Last November, I asked “Are Trade Show Leads Worth It?“ Almost two-thirds of you responded to the poll said “NO” and only 16 percent responded “YES.” And I suspect that some of those “YES” votes came from people in the trade show industry.
Does this mean that you shouldn’t go to trade shows? Absolutely not! But it does mean that you shouldn’t use them for lead generation.
Why attend trade shows, then? One reader got it right in the following comment:
Ten years ago, trade shows were lead generation opportunities. Not anymore. There are more cost-effective, efficient and more accurate methods of generating leads. Today, trade shows are business opportunities. They are a place to close hot leads, meet prospective buyers you’ve had contact with but haven’t met face-to-face. They’re a place to set yourself apart, to market yourselves as industry leaders and to reward your best customers.
Bingo. The only reason to attend a trade show is build better relationships with existing, major customers and ready-to-close hot prospects. And to make this happen, you need to rethink the way that you spend on trade shows.
If you’re buying into the “lead generation” myth, you’ll buy a big booth and man it with plenty of marketing staff, and then wait for the leads to roll in. Wrong, wrong, wrong!
Instead, put the bulk of your trade show spending into footing the bill to send (extremely hot and near to closing) prospects and your best existing customers to the show. Limit your own personnel to your CEO, your CSO, and the reps handling those accounts. No marketing drones.
If you can get away with it, don’t rent a booth, but set up the world’s best hospitality suite at the hotel across the street. (I explain how to do this in the post “Are Trade Shows Blackmailing You?“) If not, rent the smallest booth space possible that’s consistent with your industry standing. Think of the rent as a cost of doing business.
The main danger is that somebody in marketing will say: “well, as long as we’re there, why don’t we try to get some leads?” Once you go down that primrose path, you’re spending money on nonsense.
Trade shows are useless for lead generation, but they can help you close business and build relationships with existing customers.
Focus on those two concepts and attending a trade show might be worth the time and money.
