this old-fashioned way is at the core of the new fashion way.

Technology is a tool and a tool doesn’t replace the worker’s goal. It only assists it.

Like an AI. The reason I don’t use AI in my posts is that it will weaken my capacity to bring to life ideas, by outsourcing it to a machine. Sure, the machine can go faster than me at iterating ideas, but isn’t the reason we read each other’s post a search for connections and human insights, not simply information ?

And isn’t it the same in sales, whether online or face-to-face?

Technology has both empowered and weakened us

If you answered yes to the previous question, then learning about trade show sales success will have positive consequences on your overall sales practices, whether they’ll be online or offline.

Like my writing skills will remain if I practice them whether I write on a computer or on a piece of paper.

But true, I don’t have to write on paper anymore, and so companies don’t have to go to shows anymore.

But as we still learn how to write with our hands in schools (do we?), I would highly suggest you equip your team with the essential skills for trade show sales if you decide to go.

And if you think they all got the fundamentals, next time you check your phone at lunch with your colleagues ask yourself where your fundamentals went.

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