The slayer of the Dragons comes to celebrate 30 years of the Kent B2B

Having found success through his appearance on Dragon Den and the subsequent development and popularity of Reggae Reggae Foods life hasn’t always been so easy for Levi Roots. His talk will cover his childhood and learning how to cook with his grandmother in rural Jamaica to his turbulent teenage years in 80's Brixton to his music career to the building of Reggae Reggae Sauce. Looking at the key themes of entrepreneurship, business and enterprise Levi’s warm and engaging style is why he experienced such commercial success. Helping the Kent B2B to celebrate its 30^th year after his talk Levi will cut the birthday cake.

The afternoon keynote speaker is the CEO of Chapel Down, Frazer Thompson who will be talking about “The Chapel Down Story – from repossessing photocopiers to regenerating Ashford” -  looking at the importance of people with passion, the need for a plan and how not all money is equal. Chapel Down is proud to supply British icons such as Gordon Ramsay and Jamie Oliver, and you can enjoy their drinks at great institutions such as the Royal Opera House, the Turner Contemporary and at the Kent B2B VIP networking reception at lunchtime. As one of the UK government’s top 50 British food and drink producers and identified as a ‘CoolBrand 2015/16’ the Chapel Down story is certain to be an illuminating talk.

Fresh perspective for the Kent B2B

Held at the Ashford International Hotel on the 26 April the Kent B2B is the longest running free conference and exhibition in Kent and offers a fantastic opportunity to listen to leading business speakers, attend informative workshops and most importantly network with over 80 “Best of Kent Shows” exhibitors and more than 1,000 delegates. Speed networking proved to be a big draw at the recent West Kent B2B show and there will be 2 sessions throughout the day.

Alongside the conference programme and exhibitors there will be the rerun of the “The Winning Bid” workshops. The Kent B2B will also offer a free networking breakfast with Peter Anderton looking at “7 Secrets That Super Successful Managers Know & Do That Most Managers Either Don't Know or Don't Do”.

Jo James, Chief Executive of the Chamber says, “I urge businesses to come along and help us celebrate our 30^th anniversary at the Kent B2B. Along with the informative speaker sessions, useful workshops and great business advice this is going to be a brilliantly fun day too. Come along for all or part of the day and enjoy being part of the best B2B event in Kent.”

Register for free tickets here

Top ten secret tips to exhibiting!

1  Set your objectives -  what you wish to achieve 

   
    Design your stand to meet your objectives and plan your staffing needs early

2  Train, train, train

    80% of the success of your stand is down to your staff

3  Exhibiting is not just for leads but also to find suppliers and to ...

    Develop customer relations, find business partners, research competitors, 

    launch a new product, get new ideas

4  Market your stand to both customer and prospects

    Invite them to meet you at your stand or in the networking area

5  Messages on your stand
 
    Should be simple, visual and in LARGE print which stresses benefits, less is more

6  Can I help you?
    Not a good question, ask open questions that require more than a one word answer

7  Don’t just wait for visitors to visit your stand

    Lead generation can be anywhere, getting coffee, at workshops and speaker sessions-   
    Talk to everyone you can wherever you are!

8  Networking is about helping other people

    Hard sell is not appropriate and not appreciated and less effective

9  Don’t

    Use a mobile, eat on the stand, sit down, have your back to the aisle, have a messy stand
    or have cheap tacky giveaways

10  Follow up
      Follow up leads as quickly as possible after the exhibition

       

The 24 deadly sins of exhibiting

Common mistakes of exhibiting 

1  Planning is key
One of the biggest reasons that businesses are unsuccessful at exhibitions is that they haven’t promoted and marketed their presence in the weeks and months leading up to it. Not planning or promoting your presence is fatal to your success.Use signature blocks on your emails, develop a social media campaign to highlight your presence, and personally invite clients & suppliers to meet with you.  

2  Not reading the exhibitor manual 

Ensure you read through whatever information that the event organisers send you. Don’t just assume everything will be provided.

3  Not thinking about your objectives 

How can you know if your exhibition stand has been a success or not and the return of your investment without some pre- stand planning beforehand? What are your reasons for exhibiting?  How many leads are you looking to achieve?

4  Being shy

Choose confident friendly staff that are more than happy talking to strangers and are comfortable ‘interrupting’ people passing by in a cheerful, friendly manner. These staff are representing your business so excellent people skills are essential to make sure a lasting impression. 

5  No training

Not training your staff to run the show behind-the-scenes could be detrimental to your conversion rate!

