How To Choose the Right Trade Show
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by Danna Yuhas, Market Impact
- Quantify the total number of relevant prospects, buyers, and influencers that will be interested in your particular product or service and that you’ll be able to get into your booth. Obtain an Exhibitor’s Registration Kit (ERK), and examine the attendee profile of previous shows, including job functions and/or titles, industry representation, type of business, and geographical distribution, Add up the total number of prospects that meet your required customer profile. Assume the relevant number of prospects is 10,000 from a total number of attendees of 15,000.
Calculate the number of people involved in the purchasing decision. If 76% specify, recommend, influence, or purchase, your total estimated relevant prospect base = 76% x 10,000 = 7,600.
- Now estimate how many people will actually be interested in your particular product and how many you can you actually attract and get into your booth.
- Consider the size and length of the show, and the competition. Remember that your prime prospect may have a "shopping list" of different products that they’re interested in.
- Is your product ranked at the top of their list?
- Is your product new, mainstream, or fringe?
All these variables will affect your ability to attract prospects. If you can attract 60% of these prospects, you have the potential to see 60% x 7,600 = 4,560 interested potential buyers or influencers during the show. If the show is open for 18 hours over a three-day period, you have the potential to see 1520 real prospects every day, or 254 per hour. Assume you’ll have four sales people on the exhibit floor at all times, and that they can qualify each prospect in 5 to 7 minutes (i.e. 10 contacts per hour). Then your company will be able to talk to 4 sales people x 10 contacts/hour x 18 hours = 720 prospects over the course of the show, including "good" and "poor" prospects. You know this is achievable, because the trade show can delivery 4,560 interested potential buyers, as calculated above. - Now estimate how many people will actually be interested in your particular product and how many you can you actually attract and get into your booth.
- Estimate sales revenues from the show. Of the 720 prospects, 20% will be curiosity-seekers, and 76% of the remaining will be "interested buyers or influencers". You’ll have 720 x 80% x 76% = 437 good solid leads by the end of the show. If you convert 20% of your leads to sales, then you’ll have 87 sales that you can attribute to the trade show. And if the initial average dollar value of each sale is $15,000, then you’ll generate about $1.3 million in revenues. Does this meet your objectives?
- Estimate the cost of your participation. If each sales person requires about 65 square feet of space, including displays and equipment, then you’ll need 65 x 4 people = 325 square feet of space, or roughly three 10x10 booths or a 20x20 booth. At $17/sq. ft. a 400 square foot booth will cost you $6,800. You’ll spend at least four times this amount to cover space, freight, exhibit installation, fabrication, graphics, design, drayage, electrical, telephone lines, audio visuals, cleaning, labour, and other services. So your estimated expenses will be at least $27,000. With these calculations, you’ll know if you can expect to make a profit as a result of the trade show.
- Calculate the cost per lead and return on investment as a ratio of booth expenses to revenues generated. Compare these numbers, and the expected revenues and/or profits to other marketing or sales-generating activities that you have planned. This will give you the information you need to make a go/no-go decision.
- Verify your decision and do a reality check.
- Ask your customers which trade shows they attend.
- Attend the show rather than exhibit.
- Ask your suppliers, competitors, and past exhibitors about their experiences with the show.
- Analyze your ability to service the geographical areas from which prospects originate.
- Analyze the show management’s ability to promote the show successfully year after year:
- Is the show growing?
- Are audience demographics changing and if so, why?
- Do you have an opportunity to raise your visibility by providing a conference, keynote, workshop, or seminar?
- Do you have enough staff to follow up on the leads while they’re still hot?
- And can you service the new business you’ll attract?
- Is the show growing?
- Ask your customers which trade shows they attend.
A trade show can help you achieve multiple goals simultaneously. Generating sales leads, increasing company awareness, launching a new product or service, sleuthing the competition, building your brand, finding new channel members, and gaining media exposure are just some of them. So how do you evaluate a show’s potential for accomplishing these goals before you spend your time and money?
