If you’ve ever attended or participated in a trade show, you have an opinion about trade shows, trade show marketing, or exhibit design. I won’t try to dispel all the myths or tall tales, but here are 10 of the most common misconceptions about trade shows.
1. Trade show marketing is marketing. Yes and no. If you’re a marketer, you’ll understand the nuances of trade show marketing, but it will take time. Most marketing managers gravitate to their strengths by concentrating on structure, graphics, or show promotion and planning. Intellectually, they know that they are interconnected, but they may not know how to maximize their results. Work with professionals, whether it’s a graphic designer, exhibit consultant, or certified trade show manager. Trade show display marketing is a craft that is learned the hard way through trial and error. It’s easy to spend a lot of money before you finally figure out what works and what doesn’t. Don’t stumble over a year or two of mistakes when display experts can save you time, money and embarrassment.
2. Trade show labor is unfriendly, incompetent, and expensive. Again, yes and no. No one will argue that trade show labor can be expensive, particularly in certain well-known venues. However, whether they work for the show floor or an independent R&D contractor, they can solve just about any last-minute trade show display problem. You may not agree with the exhibit hall rules, but remember that your booth workers didn’t write them. If you don’t agree with the rules, don’t take it out on the guy or girl who is setting up your screen. Contact your R&D labor provider or show management.
This is a sad but true fact about working at most trade shows. If three people are assigned to your booth, one person will be a star, one person will be average, and one person will be a zombie. Hire nine people and you are guaranteed to have three stars and three zombies. Sometimes you are lucky and the proportion works in your favor. Sometimes not (I could name showrooms where this is almost guaranteed, but I’d have to check under my hood every time I start my car).
Finally, you have the power to control your labor costs, starting with display design. Consider assembly and packaging during the design phase. Are the components labeled, can they be packaged without relying on a 20-page manual, and are the packaging materials reusable?
3. Anyone can occupy a booth. Too often, companies send the wrong people to work at the trade show booth. Worse, they don’t train them. Not everyone has the temperament, knowledge, or discipline for a trade show. This is my rule: Find those employees with prior retail experience who love helping customers with product or service solutions. It doesn’t matter if they are in Sales, Marketing, Engineering or Production. What matters is your attitude and your knowledge.
Do you want to know who not to send? Each exhibitor has a “Joe”. He drinks too much, gambles too much, and wanders around too much. About half a dozen times a day, you’ll wonder what happened to Joe. Five minutes ago he was drinking his third espresso, leaning against the counter and ogling anything with two X chromosomes. Suddenly he’s gone… AGAIN!
4. Trade shows are one big party. For some companies, that is very true. Inevitably, those are the same companies complaining about the ROI of their trade show. They spent “X” but can only measure “Y” sales of the program. When you ask them about their pre-show promotions, lead qualification, customer meetings at the show, and follow-up with leads, you get a big “Duh?” They have very few concrete answers. Bottom line: They were lazy and unimaginative about their trade show marketing program, and now, all of a sudden, it’s the show’s fault.
5. Trade shows are a death sentence. If you love sitting in a cubicle all day creating spreadsheets, then yes, a trade show is a death sentence. Fly to desirable locations like Las Vegas, San Francisco, Orlando, New York, New Orleans, or Chicago. You have to meet people, listen to their needs, talk about your company, stand up, and generally be helpful, personable, and knowledgeable. Worse yet, you may need to join customers for breakfast, socialize with them after hours, network with potential vendors, and attend educational seminars about your industry. That’s really hard for some people.
Trade shows are all about your attitude. Either you embrace the opportunity to upsell and learn something new, or you complain about the airport, the food, the hotel, and the inconvenience of time away from the office.
6. Trade show exhibits are expensive (Part 1). Very true, but so is almost any investment in capital goods or advertising. Let’s explore this from another perspective. Let’s say your business purchased a $18,000 (10 x 20) display online. So let’s say your company participates in four trade shows a year and expects the booth to last five years. Now, take the average cost per show, including show space, literature, airfare, hotels, transportation, and labor. If you’re frugal, you’ll spend around $20,000 per show. Now multiply that by 20 shows ($400,000). $18,000/$418,000 total expenses = 4.3% exhibit cost to total expenses.
Let’s take it to the next step. Your company is serious about trade show marketing (and you should be). Run pre-show promotions, send the right people to the show, and aggressively follow up with all leads. You hope the program will generate sales (or you wouldn’t be participating). On average, he demands $150,000 in new sales from each show. $150,000 x 20 shows = $3,000,000 in sales.
Based on those numbers: $418,000/$3,000,000 = 14% shows expenses of sales and $18,000/$3,000,000 = 0.6% shows costs of sales. I don’t know about you, but those numbers look pretty good to me. And, unlike magazine, TV, or direct mail advertising, they can be measured if you set the right metrics.
7. Trade show exhibits are expensive (Part 2). Probably 60 percent of all trade show exhibits never make it to big industry shows in Las Vegas, Orlando, or Chicago. Owners take them to Chamber of Commerce mixers, local trade shows, corporate events, regional industry fairs, and hiring and recruiting fairs. At these shows, you won’t see island displays, but you will see pop-ups, tabletops, banner stands, and lightweight hybrids. These displays range in price from under $200 for a basic banner stand with graphics to $8000 for a deluxe portable hybrid. Considering the cost of most advertising, buying a trade display is a bargain you’ll use for years and years.
8. All shows are the same. Really? If your experience has been that “all programs are the same,” you may be approaching each program EXACTLY THE SAME. Not all shows have the same audience. There may be similarities, but attendees vary even in shows that focus on the same industry.
If you’re serious about trade show marketing, contact show management and ask for attendee and exhibitor details. Ask them to describe the program’s goals, mission, and audience. Then go to the next step, ask them about exhibitors who have been loyal to that show for many years. Assuming they are not competitors, contact the Marketing Manager or Trade Show Coordinator. Ask them why they attend, how they tailor their message to the audience, and how that message differs from other shows. And then do what marketers do… create a message, design appropriate graphics, and plan a campaign before, after, and after the show.
9. Trade show leads are a waste of time. Potential customers can be a waste of time if: a) You collect business cards in a fishbowl to get a cool product like an iPad, b) You don’t qualify attendees who visit your booth (or write down their needs), and c) You don’t you contact them up to a month or two after the show.
More than anything else you do at a trade show, the quality of your leads is a byproduct of your pre-show planning and booth staff training. There is a direct correlation. A trade show is a salesperson’s nirvana… a captive audience who spent money to see you.
Now, you can get lucky and acquire an innovative client while having coffee, cleaning your nails and chatting with your co-workers. But that’s weird. Finding good clients takes time, enthusiasm, knowledge and patience. You have to be at your best because in most cases they can (and will) walk down the aisle and find another solution.
10. Virtual trade shows will replace real trade shows. There is a place for virtual trade shows just like there is a place for dating websites. But at some point, you have to meet yourself in person. And unless you’re looking for a mail-order bride (or groom), you won’t get any action unless you shake hands, look into each other’s eyes, and share your story face-to-face.