How to sell a startup pavilion at a paid trade show

So you've got a trade show with an audience that startups want to meet. You could sell them smaller booths, call the area a startup pavilion and start taking bookings. But what happens when half those companies need help with their demos, the shared internet isn't enough, and the pavilion sponsor wants to choose who gets in?

A startup pavilion works when you sell a defined, affordable way to demonstrate something relevant to your audience, with shared services your team can actually deliver. Decide who qualifies, cost the whole area, and set the minimum paid bookings and confirmed funding you need before committing to the build.

The smaller stand is only part of the offer. You're also deciding how businesses with limited exhibition experience will participate in a professional show. A founder needs to understand what to bring, whom they might meet and what the price leaves them responsible for. Your attendees need a reason to spend time there. Your own business needs the area to justify its cost and space.

We'll work through a fictional paid industry trade show to make those choices concrete. All its prices, quantities, company names and results are invented planning assumptions in US dollars, before applicable taxes. They aren't market rates, supplier quotes, customer results or recommended safety capacities. Use the method with your own evidence and costs.

Start with the buyer problem the pavilion will answer

A pavilion should help attendees discover relevant young businesses they would otherwise struggle to assess. That could mean new inventory tools for independent retailers, materials for packaging buyers or diagnostic equipment for repair businesses. "Meet innovative startups" doesn't explain enough. Which attendee has a problem, and what will they find here that helps?

For our fictional Retail Operations Show, the intended visitors run small retail chains. The proposed pavilion brings together young businesses demonstrating stock management, returns handling and store operations products. Visitors can compare working demonstrations and ask practical questions about deployment. It's a specific buying conversation, rather than an area for any company that describes itself as disruptive.

Check that premise with people who resemble your paying audience. Ask what they're trying to improve, what they've already tried and what would make a demonstration worth their time. Talk to existing exhibitors too. You may find a genuine gap, or discover that the proposed pavilion duplicates suppliers already paying for standard space.

Use those conversations to decide the categories you want. If buyers need tools they can deploy this year, a collection of early research projects may disappoint them. If your event is explicitly about emerging research, a prototype could be exactly right. The product's stage needs to match the event's promise.

Then check the trade show's own business case. Is this area intended to add profitable exhibitor revenue, improve the paid visitor experience, establish relationships with future full-size exhibitors or fulfil a funded programme? You can pursue more than one outcome, but name the main one and the budget supporting the others. Otherwise, a loss gets described as strategic after the money is gone.

The existing exhibitor prospectus guide explains how to present an audience and package. Here, decide whether this particular group of exhibitors needs a different offer in the first place. A short conversation with ten relevant businesses can expose a practical obstacle that a beautiful sales page would miss. Record what they actually said and avoid presenting that small sample as market-wide demand.

For example, founders may accept a modest display surface but struggle with travel and staffing. Reducing the booth price alone won't solve that. A later setup window or a tightly defined one-day format might help, if the programme and supplier arrangements allow it. Work on the actual constraint before adding benefits.

Write eligibility rules before accepting applications

"Startup" can mean a newly incorporated company, an early product, a funding stage or a business exhibiting for the first time. Choose what matters to your audience and explain it before anyone spends time applying. An established supplier's new product line may be interesting without qualifying for your startup offer.

A real example is CES's Eureka Park entry criteria, checked in October 2026. Its guidance considers startup status, relevant technology, demonstration readiness and previous exhibition history. Those are criteria for that programme, not universal startup rules. The useful lesson is that a named startup area needs a published definition and a review process.

Our fictional show asks applicants to identify their company, explain the product they're bringing and demonstrate its relevance to retail operations. It requires a working demonstration appropriate for the venue. The organiser defines its own company-age and previous-participation limits in the application terms after deciding whom the programme should support. Don't borrow another event's thresholds just because they're easy to copy.

Separate eligibility from selection. Eligibility asks whether the company can be considered. Selection asks whether it fits the available programme. You might receive more eligible stock-management applications than you can use while having no credible returns-handling products. Accepting every qualified applicant in arrival order could undermine the range buyers were promised.

Choose a selection method you can explain. Assess relevance to the audience, demonstration readiness, the practical requirements and the balance of categories. Write short reasons for decisions. If an accelerator or sponsor nominates companies, disclose the nomination route and apply the published conditions consistently. A nomination doesn't need to become automatic acceptance.

