Trade Shows & Leads – How Do You Measure Success?
“Tired of going back to your office with only 400 leads from your last trade show? How about 4,000? How about 40,000?! That’s right, the SCAN-EM-ALL 450 is the answer to your dreams!
“Just hold it over your head, press the green button and in 30 seconds you have captured every lead on the trade show floor. It even works through bathroom doors!
The SCAN-EM-ALL 450. If it has a pulse. We’ll scan it!”
Is this where the industry is heading? By some companies’ current metrics, the Scan-Em-All 450 would guarantee you the most successful trade show ever: 45,000 attendees and 45,000 leads. Pretty great, huh? But what would you do with them all?
This hypothetical may be hyperbolical, but the issue is very real. Many exhibitors right now have two or three crowd gatherers tasked with scanning as many people as they possibly can. It’s an easy way to rack up “leads,” but what will happen when contact is made after the show? Many of these people will say “Sorry, I just stopped by to get the flying monkeys you were giving away.” What good is analyzing your cost per lead if what you’re calling a lead is just someone filling their backpack with free stuff?
What really does define a lead? Is it just anything with a pulse, or must it be something more?
Which is more successful: a trade show with 300 leads categorized as “HOT,” or 3,000 leads in a metaphorical trade show piñata, where you’ll just whack at it after the show and see what shakes out? Some will say there’s likely more buried value in those 3,000, while others would rather focus on 300 sizzling leads and avoid sifting through random thousands.
So, I’m asking you, the community: What should be the metric for a successful trade show? What technologies do you use to categorize your leads as “hot,” “warm” and “cold”? Should crowd gatherers themselves have a tiered system and be directing traffic based on perceived quality of the lead?
Unless we come together on a clear definition of a successful show, before too long, we’ll ALL be waving SCAN-EM-ALL 450s.
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A thought-provoking question. I’d go with my standard answer: “It depends on your goals.” If your goal is just to get your name out there for the first time, or remind people you exist, you may value quantity over quality. If your goal is to zero in on the attendees who would actually buy from you, then quality it is. Either way, the best approach on the floor is often a hybrid: Give a dazzling booth presentation that brings a high quantity of attendees, and then pick out the handful of high-value leads among them, and get them to a staffer and a scanner, quick!
Dear friends ,
i am looking forward to exhibit in trade shows with attendance of 5000 + where can i find a source for such trade shows ?
Regards
Essa
You can find great information on trade shows at http://tsnn.com