6  Your exhibition stand doesn't clearly communicate your business

Think carefully about your stand design and graphics.  Always assume that people have no prior knowledge of your business. Pictures really do tell ‘a thousand words and so ensure your graphics clearly illustrate your offering.

7  Give people a reason to come to your stand

The power of a compelling incentive. Not creating a great, innovative reason for people to visit you on the day can have enormous consequences on getting the leads.  Display the benefits of choosing you over competitors and the value they will receive from signing up with you. 

8  Not making an effort or giving enough thought to your presence 

Make your stand exciting and stand out! Think about what you could bring on the day to intice potential customers over to your stand, and maybe consider a competition you could run or something equally interesting! 

9  Acting Disinterested

No matter how long your day has been, try to keep up a friendly smiley face and make eye-contact with potential customers at all times. Make sure staff are standing on their feet in an approachable manner and engage with as many people as possible… 

10  Having Too Few Staff

It is important to have plenty of staff to cover breaks and make sure that people are always seen to as soon as possible.

11  Having Too Many Staff

On the other hand, you don’t want your stand to be over filled with too many staff wanting potential customer’s attention… 

12    Staff Who Know Nothing about Your Product or Company

Ensure all staff working on your stand are completely knowledgeable of the whole company and its key information. Even if they are long term staff make sure that they are briefed with a coherent message and approach. Your staff need to be confident and be able to deal with any enquiries in a professional manner. 

13  Compel your audience to visit your stand

 Work on ways to compel your audience to visit your stand, it will dramatically increase your capture rate on the day. Being proactive never lost anybody a sale. You can’t remain at the edge of your stand and expect your leads to flock over. You can afford to leave your stand for 5 or 10 minute missions.

Get out and about, listen to the speakers, go to a workshop, engage with people at the café, when you are getting lunch, visit other stands and see how they are getting on – it’s not just on the stand that you can make contacts, be open and easy to approach. This approach will gain you leads.

14  Not Perfecting your Elevator Pitch

You will need to explain your business and its products/services countless times during the exhibition, so make sure you and your staff can explain the succinctly and effectively.

15  Not Listening

Make sure to really listen to any potential customers to answer as best you can any questions asked, and engage in a conversation with them.    

16  Not having information to take away

A lot of people will not want to be overloaded with bits of paper, but if asked you should have some simple/detailed information that people can take home with them if they wish!

17  Being Cagey about Pricing

Be prepared to answer any questions about price and be upfront! Even if you offer a bespoke service, be sure you can offer them a rough idea on price.

18  Taking Forever to Record Leads

Contact customers that have left their details as soon as possible- Don’t leave them hanging around!

19  Spamming 

If you are to send customers information, make it useful and exciting! Don’t end up sending the same content time and time again. Create interesting, innovative content that people will enjoy reading.

20  Exhibitors commandeering the time of other exhibitors

Respect that exhibitions are for strictly time for business, not to be used to socialise with industry colleagues and suppliers.

21  Uninspiring Tweets

Continually telling people during the exhibition to come to your stand, doesn't necessarily mean they will unfortunately. Give your social media messages some thought! Upload pictures and videos to maximise engagement.

22  Badmouthing Competitors

Be professional at all times- Focus on selling your brand to potential customers!

23  Packing Up Early

Packing up early at an exhibition is prohibited and you will be looked down on. You should be making the most of every last minute at your stand, networking and meeting. Packing up isn't just a potential health and safety issue but it reflects terribly on your organisation.

24  Not Following Up Leads Post Event

The final pitfall between you and gaining business from an exhibition is the way you approach leads after the event. Convert your hard work into strong sales and stop yourself from squandering the great work you did to capture new business prospects.  

5 top tips to make your speed networking session a success

Most businesses would agree — referrals and face-to-face contact are the best ways to build and nurture business relationships — however, contrary to this many businesses spend many thousands of pounds placing advertising and sending marketing via email or though the post. 

Why you should get involved with speed networking?

If meeting someone is the best way to judge whether you can do business with them why don’t more businesses get involved with networking? Well, for many people it seems to be a little bit of nerves that can keep them away from meetings — so, if a breakfast or lunch seems too daunting how about the best and quickest form of networking — speed networking?

Speed networking is not a new concept, however, in a time when we seem to be spending more and more of our working day communicating online and through email it makes a refreshing and interesting change to your business development strategy. Arguably, speed networking will give you access to more people in one hour than you might normally meet in a month. It’s quite normal to feel a little apprehensive but do a little prep work beforehand those nerves should be calmed.