Ask for the information that changes your decision. A product link, short demonstration, intended customer and equipment requirements may tell you more than a long pitch deck. Avoid collecting confidential business information you don't need. Explain who reviews applications and whether any information will be shared with a programme partner.

Set an application close, a decision date and a payment deadline. Keep a waiting list with clear permission to contact applicants. Someone who's been accepted but hasn't paid isn't the same as a confirmed exhibitor. Your sales record should show that difference so you don't order a printed company panel for a booking that never completes.

Give rejected applicants a straightforward answer. If a business is too established, you can offer an appropriate standard package without pretending that acceptance was a competition it nearly won. If the demonstration is unsuitable, explain the relevant restriction. Consistent decisions protect the pavilion's purpose and save your team from negotiating a different definition with every buyer.

Make the small package complete enough to use

A low entry price is attractive only if an exhibitor can participate at something close to the advertised cost. A founder who discovers compulsory furniture, electrical and badge charges after acceptance may have committed to an event they can no longer afford. Explain the usable offer before requesting payment.

In our fictional example, each startup package includes one named demonstration counter, a company identification panel, two exhibitor passes, a directory profile and access to a shared help point. The actual counter dimensions, equipment limits, permitted storage and access hours belong in the specification. "Turnkey" is too loose unless you immediately explain what turns up and who supplies everything else.

The package also includes an agreed basic electrical service and a defined connectivity arrangement, both subject to the approved demonstration requirements. These are planning choices for the example, not assumptions about what every venue provides. The organiser gets the real specifications and prices from the appointed suppliers before selling them.

Make exclusions equally visible. Travel, accommodation, shipping, insurance obligations, extra furniture and specialist equipment can remain the exhibitor's responsibility. State whether unloading labour, empty-case storage or additional staff passes create extra charges. If a founder must order something through an exclusive venue supplier, tell them how to obtain the price before booking.

Be careful with shared resources. A meeting table available to the whole pavilion isn't a private meeting room for every company. A display screen booked for short demonstrations isn't a dedicated screen on every counter. Say how access works and who resolves conflicts. A benefit can be useful without being unlimited.

Describe the staffed hours too. If the show opens for two days, does the startup need someone present throughout? Can representatives attend sessions, and who watches the display while they're away? Your help-point staff shouldn't become unpaid sales representatives for twelve unrelated products because that responsibility was never discussed.

Write one ordinary-language package summary and test it with someone who hasn't worked on the event. Ask them what they believe is included, what they must bring and what the total compulsory bill will be. If their answers differ from yours, fix the description. This is more revealing than asking whether the page looks clear.

Keep a version and issue date on the final specification. When you change an inclusion, identify the affected buyers and confirm what applies to their booking. Quietly updating a web page doesn't settle promises made in an earlier proposal. Your onsite team needs the version each accepted company actually bought.

Calculate the price using the costs you will actually commit

Start with a small area you can deliver well. Our example has twelve saleable startup packages. That quantity is an invented commercial assumption after the fictional organiser's planning process. It is not a layout calculation, an occupancy recommendation or permission to install twelve counters in a real venue.

The pavilion has $6,000 of fixed costs. For this exercise, that covers the allocated venue area, the shared build, central signage and coordination. Each sold package adds $250 for the counter-specific services, panel production and booking administration. Your own cost sheet should show the supplier lines behind these totals, including staff time and relevant payment charges.

At a $750 package price, each paid exhibitor leaves $500 after the $250 variable cost. Twelve sales therefore leave $6,000 to cover $6,000 of fixed costs. The pavilion breaks even before any contribution to wider event overhead or profit. A sellout sounds good, but this version of the offer gives your business no direct surplus.

That uses the basic relationship described in the US Small Business Administration's break-even guidance. Fixed costs are divided by the amount left from each sale after its variable costs. The calculation is a planning estimate. It works only if the costs behave as assumed and the price is actually collected.

Suppose a pavilion sponsor provides $3,000 of net support after the extra costs of delivering its rights. The remaining fixed cost to recover from exhibitors becomes $3,000. At $500 left per paid startup, six sales cover that balance. At eight sales, the pavilion leaves $1,000 after its stated costs. At twelve, it leaves $3,000.

