Know-How Exchange : Other

I agree with you - half the budget on a trade show is very significant, and could easily be questioned.

I would start by trying to come up with concrete goals to get out of the show.

Right now, the goal appears to be to show they are alive. And exhibiting at the show is the easy way to do this.

Better would be some goals related to growing business (number of leads would be the easiest, better yet would be a goal of xx sales from the show).

Once goals are set, then you can start figuring out what you can do to reach those goals.

Keith,

I've questioned participation at many shows but before I ditched it, I'd look at why they are making no sales off the show.

We've suggested to clients that they visit the show as attendees; spend more time walking the floor than in the booth; cut the number of people attending; exhibit jointly with another company.

What seems to always work the best is to go to all your customers/prospects right after the show with a questionaire asking what they think about the show, i.e., was it valuable for THEM. My guess is customers are not attending in the same numbers as before.

If it IS still important, invite all good prospects to a separate event 2 weeks after. By then, they'll have gathered all the info from the competition and will have lots of good questions for you.

Michael

Since you didnt say for sure where you are located I will make the assumption that you are in the US.

I have found that many of the b2b shows are much less effective today than they were, say, 10 years ago.

To produce results you need to work twice as hard, or find new shows to work. If you client is a leader in the industry - I suggest they consider changing shows. If they are not, they may want to look at either creating a pavillion with related but not competitive companies, or going the guerilla route and locating just outside the confines of the show (the ice cream truck above was a great idea).

Many of these suggestions above cannot be done unless you are already a sponsor or exhibitor at the show.

One way to maximize their budget is to rent out a customer suite at a nearby hotel and set up appointments ahead of time. Offer food, prizes or an exclusive demo to get them there.

None of the suggestions offered will give you the same return as a well executed exhibiting program. Instead of ditching the show why not train and educate the company on how to maximize their exhibit investment since tradeshow marketing is one of the most valuable and cost effective ways to promote products and services. See Stats below.
Tradeshows are usually not selling shows so closing a sale is nice but only one of many reasons to exhibit.
The reason they don't benefit in any other way is simply due to lack of knowledge of what can actually be accomplished on the show floor.
Why aren't they getting leads? In a workday one salesperson can meet with 7 people. At the show they can meet 1000 people, face to face. Just need to learn how to greet, meet, qualify, capture and exit. Don't just collect names randomly. Rank leads. A- leads are hot prospects, B- leads are 306 months out, C -leads are not interested. Put notes on the leads to help with the follow up call. What they wanted, what to price, when to call. Include a personal note to jog there memory no matter who follows up. They moved from Chicago, just had a baby, loves football.

How about market research. Tradeshows provide a million dollar opportunity to check the pulse of the public. While you're there do a survey to uncover your clients needs, what they want, hate.

Network-with other exhibitors to uncover other shows, new suppliers. They are also an untapped resource for sales because they often can't get out of their booth.
Investigate the competition: What's your biggest competitors doing, what are their sales people saying, whats selling, how does there display compare to yours?

Get Publicity- with the right angle you can have reporters at your booth and be in the papers or on the 6:00 news. Are you debuting a new product, giving a seminar, promoting a charity, recieving an award, hosting a celebrity, celebrating a milestone? Find an angle, send a media release inviting reporters to your booth.
There are just a few of the ideas I teach that help companies turn their exhbiit booth into a powerful profit center at tradeshows. Don't dump the show, get up to speed on how to do it right.

WHY TRADESHOWS WORK
There are 10,000 tradeshows a year
Attended by 150 million people
Who spend 120 billion dollars

WHO ATTEND SHOWS?

53% of CEOs said they will attend 3-5 shows this year
36% Are attending their first tradeshow
82% Are interested in buying something
81% Are looking for new products & services
38% Are the decision makers
78% Have buying influence
39% Are first time attendees
79% Have not been contacted by your company in the last 12 months

CAN YOU MAKE MONEY AT A TRADESHOW?

