Effective Trade Show Management

In Jon Miller's blog, Modern B2B Marketing, a recent entry as part of Ten Practical Trends in B2B Marketing titled Embrace Online Channels states:

The tradeshow must die – at least as a way for B2B companies to drive leads. The same dollars invested in webcasts, online demos, videos, and other online methods are more measurable and more effective.

If marketing properly participates in trade shows high quality leads can be generated. Maximizing your effectiveness at trade shows takes lots of planning. Many companies either go to all the shows that cover their product category or customer segment without question. Still others act as if they have thrown darts at a calendar to select which events to attend. The worst selection method has your going to shows because a.) we always go to that one. or b.) we went there last year. There is a better way.

• Your company does not have to attend every trade show. I use these criteria to determine if the show is one we should attend as an exhibitor
  
  
• Demographics - Look at the previous years demographics. Did decision makers or strong influencer's attend? Is this a show attended by the staff to satisfy a training requirement? Ask the organizers for the current demographics on who is attending this year. Is there a difference from previous years? Why?
  
  
• Vendors - Compare from year to year the vendors that attend. Are your competitors going to exhibit this year? No. Why? Might take some research. I plot on a calendar all my competitors and what events they are attending from year to year.
  
  
• Location - Is this an event being held at a resort or is it a large exhibit hall in a major city? Is golf the main attraction? Decision makes go the trade shows and events held at the resorts. Remember, you want to meet with decision makers. Location can also limit the number of attendees. Some companies who are potential customers have limited budgets to attend trade shows, conferences and events. The more exotic the location, the higher the cost. For the same reason many companies select events in the nicer resorts and consider it a paid vacation. AKA boondoggle. Carefully understand your companies politics on this issue. Be upfront when presenting your event plan for the year. Marketing simply cannot go to events so others can take a vacation.
  
  
• Size - How many attendees? 100, 500, 1,000, +10,000? Large events are nothing more than a moving walkway of attendees past your booth. Look at events with a smaller numbers of attendees. If they meet the demographic criteria than it is highly likely you'll meet them at the event, invite them to your exhibit space and create a relationship that leads to a sale. Size also refers to the number of exhibitors. Smaller numbers of exhibitors raises the likelihood that attendees will stop by your space
  
  
• Program - Does the events program contents address cover issues and problems that your solution or product provides answers for? If not, why are you there? I've been forced to attend events or inherited attendance from previous marketing teams only to discover that my company does not fit the purpose of the event.
  
  
• Speakers - Closely associated with program is the list of speakers. Did you submit a proposal to the Call for Speakers? The Call for Speakers can be a year prior to the event long before decision needs to be made on exhibiting. If you do have members of your company speaking on the program then exhibiting is a great idea. Start by listing the speaker on your Websites "events" page. Promote the speaker as well as the exhibit to your opt-in list. While at the event cross-promote your speaker and your booth. I find the companies credibility is greatly enhance when you have a speaker on the agenda.
  
  
• Cost - There are two parts to cost: a.) cost to exhibit and b.) cost to attend.
  
  
• Exhibit Cost - although the prices vary wildly by venue, city, even country there is usually a very strong focus on this when presenting your event plan. High price does not mean high quality. Factor in all other reason to attend and get an approximation of the value of the event. Be careful to figure the entire cost including space rental, exhibit costs, travel and lodging, services, collateral and promotional giveaway (if you have one) and shipping. I'm very cautious of events that constantly lower the price to attract vendors. This is sending a message that exhibit space is not selling well. Why?
  
  
• Attendee Cost - How much does it cost to attend? I have found the higher quality leads come from events that have a significant cost to attend. Greatly influenced by location factors (see above), decision makers will be there especially if there is significant cost. Events held in large cities and in large venues typically do not attract decision makers.
  