Keep the word "net" doing real work. A sponsor paying $4,000 while creating $1,000 of additional signage and hosting costs provides $3,000 for this calculation. Adding the whole $4,000 and leaving out delivery would overstate what the pavilion keeps. Count those costs once, either in the support calculation or the pavilion cost sheet.

Source: the fictional example in this article. Each package sells for $750 and adds $250 in variable costs; fixed costs are $6,000 and net sponsor support is $3,000. Values exclude wider event overhead, applicable taxes and financing. They are not net event profit or market benchmarks.

Now test the supplier commitments. If the contractor charges for all twelve counters once you approve production, the $250 isn't fully avoidable for unsold places. Move the committed portion into the fixed total and recalculate. A spreadsheet that calls something variable doesn't change the contract. Ask when each order becomes payable and what you can still reduce at each decision date.

Check what the pavilion displaces and when cash arrives

Here's the interesting part. A pavilion can cover its own costs and still be the wrong use of the floor. You may be replacing standard booths, a well-used meeting area or space that helps attendees circulate. Compare the realistic alternative before treating the whole pavilion surplus as additional money.

Suppose the same area could support two standard exhibitor packages that would together leave $2,000 after their avoidable delivery costs. That is a separate fictional alternative, not extra revenue available alongside the pavilion. If the pavilion leaves $3,000 at full sales, its advantage over that alternative is $1,000, assuming the standard spaces would actually sell and the cost boundaries are comparable.

At eight startup sales, the pavilion leaves $1,000. Under the same assumptions, that is $1,000 less than the standard-space alternative. You might still choose it for a funded audience-development purpose, but record the choice. Don't describe the programme as more profitable solely because its own contribution is positive.

Check demand on both sides. Two standard booths that have sat unsold for months aren't equivalent to confirmed startup bookings. Equally, twelve enthusiastic application forms aren't equivalent to twelve paid startup packages. Compare the evidence you have at the point when you must make the commitment.

Next, build a dated cash plan. Our example sponsor's net $3,000 is an economic contribution, not a promise that the money is already in the bank. The gross payment may arrive after supplier deposits are due. Exhibitors may pay in stages, and collection costs may differ from the allowances you used. Record actual receipts and payments separately from expected contribution.

Before authorising the build, finance should be able to answer a simple question. If no more companies pay from today, can we meet the commitments we're about to make? That answer depends on available cash, payment dates, cancellation terms and the rest of the event's obligations. A profitable forecast cannot pay a deposit until funds are available.

Set the decision date early enough to use your fallback. A smaller pavilion only saves money if you can still reduce the order and change the plan responsibly. Agree the latest date for that choice with suppliers and the venue. Then tell applicants what happens if the programme doesn't proceed, with terms reviewed for the event and jurisdiction.

Keep the threshold in the working plan. For the example, six paid packages plus confirmed net support cover the stated pavilion costs under the model. The organiser may require more before proceeding because the event needs a contribution, or because some income remains uncertain. Choose that requirement deliberately rather than announcing six as a universal target.

Sell sponsor support without handing over the selection process

A pavilion sponsor may want to support emerging suppliers, meet potential partners or be associated with a particular industry problem. Ask what it wants to accomplish before attaching a logo to the area. A relevant sponsor can help fund a useful programme. An ill-defined sponsor deal can create obligations that consume the subsidy.

Define the rights one by one. These could include naming recognition, a stated number of signs, an opening acknowledgement and a clearly described hosted session. Price the work needed to deliver them. If the sponsor wants its staff in the pavilion, explain their role and whether they receive space, passes or a meeting opportunity.

Keep startup participation distinct from sponsorship. A founder paying for a demonstration counter hasn't automatically agreed to endorse the sponsor. A sponsor funding the area hasn't automatically bought confidential application information or the right to exclude a promising product it dislikes. Resolve those questions in the actual agreements before either side commits.

Selection independence matters most when the sponsor also sells to the same audience. If it can veto direct competitors, that may change what buyers can discover. You need to decide whether that arrangement is compatible with the pavilion's purpose and describe any material restriction honestly. Avoid selling broad exclusivity that conflicts with existing exhibitor commitments elsewhere in the show.

A trade association or accelerator might instead buy a group allocation. Establish who signs the agreement, who pays, who submits company information and who handles replacements. Twelve participating businesses don't necessarily mean twelve separate purchasers. Your records need to distinguish the partner's purchased places from the individual companies authorised to use them.