As ever preparation is key

1. Make sure you have a great opener for each of your pitches — just 10 seconds will do, covering an introduction, what your business is about or what you are looking for.  

2. Try to think about the different types of people and businesses you are going to meet and how you could change your intro to meet their needs — you’ll have far more success if you can slightly tailor your pitch to each person. 

3. Be practical — remember your business cards and a pen to make notes (on the back of each card is a good idea) and remember people’s names!

4. Not everyone is going to seem suitable for you or perhaps be interested in your product or service right now, but, remember to “think outside the box” — the product or service may not be suitable today but what about next month or in year’s time when you have diversified or grown? Consider whether a contact could become a mentor or a partner or a franchisee? The people who gain the most from these sessions are those that are the most open minded. 

5. Although it may seem counter intuitive, do your best to help the people that you meet — try to offer solutions to them and their challenges. You’d be surprised at how this “pay it forward” mentality has helped many businesses — perhaps not immediately but at some point. You’ll impress your new contact and you never know they may well recommend or use you in the future. 

Networking for success

Many of the most successful entrepreneurs are those that have spent their time networking — building trustworthy, reliable contacts across their industry, in support services and a wide variety of geographical locations. Meeting people and developing positive relationships is surely the key to a successful business?

So, hopefully now you should feel a little more prepared for a speed networking session? Come along and try a session at the West Kent B2B, 27th March. And let us know how you get on ……

Ex-dragon Doug Richard forecasts “The Perfect Storm” for creative entrepreneurs

The Kent County Cricket Club at the Spitfire Ground, Canterbury hosted the third of the Best of Kent Shows on Thursday 11^th September for the Kent Invicta Chamber of Commerce. This leading business to business event encompassing an exhibition and a conference with leading speakers and workshops welcomed over 600 delegates and 60 exhibitors, who used the day to network, building existing and new business contacts.

Doug Richard & the creative entrepreneur

Keynotes came courtesy of Andrew Priestley, QJ and serial entrepreneur Doug Richard, who gave an inspirational speech on the rise of the creative entrepreneur in the UK. As the greatest nation for creativity – a recent report published in January by Department for Culture Media and Sport revealed that the creative industries in the UK outperform all other sectors, generating over £70 billion a year - he laid out a case for now being the perfect time to start a creative business. He argued that with the democratisation of access to finance making it easier to tap into alternative means of funding such as peer to peer or equity lending and the growth of websites such as Kickstarter plus the fact that economically the UK is at the start of a new cycle equals, in Doug’s words, the perfect storm for new creative businesses to establish and grow.    

Having worked with a number of new businesses in the East Kent area he continued he felt confident that the area was also in great shape to support new creative firms in the future. As part of a strategy for success he also spoke of the need for businesses to re-contextualise their offering dependant on their location, that contrary to what many would argue, new businesses do not need to be able to create innovation for innovations sake in order to be successful. In fact, some of the most successful new businesses are created by taking an existing product or service and bringing it to a new area. By the very act of moving it to a new region the product or service changes becoming different and unique due to it being re-localised.

Carole Barron, Chair of The Kent Invicta Chamber of Commerce, who hosted the day commented “It was a great day for local, regional and national businesses. There was a great buzz around the event with exhibitors and delegates making new connections and building relationships. All the workshops and keynotes were well attended with incredibly positive feedback on the topics and delivery.” She continues “Now, we look forward to the next Best of Kent Show; the North Kent B2B on Thursday 16^th October at the Woodville, Gravesend. Keynotes are from CEO and co-founder of Angels Den, Bill Morrow, Lauren Lovett and Barnaby Wynter and there will be representatives from the London Paramount project attending to speak about the latest developments."

Offering opportunities to all types and sizes of business

With all this on offer the North Kent B2B is an event where you can give your contacts list a boost and meet a range of diverse, interesting businesses. You can gain insight through attending the sessions scheduled by industry leading speakers and find out how to apply their lessons to your business to increase your sales and profitability.

The Best of Kent Shows’ North Kent B2B is sponsored by Caxtons, chartered surveyors, one of the largest independent property consultants in Kent along with Hatten Wyatt and Thames Gateway.

Kent Invicta Chamber of Commerce runs the event, and members of the Chamber will also be available to offer free business advice. Jo James, the Chief Executive of the Chamber, comments “The Kent B2B's are the biggest events in our calendar and they draw businesses from across the county and the UK. This year’s events have shaped up to be a great mix of inspirational speakers, exhibitors, masses of networking opportunities and workshops. I look forward to welcoming businesses from across the county and further afield to an informative day.”