76% Arrive with an agenda and spend 7.8 hours
83% Will buy something
55% Will buy within 12 months
26% Will sign a purchase order
51% Will request a sales presentation
77% Will find a new vendor or supplier
66% Come to network
94% Will compare competing products
35% Will Share information with 4-6 other people

You will reach 7 times as many prospects at a tradeshow than you would capture through any other type of marketing, except field sales. These leads will cost you 61% less to close. Tradeshows will generate more sales for your company than Advertising, Direct Mail or Cold calling, and they will cost you less.

9 out of 10 companies ranked exhibitions as the #1 Most Useful source of purchasing information, because they could examine and evaluate competing products in one location.

Statistics compiled from Exhibitor & Business Marketing Magazine & the Center For Exhibition Industry Research

Susan Ratliff
The Exhibit Expert
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As one poster suggests-- find out why this show doesn't work. If they are concerned what would be perceived if they didn't show-- then I bet it works for some in their biz

My bet is they are just showing up with the "field of dreams" mentality, go there and they will come. Before you ditch the show-- evaluate what they are doing before the show to presell the event. When I coach a team on this, I tell the reps that are working the event I want an itinerary of preset appointments with the major clients in their territory. This would only apply to biz to biz sales of course. If its consumer oriented, I'd be giving an answer on creating "excitement". But when people tell me a show isn't working-- I head straight to what they do before the event. Not that "we're going to take out ads, play games, etc etc" That is passive. As a certified guerrilla marketing coach-- that is too passive for guerrillas. Of course you can have games or whatever-- but guerrillas are lazar sharp in their marketing. Games are icing, not the cake.

And as an owner-- I'd get those reps doing their job (preset appts as I stated) -- have them blitz their accounts of other potential buyers and invite them personally to their space. And your client should review these itineraries, inspect what he expects -- target specific buyers and find out "why" that buyer didn't want to set an appointment. Hold those reps accountable and they will deliver. And I don't want one or two. I don't want a sales person in the field making only one or two calls in a day-- so why settle for it here? I strive for one an hour-- and having done it myself and I do it myself with the shows I invest in-- this is very attainable.

Just as every call must have a reason-- you wouldn't just go to a client and say "we're showing stop by". You must have a reason to stop by-- and ideally buy or a demo that they wouldn't necessarily see on a normal sales call.

And, because trade show organizers state that 80% (some quote as high as 90%) of all leads are not followed up on. Spend time on how those leads will be followed up on. Again, inspect what you expect.

So my short advice recapping this long answer-- before you pull the plug make sure its the show and not the client.

Sell Well and Prosper tm

ok I'm on the road -- and road worn. So to answer how to capitalize and not take out a booth- all my info above about preselling is transferrable to this post. Even more a critical ingredient to this advice.

What you do is take out in neighboring hotel a suite. You invite the buyers there. You set up presentations and offer snacks and refreshments.

I have an independent rep agency and the big show in my niche costs about 75K when you include space, union crap etc etc. Emerging co's can't afford this and its an alternate used all the time- with proven success.

With the dollars saved- you can enhance the attraction by upgrading your suite. One co I rep rents the Mirage penthouse -- they do not exhibit in the show I mentioned-- they schedule meetings as above, and have a very well attending cocktail reception one night of the show (by invitation only) and are still in the "green". It is looked forward to and buyers ask me for "how to get in"

I should clarify something. I suggested getting a SOFT ice cream truck for a reason. You want soft ice cream because people have to eat it quickly before it melts, meaning that they'll tend to hang out around the truck while eating, rather than walking off as they would with HARD ice cream.

Their hanging around gives you a chance to pitch them as they stand there.

See, there IS a method to the madness.

If exhibiting doesn't produce results, then either you need to change the way you exhibit (you've gotten a number of good ideas) or change the way to connect with prospects. You could attend the trade show, and actively talk with fellow attendees, especially targeting presentations that your prospects would attend.

Guerrilla ideas need to be appropriate to your targets. It's easy to get attention...for the wrong reason. You don't want to be remembered for doing something annoying or amateur. You want your actions to reinforce what you do, and how you do it.