Use Loopyah's event sponsorship tools for the sponsorship package when that fits your offer. You can set the price, listed perks and quantity on a private share page, and require approval before a brand pays. That helps keep the commercial package clear. Your team still defines the startup criteria, allocates the physical positions and delivers the pavilion.

Don't promise software will manage those separate jobs unless you've verified it does. A package quantity limits what you're selling; it doesn't establish a venue-approved plan or decide which company should demonstrate next to another. Keep the approved participant list and physical allocation under a named organiser's control.

Ask for a sponsor commitment in time to influence the build decision. If support is conditional on full startup occupancy, it won't protect you from low sales. Model the actual condition, including what happens if a company withdraws. Your example arithmetic should reflect the signed deal, rather than the headline amount from a promising conversation.

Recruit companies with a sales page they can take to a colleague

Founders often need to compare your offer with product work, travel and other sales activity. Help them make that decision. The page should explain the audience, the pavilion's purpose, the package, the full compulsory cost, eligibility and what happens after application. Keep the sales claim proportional to what you can deliver.

Show evidence about attendees using its actual scope. Previous checked-in visitors, surveyed job roles and this year's ticket sales are different measures. State the edition and date. If you've never run the show before, describe the intended audience and confirmed distribution activity without presenting a target as an achieved result.

A company evaluating the pavilion may ask whether retailers with purchasing responsibility attend. Answer with the records you have. A list of famous organisations registered somewhere at the wider event doesn't establish that their relevant buyers will visit this area. Explain the planned opportunity and any limits instead of implying guaranteed introductions.

Use a sample participation budget to help buyers check affordability, with blanks for their own travel, accommodation and equipment. You don't need to estimate those costs for every city. You do need to make compulsory event charges visible. A founder should know whether the package price covers everything your organiser requires them to purchase.

Recruit through relevant industry groups, accelerators, incubators and existing exhibitor referrals. Ask partners to share the same current application page. Give them a short description of the businesses you're seeking and the restrictions that matter. A referral partner who promises free space or investor access can create a difficult conversation even if your own page is accurate.

Keep outbound messages specific. For example, explain that the fictional show is seeking demo-ready retail operations products, identify the intended buyer audience and link the package and application conditions. Don't tell a company it has been selected when you've only found its website. An invitation to apply should read like one.

Handle questions in a record your whole sales team can use. If several founders ask whether a screen is included, improve the package page. If they repeatedly ask for guaranteed buyer meetings, decide whether you can deliver that separate programme before adding it. Questions are useful evidence about gaps in the offer, not just objections to overcome.

Track applications by category and readiness as well as total count. A hundred unsuitable applications won't fill twelve relevant counters. Review paid bookings and outstanding decisions at the same time each week. Change the recruitment approach while there is still time, rather than filling the final spaces with unrelated products to make the number look complete.

Make the shared infrastructure work for real demonstrations

Shared services can lower the cost per exhibitor, but they also create shared failure points. If every demonstration depends on one unreliable connection, a low package price won't rescue the experience. Find out what each business plans to do before treating power and internet as simple inclusions.

Collect equipment requirements in plain language. Ask what will be powered, how it connects, whether the demonstration needs a live external service and what happens if that service is unavailable. Identify specialist requirements early enough for the venue and competent contractors to assess them. A countertop display and a machine demonstration can create very different obligations.

For events in Great Britain, HSE's electrical safety guidance calls attention to layout, power requirements, the timing of demand and temporary cable routes. Use the applicable local requirements and your appointed professionals for the actual installation. A shared extension lead is not a substitute for a planned electrical service.

Check the connectivity contract against the promised use. Who supplies it, which devices can connect, what support is available and what limitations apply? Test in the pavilion area under representative conditions. Ask exhibitors to prepare an appropriate demonstration fallback, such as a local sample workflow, while keeping their marketing honest about what is live and what is recorded.

Plan storage, deliveries and waste too. Twelve modest counters can still generate packaging, shipping cases and personal belongings. Decide where those items can go and who moves them. Keep service access and visitor routes clear. Explain property responsibilities instead of suggesting that general venue security means every individual product is insured.

Agree the pavilion layout with the venue before allocating positions. HSE's venue and site design guidance for Great Britain highlights audience characteristics, circulation, exits and infrastructure as planning considerations. The relevant dimensions and permissions depend on the actual event. No attractive drawing in a sales page can replace that assessment.

