3 Tips to Increase Trade Show ROI

Prepare, C.A.R.E. and deliver

C.A.R.E. Strategy for Trade Shows

H2H Marketing

I began writing this piece in March 2020, right before starting a new job and the world “shutting down” (thank you Covid). Bizzabo shares that, as of July 2022, there has been a 2X increase in hybrid and in-person events over the last three months. It’s time to get back out there!

The rise of Human-to-Human (H2H) marketing experiences allows businesses to create hard to copy advantages that provide tremendous value. Bona fide, one-to-one human interaction, is the singular advantage that your competition can’t imitate or reproduce through technology, content, or any other strategy. There are 3 main reasons why organizations invest in conferences:

1. Lead generation: Industry events are becoming more and more effective in their segmentation, providing you with a multitude of qualified leads that are actively in the market for a solution.
2. Branding: 92% of attendees come to tradeshows to learn about new products and services. Events enable you to demonstrate the human side of your business and forge an emotional connection with your customers.
3. Sales: 82% of attendees at a conference (Statista 2020) are directly involved in their company’s purchasing process and decision.

Why are you here?

Hoards of people wearing colorful badges, an unmanageable amount of sessions, terrible coffee, the “do-not-miss” keynote…it’s all there. At one conference I attended (pre-pandemic), the team in the booth next to us asked what our “lead target” was. They shared that they were looking to get 5000 leads?!?! (way more than we had anticipated). Their strategy was straightforward — attract people to the booth and scan their badge to get their contact info. They got creative too:

• Big, massive lights
• An MC with a loud (emphasis on “loud”), distorted microphone
• Daily contests for prizes
• A magician (you had to see it to believe it)

Some of my team members cringed at this approach. And I agree. But to be fair, they knew exactly what their desired outcome was (5000 leads).

Attending a conference is a significant investment, with direct and indirect costs such as booth design, swag, travel & accommodation…to name a few. So, start with a clear desired outcome and make sure your team is engaged around it.

Increase Trade Show ROI

After attending more than 100 conferences in different industries and countries, here are my 3 tips on how to Increase your trade show ROI:

1. PREPARE Before you go
2. C.A.R.E. During the event
3. DELIVER After the event

Prepare

Duh! But what does this mean and where do you start?

Your conference should be booked ahead of time in order to allow for planning, defining goals, clarifying accountability and delegating responsibilities. This means every team knows their role and every member has clear and measurable objectives. Ensure to get buy-in across your teams so that everyone is working together towards a common goal that they believe in. Getting everyone together and sharing accountability is key to higher engagement.

For example, the way your booth is designed should be aligned with your desired outcome. Are you looking to have quick conversations? Full demos? Close deals? Sit down meetings?

Planning Checklist

With your desired outcome and goals defined, here is a quick checklist covering the bulk of your planning:

• Every person going to the trade show should have a measurable goal.
• Only those who really want to go should go: This sounds obvious, but not everyone is excited to be away from home for days at a time.
• Swag design and production: What will it be? How will it stand out?
• Booth design: Where will the booth be located? What is the floor plan? Who is next to you? Get as much information as you can beforehand.
• Logistics: Provide guidelines for the whole delegation. Travel, accommodations, food, expenses, etc. Minimize ambiguity so that your team is comfortable, confident, and knows they are supported.
• Booth strategy: Those that will be at the booth should be trained on what questions to ask, what answers to provide, and how to provide value.
• Prepare your team for what needs to be done after the trade show: What is each member accountable for? How will they follow up?

C.A.R.E.

The second section is what I call the level of “care” at the booth:

• Connect with people
• Ask about them, their work, their challenges and pain points
• Relate your value proposition as a solution to their pain points
• Expectations for the next steps need to be discussed

STOP selling & START asking

Picture this: You are an attendee at a conference where you want to learn about new developments in your field and your market. There are hundreds of presenters, sessions, people to meet…and only so many hours in a day. Do you have the time to stand in a booth while a sales rep pitches you on how amazing their product is? Will you sit down for 30 minutes through a demo? Probably not! This is why C.A.R.E. is so important.