  
• Time of year - Here is where you would think the organizers of the event would have spend some time. Surprisingly, many event planners don't look at a calendar when selecting a date for an event. Bad timing for an event can be a disaster not only for the event organizers but also the exhibitors. Take for instance the InfoSecurity 2005 held in NYC at the Javits Exhibit Center the second week of December. It was a horrible time to schedule an event. It was too late in the year to make a difference in your sales numbers, especially for enterprise level decisions. Who wants to travel to NYC in December? I attended and found a very dead event. Many vendors made the decision then and there not to attend the following year. I know there are counter arguments to this. The National Retail Federation has its major event, Retail Big Show, the third week in January in of all places the Javits Exhibit Center in NYC. I've exhibited at this event as well. It is packed. Neither snow, nor sleet, nor cold of winter keeps retailers away from this event. Go figure.
  
  
• How to make the shows you do attend successful.
  
  
• Planning - an all encompassing topic. Proper planning starts as soon as an event is announced and continues till well after the event is over. Planning needs to cover logistics as well as content, promotion, staffing, lead capture and follow-up.
  
  
• Content - What message are you trying to convey with your exhibit? Is it obvious and unambiguous? Does it catch the eye (in a pleasing way)? Are you exhibiting products and doing demo's or does your company provide a service? Will you be announcing a new product or service at this event?
  
  
• Promotion - Post the event on your Website events page as soon as you sign the contract. Give time for prospects and customer to plan their attendance. Your event listing should provide a link to the event sponsors Web page to make for easy registration. Schedule a press release around the time prior to the event or on the first day of the event. Promote directly to your opt-in list.
  
  
• Staffing - Selecting the right staff and motivating them to actively participate is a challenge. Most sales teams have little to no event training. Marketing needs to step up and train the staff on how to be effective at events. Covering everything from how to dress, scheduling, engaging attendees as they walk by etc. It is very helpful to have a well trained member of the marketing team at most events to insure this goes smoothly. How many times have you passed by an exhibit space and no one has stepped up to greet you? Depending on the size of the space, I like to have someone in the aisle to quickly engage attendees and pass them to the sales or product specialist. I refer to this as the "snag 'em and bag 'em" method.
  
  
• Lead capture - after all, that's why you are exhibiting. All some companies do is order the lead capture device offered by the event and leave it at that. Bad idea. The lead capturing device in almost all cases capture no more than you can get from the prospect's business card. In some instances it will take days to weeks to get the information back from the device. Too late to act on a "hot" lead. Others prefer to order the lead capture device with the paper printout. The thermal paper printout. The "you can't write on this paper" printout. The paper that curls into a tiny ball. The paper is torn off, shoved in someones pocket and forgotten. Bad idea.
  
  Here's a better way. Order the lead capture device with or without the paper. Design a lead sheet. The lead sheet I design is an 8.5"x11", three hole punched sheet kept in the Lead Binder. The lead sheet has a place to staple the business card, sans business card fields are available to write down the basic info name, title, company name, address, phone and email address. Below that is the BANT section. BANT stands for Budget, Authority Needs and Timeframe. You should be determining this from your prospects. The BANT criteria can be listed as check boxes. You can create check boxes for company or product specific criteria. Finally, the entire bottom section of the lead sheet contains an area for notes.
  
  
  I frequently hear from the staff prior to the event that there is "no way I'm going to fill out the lead sheet." My answer to that is there is no way you are going to fit all the information needed to qualify a prospect on the back of a business card. The sheet can be filled out with the customer if that is appropriate, right after the prospect leaves while the info is still fresh in your mind or right before you go for your break or at the end of your shift. This actually works! I've used the form many times and the information is invaluable. Marketing takes the completed forms at the end of the event and enters them immediately into the lead management systems and assigns them to the appropriate sales team. If you have the info from the lead scanner it can be merged with the information from the lead sheet.
  
  
• Follow up - Conduct a post event debriefing with the staff. Find out what worked or didn't work. Were most of the contacts made tire kickers or decision makers. Have all requests for immediate follow-up been handled. Send a post event e-mail to all prospects offering a white paper. How many prospects did you meet? How does this compare to previous years? Did other vendors at the event have the same success rate you did?
  

A successfully planned and executed trade show event will provide high quality leads for your sales teams and qualified prospects for you opt-in list and online marketing activities.

FWIW