Trade Shows & Events

I think exhibiting at trade shows and events is very valuable for organizations of all sizes. While they can be exhausting (especially if you’re not an extrovert), there is no better way to get to talk to a ton of customers and prospects. While webinars are great for a whole host of reasons too—face-to-face meetings are still my preference.

ROI at Trade Shows & Events

What I’ve noticed about my participation at trade shows and events is that my pitch always gets better with each quick conversation; I can actually see it on people’s faces when they go from, “I’m just here for your water bottle..” to “So tell me more about how your product/service works.”

For a startup, this can be the ultimate place to do customer research. While exhibiting at some of the big trade shows can be very expensive…I still think that participating as an attendee for the general networking and session content can help early teams better understand if they are moving in the right direction with the product-market fit, defining their personas, or their understanding of the competitive landscape.

For a scaling or larger company, trade shows and events can help build brand awareness, put a human face to your company, and build relationships that generate leads that turn into customers. It also gives your sales and success teams the opportunity to meet with your customers who will already be there. It’s basically one-stop shopping.

If budget allows, I think that sales, marketing, product, and customer success teams should try to send at least one person to work the booth at an event. Each one of these teams will have the opportunity to learn from the customer or potential customer directly…which, in the age of customer-centricity is key. Oh, and did I mention the HR/Recruitment benefits? Sometimes people go to these shows because they’re looking for new job opportunities. If you’re hiring, make sure to have information about job openings on hand for those job seekers.

I think that the biggest mistake people make when doing trade shows and events is not doing their research on which show will give you the most bang for your buck. If you don’t have deep pockets, it’s all about staying local. Small shows, non-profit business networking events, and meetups are chock full of interesting people to talk to.

If you do have money to spend, spend it wisely and build a plan to engage those leads immediately after the show. Yes, there will still be some people who still only came to your booth for the water bottle, but there is so much untapped potential in a tradeshow lead. Nurturing them appropriately is key.