Connect

Besides being a learning opportunity, people look to build the right connections at conferences. So give them just that — make great connections. This is particularly important at tech trade shows where so much revolves around new technology solutions and how we use them in our everyday life. It leaves room to add a much needed human touch.

How do you connect? Listen more. Gong studied more than 25000 sales calls to find out the most engaging and converting sales conversations had a 40/60 listen-to-talk-ratio. Make this part of your team training.

Ask

A while back, I attended my first trade show with a new team and I was there to learn and observe. We had just opened the booth and the first person that came was greeted with: “Hi, thanks for coming, what do you know about us? Well, we are (enter company name), and we offer (enter list of features)”. This poor soul did not have a chance to say much and his badge was scanned, we gave him really cool swag, and he was on his way. It hit me: “there must be a better way.”

Imagine this was a first date, where one person just speaks about themselves and how great they are. The chances of a second date are not great.

So, make it about them, not about you. How can you help them? Show actual interest in what they do, what their challenges are, what their day looks like, and what would make their lives easier at work. You will not only learn about them, but you will genuinely connect and develop a real conversation.

Relate

Back to the dating example, there should be a good fit in order for 2 people to have a mutual, long term connection. At a conference, a good fit means that what you have to offer resonates with the lead and can create value for them. This provides the foundation to learn more and move forward. It’s a win-win.

However, there isn’t always a fit. And when there is no fit — be honest about it. It will be more appreciated than going to a pitch with no true value for them. You won’t be making the most out of their time or yours. Not all products are made for all audiences. And that’s OK.

Set Expectations

You’ve had a meaningful and fruitful conversation. So now, the only thing you should “sell” is the next step: Do they want to schedule a demo? Are they interested in an exploratory call? Are they ready to purchase? Do they want to stay in the loop on your company and products? If you don’t ask these questions, you won’t know what their expectations are.

Ask them, clarify the next steps, and commit to deliver that promise. This will leave a very positive perception of your brand and a higher probability that they will remember you after the trade show.

Deliver

You are back in the office after a long trip, possible jet lag, soreness from standing all day, and most of all — the joy of being back home :)

I hate to break it to you, but most of the work starts now. Depending on your sales cycle, the next few months should look like this:

• Follow up with your leads
• Measure the results periodically
• Document the learning and optimize for the next event

Follow Up

You have a window of opportunity to follow up with all those amazing connections within a reasonable time. This might include:

• Email strategy
• Social connections
• Phone calls
• In person follow ups

The approach might be different from one organization to another, but the concept is the same: deliver what you promised, reach out at the agreed time and the agreed way of communication.

Measure

What you decide to measure really depends on you. But once decided, you have to maintain consistency across all events and throughout the year. Here are some of the metrics to track:

• Attendees VS Leads scanned
• Leads from the event that turned into customers
• Revenues generated from the customers that started as an event lead
• Social media engagement (likes, shares, mentions)
• Post event email engagement (opens. clicks)

Tracking and measuring your progress will be your best tool for improvement as you will be testing different iterations in order to find an optimal process.

My recommendation is to have a weekly review during the first 2 months after the conference with each rep to keep track of their lead engagement efforts and how they are progressing. Next, have a quarterly review. You will be surprised at how many companies “forget” about a conference after a few weeks. Setting up a quarterly review in your calendar keeps your team on track and, most importantly, accountable. Some products have a long sales cycle and a quarterly review is an absolute must.

Scoreboard

How do you know you’re winning?

Keeping score and sharing it regularly has a big impact on engagement. I usually look for these 2 trackable and impactful measures:

• What percentage of attendees are you looking to connect with and turn into qualified leads (MQL)? In my experience, 3-5% is a good starting point
• How much revenue did you make from sales that started as a trade show lead? This is harder to measure with long sales cycle, but not impossible. If you are just starting out, set a 1:1 return and aim to grow that gradually. For example, if your trade show spend was 500k, getting back 500k from those trade show leads is a good result.

I’d love to hear about your trade show experiences. And if you try some of these tips, let me know how it went.

Until then, Happy conferencing :)