At some point during the process of evaluating launch tactics you no doubt will consider exhibiting at one or more events. The event may even be the location of your launch announcement. This post will explore how to separate the wheat from the chaff, set event goals, the different ways to derive tangible value from an event, driving traffic to your booth, having a kick-ass presence, and follow up.
Why Trade Shows Matter
Events can provide a huge opportunity to generate momentum or can be a colossal flop. There are a number of ways to derive value from a trade show. Understanding how to derive value will help you to choose trade shows that can provide great business value. I am a supported of trade shows when the return on investment can be clearly understood and that return can be measured. Many who claim that trade shows are a waste of money usually don’t understand them, don’t know how to take advantage of the many opportunities available at a trade show, or simply don’t plan for success.
Trade Shows are the place where your company can look much larger and more established. This can be particularly important if you are selling to larger prospects that are risk averse buyers. The impression of a large booth could make the sale. It’s worked for others and it can work for you.
Qualified Sales Leads
Most of the time we exhibit at events to generate qualified sales leads. If the show permits, we might even be able to sell products on the show floor. As a general rule, if you can’t get qualified sales leads you probably shouldn’t go. More on this later.
Identifying Partnering Opportunities
Trade shows offer an incredible opportunity to identify partnering opportunities. Resellers are looking for new and innovative products to rep, and vendors are looking for products that fill gaps in their product portfolios.
Media Coverage
If the event is large enough there will be key media representation. It’s an efficient way to see the journalists whose work could result in a momentum creating opportunity for your product.
Expanding Key Partner Influence
Many companies play in the value chains of larger players. Events are an opportunity to schmooze and be seen.
Market Research
One of the most overlooked opportunities of a trade show is to conduct market research. It’s cost-effective and can yield answers to questions that can drive product innovation, and validate assumptions about the market. It’s also a great way to get an insight into new trends and directions.
Competitive Research
Many companies throw their new sales guys in the booth. They believe it’s a good way to immerse the new guy into the market. True, but it also gives you the opportunity to ask lots of questions that the new guy is more than happy to answer to demonstrate his new-found knowledge.
Tradeshow Evaluation
You should prequalify events for relevance to your Target Market and the likelihood to yield a good return. At a minimum you should look at the composition of the attendees, the expected number of attendees, the hours the exhibit will be open, how the event producer will drive attendance to the event, the opportunities available to market to the prospective attendees, and cost.
When considering the cost of the event you need to be realistic. There can be hidden costs that do not reflect the true cost of the event: travel, lodging, entertainment, power, booth rental, Internet connection (a genuine rip-off at most events), shipping, storage, tips, pre-event marketing, post-event follow-up, etc. A $3,000 booth space rental can easily expand into a $50,000 investment.
If you’re unfamiliar with an event, ask the event sales person to provide a list of exhibitors from a previous event. Call them and ask them their opinion of the show. Were there quality attendees? Did you get a return? Are you going to exhibit at the event this year?
Setting Event Goals
Before making a financial commitment to attend an event, take the time to understand why you should go to event and set specific goals in each of the categories discussed above. In your planning process, be sure to include a sufficient number of personnel that can achieve those goals. You can have a great set of goals, but without the staff and the accountability they’re not likely to be met.
Driving Traffic to Your Booth
Hopefully one of your goals is to get qualified leads at your booth. Before that can happen, the attendees have to know you are an exhibitor and you have to give them a reason to stop by and see you. If you’re exhibiting at a show with 12,000 attendees that are in your target market and you walk away with a handful of leads, you have no one to blame but yourself. The show managers brought the cows to the slaughter house - it’s up to you to take it from there.
The most overlooked activity in an effective event plan is adequate pre-event marketing. This should include everything in your marketing arsenal to drive awareness and ultimately a reason for attendees to go to your booth. At a minimum you should consider making it prominent on your homepage, emailing your list multiple times, mentioning it in your blog multiple times, issuing a press release, sending direct mail and capitalizing on pre-event marketing opportunities from the show organizer. Special offers and contests drive traffic, but make sure your offer or contest drives the right kind of traffic.
I’m not a big fan of giveaways (trinkets) at a booth unless it’s something that can reinforce your brand or is something that will constantly remind the visitor of your value. Too many exhibitors spend money on useless crap to hand out at their booths that does nothing to advance the cause.
Offer a trade show special, something that is compelling enough to drive the right kind of traffic to your booth. Some ideas include a discount, a special bundle, include training, and give away a car. Don’t give away an iPod. It’s been overdone and not very creative unless, of course, your product is intrinsically tied to an iPod. See the iPot as an example.
Manning Your Booth
Your booth and the way your staff presents themselves in the booth is a direct reflection of your company. Here are some basic rules that everyone should follow:
- No chairs in the booth, unless they are for visitors
- No cell phone usage
- No food, no drinks
- Allow for ample breaks for booth staffers
- Focus on visitors
- Don’t hide - get out in front
- No business discussion in the booth, you never know who’s listening
Next is having the right people in the booth. The people you want in the booth are the people who are most likely to help you achieve your event goals. Don’t assume that sales guys will be the right ones. Look for staffers that are friendly, present well, easy to talk with, energetic, have a genuine excitement about your product, understand how to qualify a lead and know how to move along a visitor that is too chatty.
Organizationally, there should be one person who is in charge of booth operations - the one person that everyone takes direction from. This person is commonly referred to as the Booth Nazi. The Booth Nazi keeps the booth looking tidy and drives the completion of activities that are necessary to meet the event goals.
To Demo or Not to Demo
I have read blog posts recently that question the need to conduct demos at trade shows. With all due respect to the posters, this is a stupid and reckless assertion. Someone attending a trade show expects to see a demo of a product. Trade shows give us an opportunity to see, touch, taste and smell. It’s kind of the point, right? That said, you get to control the content of the demo and how it’s delivered. Your demos must be crisp, tight and sell the highlights of your product. Have it scripted and don’t deviate. Practice, practice, practice. If your visitors want to see more, get their contact information, qualify them and arrange for a more thorough demo after the show. You should be prepared to schedule a follow-up demo at the booth while interest is high.
An alternative is to have an invitation-only hospitality room in a nearby hotel to be used for extended demos. I have seen this used very effectively, particularly for high-end, enterprise software products that are complex and require a more thorough demo. The hospitality room can also be used to close business and to conduct business development (partnering) discussions.
Follow-up
The single biggest mistake that exhibitors make is not following up with the people that have visited their booths. Don’t assume the sales guys will follow up. You should have a packet of information that you can mail or email to every visitor. With today’s ability to communicate in real-time there’s absolutely no excuse to send out packets weeks after the show has ended. Also, most printed materials that are handed out at trade shows are thrown away before the attendee gets home. Here’s a formula for making a lasting impression:
- Have information packets with a boilerplate cover letter ready to go back at your office before the show starts
- Have someone back at the office on standby to send the information packets
- At the end of each day, gather up all the contacts and get them to the office in whatever way works for you
- The next morning have the office prepare and send out the information packets and confirm they were sent
- Visitors should receive the information packets faster than your competitors
If you have a CRM system, you might be able to automate the entire process.
If you have inside sales or telemarketing, make it point to call each booth visitor and thank them for visiting your booth. Use the opportunity to conduct additional qualification.
Day 1 at Product Management Educational Conference (PMEC)
It was fun because the audience was great. Awesome questions and they were kind enough to laugh at my jokes. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that about 20% of the audience had documented launch processes. Very nice.