The opportunity for any business to succeed in generating leads and sales at an exhibition is extremely high; however opportunities rarely come around without taking a little risk. Like any promotion your product and services are facing your audience and your businesses reputation is on trial. If you are exhibiting a new phone for example and a potential customer happens to be using the product and it breaks down, that client is not going to have a very good perception of either that product or your business. 

Researches have looked into the ways businesses and people interact at trade shows greatly, it’s been found that there are two levels of interaction at an exhibition. The first is a superficial interaction between the visitor and the exhibitor which mainly relies on judgments made on the physical appearance of the exhibitor. The second is a behavioural aspect, this is the way a person represents a company. The way they act and the manner in which they undertake work is heavily judged by visitors and often the first person who they interact with is seen as the face of the company in the visitor’s minds. 

Research has shown that the visitors preferred exhibitors who wear lively and catchy colours such as purple, green or red and are more likely to attract people to their stand than those wearing grey or white. Its seems that quirky colours can contribute to the success of your stand and people who prefer quirky exhibitors have been found to describe them as having that "certain something". 

When leading an exhibit and selling your business it all comes to behaviour and attitude, you need to realise that selling at an exhibition does not just take expertise of the company and the products; it also takes great interpersonal skills. Visitors seem to dislike unknowledgeable exhibitors as they are seen as time wasters, you know the saying: time is money. By having every one of your staff well educated on your businesses products and services you should be able to great enthusiasm amongst your visitors. Being comfortable can ease tension and create a warm and friendly atmosphere around you exhibition stands, never be afraid to make a joke and use ice breakers with attendees.

Without the right display to wow and surpass attendee’s expectations you can struggle to attract your audience towards your product.  When at your new exhibition stand it is vital that you put on a good performance, when you are selling your product or service remember you will be face to face and voice to voice with business men and women from around the world. Being able to control your emotional activity and stress levels is vital as you do not want alienation any potential customers. It is always best to approach you audience with a smile and a hand shake (whenever possible) and have a pre-planned script to air to your passing audience.

Many businesses do not understand how tiring exhibiting can be, long hours, high footfall and tiredness can leave you feeling unmotivated and unfriendly. It is recommended to have enough staff on hand to have enough breaks and to talk to your audience; you ever want to be in a situation where you have to rush to finish speaking to one potential customer as you have one waiting. By having presentations and information around your stand you are offering your potential clients effortless information. It is impossible to talk to every attendee so be sure to bring enough information packs, products and promotional material. 

When looking to attract visitors to your stand a good tip is to look for and choose keywords that require particular emphasis. It is certainly useful to give these words a little enthusiastic push in order to get people queuing at the stand. 

The first impression is certainly the most important one and there is no definitive way of attracting people to an exhibition stand so having an original, classy mix of professional attitude and inter-personal selling skills can be a great place to start.