Fair preparation
Setting a goal for the fair
Ömer Faruk Süer · Senior Sales Manager · 3 min read · Last updated:
Short answer
How do you set a goal for a fair?
A goal is written before the fair opens and written as a number. It has three parts: how many qualified conversations you intend to have, how many of those you expect to become quotes and orders, and over what period that conversion will be measured. The definition of "qualified" has to be written too; without a definition there is no number. Reasons like brand awareness cannot stand in for a goal, though they can be reported under their own heading. A goal set after the fair is not a goal but an explanation.
Number, definition, date
"We want a good fair" is not a goal. A goal reads like this: sixty qualified conversations over four days, twenty of them turning into quotes, five of those quotes closing within six months. The numbers come from your own history; if this is your first fair, take the sales team’s normal conversion rate as the starting point.
The definition is the part most often skipped. A qualified conversation lasts at least five minutes, is with a decision-maker or someone near one, and ends with contact details and a next step. Share that definition with the team at the briefing.
The date sets the measurement window. Two months suits a short sales cycle; capital equipment needs six to twelve. The person who writes the goal should be the person who measures it; split that across two departments and the definition splits with it. Discuss the goal with the sales team before the fair rather than announcing it from above. A number everyone knows is unreachable destroys their faith in measurement altogether.
Turning a goal into a stand
The goal is an input to the design. Sixty conversations over four days is fifteen a day; three running at once means three seating points and a floor plan that carries them. The same goal also tells you how many staff the stand needs.
A display-led goal changes the layout. If the point is to show a new product to as many people as possible, open display and short contact points replace enclosed meeting space. Both goals can run on one stand, but the floor has to be divided for it.
That is why the goal is the first line of the brief. Change the goal and the stand type and floor area change with it; it does not work the other way round. The goal sets the headcount too. A stand running three conversations at once needs at least four people per shift, the fourth to greet whoever arrives next. Cutting that number cuts the meeting capacity and leaves the goal on paper, which is why staff cost is part of the goal.
Explaining the goal upward
In most companies the fair budget is the single largest marketing line, and it meets the same question every year: what did the money buy. A goal written before the show means that answer does not have to be hunted for afterwards.
Keep the page for the board short: goal, actual, variance, and the reason for the variance. The reason is the valuable part; whether a shortfall came from position, from the team or from a lack of interest in the product decides next year’s call.
Keep the cost lines on the same page. The stand line is calculated on the unit price we publish on our pricing page, divided across the number of fairs where the stand is reused. Give the presentation a month after the show rather than the week after. The first week goes to follow-up messages and the numbers have not settled. A month later the picture includes both the conversations that became quotes and the first orders, and the same slides become the case for next year’s budget.
How do we set a goal at our first fair?
Work backwards from your own sales conversion rate. Missing the target in year one is normal; the real gain is a genuine baseline for year two.
Should awareness never be a goal?
It can be, but with a metric attached: press meetings held, trade coverage secured, or new distributor enquiries. Something countable.