Firstly, what are SMART goals/objectives?

SMART is an acronym to simply help you set your goals and objectives, not only in business but also in any other walk of life where you may need to set some goals. It guides you in creating, tracking and accomplishing both short, medium and long term goals.

SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time.

After you’ve booked your event and before you’ve even started to plan your team, it’s advised that you put these SMART goals in place so your team know what you want to get out of exhibiting. Having these set out will aid you in measuring out your success and also working out your ROI before the event.

Exhibiting can be expensive and especially for small businesses, it’s important to know that the money you’re investing in exhibiting will have the benefits and return you need and want for your business.

SMART goals broken down with examples:

Specific – be specific in what you want to get out of exhibiting. What do you want to walk away with? Who do you want to connect with? Are you going to try to sell or are you just going to create awareness of your brand? How are you going to do that?

Measurable – following the question about what you want to get out of exhibiting, put some figures behind it. If you’re looking to come out with some new leads, how many do you want to walk away with? Think back to ROI, how many leads do you need to gain and convert to make exhibiting a success?

Attainable – putting figures in place is all well and good but it is only this if they are attainable. Don’t set unrealistic goals that sound great on paper but aren’t at all achievable in real life. The last thing you want to do is walk away from an event feeling deflated because you haven’t met the goals you set yourself and your team.

Relevant – this may sound obvious but make your goals relevant. Keep it in line with your overall business goals. One size doesn’t fit all so keep it in line with your business.

Time – put a time scale on your goals. The leads you gain from the event, have a set end date for when you want to have got in contact with them by. This is your warning that hot leads go cold very quickly.

Following SMART when setting your goals is only going to help your business to succeed when exhibiting.

If you are interested in exhibiting at one of our events, please visit b2bexpos.co.uk and get in contact with one of the team.

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