The shared help point needs a defined job. It could handle check-in, direct technical requests and help visitors find companies. Give its staff the current allocation, escalation contacts and enough knowledge to distinguish an urgent service problem from a request for extra furniture. They shouldn't promise remedies beyond their authority.

Walk the area as an exhibitor and a visitor before opening. Can someone find the counter, hear the demonstration, reach the display and request help? Can staff identify a failed service without searching an email thread? Test those ordinary actions while you can still fix the signs and arrangements. Record defects, owners and the time they must be resolved.

Give visitors reasons to return without emptying the counters

You can promote a startup pavilion all month and still lose visitors if it is difficult to understand on the day. Use category descriptions and clear company summaries so someone can decide where to start. "AI-powered transformation" says less than a sentence explaining which retail task the product handles.

Put the pavilion in the programme for a reason. A short demonstration tour could focus on handling returns, followed later by a different topic. A buyer briefing might explain the problem before visitors meet the companies addressing it. Choose formats that help attendees compare useful options, rather than adding sessions because the area has a spare microphone.

Check the staffing consequences of every programme benefit. If each startup has two representatives and both are expected at a founder session, who remains at the counter? Schedule optional activities, allow a representative to stay, or explain a brief planned closure. Don't promise continuous demonstrations and simultaneous attendance at another mandatory activity.

Keep a realistic timetable for shared presentation facilities. Count setup, changeover and recovery time alongside the advertised demonstration. If a company needs technical assistance, confirm it before the show. A packed running order can collapse when the first presenter discovers a missing adapter or needs longer to clear the equipment.

Separate the opportunity to meet a buyer from a promised appointment. A hosted introduction requires a willing, relevant participant on each side. Inviting an investor or retailer doesn't mean they accepted. If you're offering an appointment service, use the capacity and matching process in the trade show networking guide before selling a guaranteed allowance.

Protect the general visitor experience. Sound from one demonstration should not make neighbouring conversations impossible. Queues should not block the route. Staff need permission to pause an activity that creates a problem and a way to escalate that decision. Those conditions belong in the exhibitor briefing so enforcement doesn't feel improvised.

Promote specific things people can discover. Name the categories, describe demonstrations and publish confirmed times accurately. If a participant withdraws, update the programme and signs where practical. A marketing email that keeps promoting a cancelled demonstration creates a complaint your floor staff can't solve by being friendly.

Ask the host to watch what visitors struggle with. Perhaps the company labels are clear but nobody knows whether they can touch a prototype. Perhaps a tour repeatedly arrives during a counter's break. Small operational observations can produce better changes than adding another promotional post. Capture them while the experience is happening.

Be precise about leads, introductions and personal information

"Meet buyers" is an opportunity. "Receive the attendee list" is a data-sharing promise. Don't allow one phrase to slide into the other during the sales process. Tell startups what contact opportunities are included and what information, if any, the organiser will provide.

A visitor approaching a counter can choose to discuss a product and exchange details. That doesn't mean every startup in the pavilion should receive the visitor's information. If you offer scanning or lead retrieval, explain who controls the information, what the visitor is told and how the recipient may use it. Verify the actual tool's behaviour before describing it.

The ICO's direct marketing guidance covers planning, fair collection and respecting people's preferences in the UK. Apply the privacy and marketing requirements relevant to your own event and recipients. A sponsor's payment doesn't remove those obligations or authorise a new use of applicants' personal information.

Give exhibitors a short briefing on the process they will use. They need to understand the notice shown to visitors and the boundaries of any shared service. If each startup collects contacts through its own form, make that responsibility clear and check whether your programme creates additional organiser obligations. Don't invent a single consent statement for every business and assume the work is finished.

For hosted introductions, ask what the parties want to exchange. You can confirm that a meeting happened without collecting their whole discussion or proposed contract value. If you request a later outcome, explain the purpose and allow a response that doesn't disclose confidential negotiations.

Keep sponsor reporting proportionate. You might report the number of participating companies, delivered demonstrations and responses to a voluntary feedback question. Identify what each count means and who answered. A report can show delivery without giving the sponsor a spreadsheet of every visitor who entered the area.

Prepare for a founder asking, "Where are my leads?" The answer should refer to the agreed service, not to a last-minute export of ticket-buyer data. Check whether a service failed, a promised introduction didn't happen or expectations differed from the written offer. Fix the actual delivery issue through the appropriate process.

