How to prepare for trade shows with business intelligence

Trade show season is upon us, and if you’re like our team at Phocas, you put a lot into your event preparation. For our team, trade shows are where a lot of groundwork is covered to ensure that current customers continue to receive the products and services they need while also introducing our software to companies that haven’t heard of us.

The face time with current and prospective customers is extremely valuable, as we work to strengthen relationships and explain how business intelligence software can have a major impact on their operations. We must be prepared or the time with our customers or prospects can lead to wasted opportunities.

As suppliers and distributors working across a variety of industries, trades shows provide an opportunity for you to present an accounting of the business relationship with manufacturing partners, from the success of specific products to customer buying habits and lost business. Given that you have a lot of business to cover in only a few short days, it’s important that you make the most of the few minutes that you have with your partners. While you may not think of Phocas as a trade show preparation tool, let me offer three reasons why your data and Phocas should be where you begin all your event planning.

Past Performance

As you approach your preparation for an industry event where you will meet with your manufacturing partners, you’ll want to be able to produce reports that showcase your company’s performance selling their products. Phocas makes understanding product sales and customer buying habits quick and easy through visualization and dashboards. The customized dashboards will allow you to highlight how much you have purchased from your partners, total sales and which products are selling the most. You will be able to see what products aren’t selling and what customers have stopped buying so you can establish strategies to increase opportunities. You will also be able to address supply chain issues, illustrating how long it takes to get from the manufacturer to your branches or stores, and whether the delivery time is having an impact on how quickly you can response to customer demand or whether you need to make changes to when orders are placed.

Present Picture

In addition to the ability to create customizable reports that show past performance, Phocas dashboards also can provide you and your partners with a current state of the business. The dashboards can be updated in real-time to provide a clear picture of current inventory levels, backordered shipments that may be stalling sales, where business is coming from, what regions are experiencing higher demand, and what customers should be the focus of additional attention. By understanding the present state of the relationship, you and your partners can develop the strategies that will impact future success.

Future Growth

Mark Twain once said that “History doesn’t repeat, but it tends to rhyme.” Your future success is dependent on several key things, including repeating your success, learning from past challenges and taking advantage of new opportunities. Phocas helps you to use your data to identify the positive trends in your performance so you can work with your partners to keep moving in the right direction. Conversely, you will also be able to identify problems with products, customers or supply chain so that you can right the ship and avoid similar problems in the future. Finally, Phocas will reveal new opportunities that will allow you to expand revenues among existing customers with complementary products, and increase sales among new customers and regions.

Whether you want to highlight past performance, present picture or future growth, Phocas allows you to do it quickly from one central location. Forget about toting binders with reports from meeting to meeting. Phocas is accessible from any device or computer, and with a little prep work leading up to the trade show, you can quickly produce visually stunning dashboard reports for all your vendor meetings, helping you to make the most of your face time with partners.

To see a demonstration of Phocas in action, visit our demo page.