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Objective Of A Good Tradeshow
Posted By: akberali* on 5/27/2005 12:51 AM (CST) 250 Points
how to write an objective paper of doing a good tradeshow

Posted by: stevea Accepted Answer
5/27/2005 4:29 AM (CST)
Hi

Firstly set your objectives for the show, these might be:

1. To meet up with new prospective customers
2. To benefit from the show publicity in subsequent PR opportunities
3. To invite existing customers to see your product range and new releases
4. To research your competition from other exhibitors
5. To network with other exhibitors to exchange market feedback and share ideas.

There are downsides to all of these:

1. New prospects who visit your stand must be given personal but not overwhelming treatment. Training in stand technique is vital or you will upset your visitors.
2. PR works both ways, a new product, badly presented will be widely reported in the trade press
3. Inviting your existing customers and prospects to a show is an invitation for them to meet your competitors – who may well have more exciting products and a better stand.
4. Snooping on competitors stands, especially under a false identity is frowned upon and may get you thrown out of the show
5. Networking is great, but getting paralytic with the sales director of a major competitor will allow him / her to tap you for confidential information and is unlikely to enhance your CV in the industry.

Trade shows rarely produce orders on the stand these days unless they are stage managed in advance.

The aim is to collect as many contact names and addresses of visitors as possible and their areas of interest for follow up later.

It is rarely in your interest to spend an hour demonstrating a product to a new visitor – you havn’t had an opportunity to qualify their interest and you will be forced to ignore another 6 – 10 visitors whose details you should be taking.

Planning the logistics of the stand and marketing your presence is vital, but beware of (3) above!

Research the local potential and mail them – locals find it easier to attend.

Insist on a full delegate list for the show and mail them with your company details.

Write to everyone who came onto your stand to thank them for their time and interest

Have a story line for snooping competitors. I used to feed some amazing new product development stories to the zombies my major competitors tried to sneak in. I even used to get feedback a year later at technical forums from their senior management, tentatively asking how our “Water powered, hand held, bio-disposable electronic data logger project” was progressing. I’d tell them that the order from the Pentagon was in the bag and that NASA were now funding further development.

Be on the look out for head hunters. You might want to strike up a relationship to get them to work on your company’s behalf and to stop them from poaching your staff. You might also want to meet them privately, but that’s up to you!

Go to the social events, especially if a dignitary is involved. There are few things senior management like more than to see a picture of their sales manager being presented to HRH the Duke of Kent – apart from seeing a photograph of them being presented to HRH.

If you are a sales manager, train your staff weeks in advance on the latest stand techniques. Treat this very seriously – it will change your effectiveness at the show from 20% to 80%

If tradition dictates that after a long weekend setting things up, you have to take the entire sales force out to get plastered (English polite colloquial word for getting legless in the bar) ensure that you finish early, stay relatively sober and be prepared to round everyone up half an hour early for breakfast.

On the first day, if the show opens at 8.00am and the stand is ready, have the team there at 7.45. The chairman will turn up, unannounced at 7.55!

Good luck


Steve Alker
 
Posted by: thinkmor Accepted Answer
5/27/2005 7:22 AM (CST)
Hi Akberali

Steve has given you some good advice.

It's important to consider your budget (and sticking to it) and how you will measure your return of investment (ROI) from the tradeshow to justify you participating and for the purpose of reporting to senior mgmt.

Your ROI will be determined by your objectives.

Planning is key to any successful event/tradeshow so get all your marketing comms designed, printed and ready for the show well in advance. This also applies to the stand itself if you are using printed imagery, accessories, furniture etc

If your objective was to collect leads/enquiries (make sure you can collect these efficiently on the days too e.g using a PC). Some companies outsource sales people just for the tradeshow/event but this is another budget consideration and needs active management too.

You will also need post tradeshow sales support to process and follow up on these efficiently to convert them to your next level of your sales process.

You will need to make sure your sales people are briefed (both pre and post tradeshow) accordingly and ideally they should attend for part of the tradeshow if possible.

Positioning of your stand is also important depending on your budget. To get maximum traffic at lower costs, choose your stand position close to the seminar halls or at least to the WCs as these stands tend to go for less than prime positions and have a constant flow of traffic all day long.

You should also ensure your corporate branding is consistent and produced to expected quality at every customer contact points.

Hope this helps.


Zahid Adil
 
Posted by: W.M.M.A. Accepted Answer
5/27/2005 8:16 AM (CST)
Success in a tradeshow begins six months before the start date. The marketing strategies we have developed for our clients are quite sophisticated and comprehensive.

They begin getting the message to visitors, at least 6 months before show date. Consider that.

Randall
WMMA
 
Posted by: NoStressXpress Accepted Answer
6/5/2005 8:38 AM (CST)
The experts have given you some first class information on tradeshows and the "tangible" benefits to be derived from them. Many "intangibles" can also be derived:

1. Since tradeshows are industry specific, we would invite clients in related industries and non-related to come, thus giving our product line additional exposure. We believed that what works well in one industry could have uses in other industries (and we have found this to be the case).

2. We typically bring our product development team and our engineers to every tradeshow we attend. They get a terrific opportunity to talk to the "real" customers and view first hand what competition is offering. This practice alone has enabled my company to determine the real "unmet" needs of the industry.

3. Since we bring our top officials and decision makers to the tradeshow, it gives our customer base an opportunity to connect and discuss issues they normally would not discuss with our sales force.

4. The tradeshow also allows my company the opportunity change customers' perception of the company by showing the attendees how we "outclass" the competition.

5. Many of the sales, marketing, and engineering talent we have hired have based their decision to join our company based on attending a trade show.

I hope this helps.

Conrad
 
Posted by: carrie77 Moderator Response
6/12/2005 7:46 AM (CST)
Hello all. I am closing this question since it's more than 2 weeks old. We do this to reward the contributions of participants in a timely manner + to give increased visibility to the newer questions.

Thanks for participating!
Carrie (Production Editor)
 


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