If you discover that sales materials promised information you can't appropriately provide, escalate before the event and correct the offer with affected buyers. Don't wait until the post-show email. That conversation may be uncomfortable, but it gives you time to agree a remedy without creating another problem for attendees.

Agree what happens when a company or the programme changes

The moment to discuss withdrawal is before a founder pays. Make the agreement explain payment deadlines, cancellation, substitution and material changes to the offer. Have the terms reviewed for your location and the actual transaction. A short package summary helps people understand the deal, but it doesn't replace the agreement or the requirements that apply to it.

Think through an ordinary withdrawal. A startup pays, then discovers its product won't be ready. Your team needs to know whether it can offer a substitute representative, accept another eligible company, move the booking or apply the agreed cancellation process. None of those choices should be invented by whichever salesperson answers the message first.

A replacement company needs its own checks. The departing founder can't sell the counter privately to an unrelated business and assume the organiser will accept it. Equally, you shouldn't promise a waiting-list applicant the space before resolving the original booking. Record who approved the change, the payment treatment and which company now owns the operational responsibilities.

Separate a company withdrawing from the organiser changing the programme. If you reduce a two-day pavilion to one day, move it to a materially different area or remove an included service, assess what you've promised and what response is appropriate. Tell affected buyers what changed, why it changed and what choices they have under the agreement and applicable requirements. Updating the public page alone won't reach everyone.

Prepare a simple decision record for the team. It should contain the booking reference, the requested change, the original package version, the costs already committed and the person authorised to agree the outcome. Add the decision and the message sent to the buyer. Keep sensitive details available only to people who need them.

For the fictional show, imagine a founder requests a third pass after buying a two-pass package. Sales checks the published extra-pass option and the permitted staffing arrangements before agreeing it. That may be straightforward. If the same founder asks to bring a much larger powered demonstration, the decision needs the operational owner and relevant specialists. An extra payment doesn't make an unsuitable activity acceptable.

Run a short tabletop exercise before opening sales. Have one colleague play an accepted company that misses payment, another a sponsor requesting a participant's removal and another a founder whose equipment changes after approval. Ask the team to find the relevant rule and name the person who decides. If they can't, the process needs work before real bookings arrive.

These records also help on the show floor. Staff can check whether a company received an approved exception without reading a month of messages. They can explain the current arrangement and escalate a new request. That gives founders a consistent answer while protecting the commitments you've already made to neighbouring exhibitors, visitors and suppliers.

Review what the pavilion delivered before selling the next edition

Start with the commitments you can verify. How many accepted companies paid, arrived and operated during the agreed hours? Were the specified counters, services and programme opportunities delivered? Record outages and changes alongside the headline participation count. Twelve paid bookings don't prove twelve functioning demonstrations.

Then ask whether the offer was useful to its intended audience. Talk to participating businesses about relevant conversations and the next actions they chose. Ask visitors whether the products addressed a real problem and whether the demonstrations helped them assess an option. Keep respondent counts and unanswered questions visible.

A startup saying it had a promising conversation is not proof that it won a customer. An eventual sale may involve months of work and several other contacts. Report confirmed outcomes with permission and their limits intact. Don't turn one enthusiastic founder's result into a promised return for everyone next year.

Reconcile the final costs against the model. Include extra technical support, replacement panels, staff overtime and any agreed adjustments. Check gross sponsor receipts against sponsor delivery costs. Review the value of space displaced using the evidence available, and separate that comparison from the pavilion's actual cash result.

Look at the reasons for friction. Did founders misunderstand the compulsory spend? Did too many products depend on live internet? Did an eligibility rule exclude businesses that visitors actually wanted? Those findings should change the next package, supplier brief or application criteria. A longer benefits list won't necessarily improve the offer.

Decide what returning companies should buy. A startup programme can become a permanent discount for established exhibitors if there is no graduation policy. Explain eligibility for future editions from the start, then review whether a returning company should move to a standard package, demonstrate in a different format or leave room for a new participant.

Before you open applications again, update the package using verified delivery records. Confirm the supplier specification, publish the selection rules and calculate the minimum paid participation under the new costs. Put a date next to the go-ahead decision and name the person who can authorise the commitment. That's the working plan your sales team needs when the next founder asks what the pavilion will actually do for them.