Trade Shows Part 1: Who Goes to the Show

Spring is definitely in the air, and with it a brand new season of trade shows. You remember trade shows, don’t you? Those antiquated get-togethers that were supposed to be replaced by virtual this and electronic that.

Yet like the flying car I was promised in 1972, it just hasn’t quite come to pass. Most marketers still include trade shows in their mix, though I like to think we are getting a little better at it.

Certainly the years following the tech meltdown in 2000/2001 have seen a more sober approach to shows, but we still aren’t quite past the stilt walkers, Hooters girls, two-storey booths and popcorn machines.

And I think it’s this type of thing that causes so much angst around trade shows back at the office. How many times have you watched your Corporate Overlords wringing their hands about who “gets” to go to a show? How many times have you had the fun job of telling people who thought they were going that they now couldn’t? How many executives have you had to book into a show at the last minute? How many finance people have you had to convince that renting an alligator is a legitimate business expense?

While I doubt we’ll ever convince HR, finance and IT that trade shows are anything but an excuse for marketing and sales to party, I will suggest that if we do a better job of planning and measuring, the whole thing might be easier.

Since the question of who goes to a given show generates the most resentment, that seems a good place to start. There are basically three reasons to attend a trade show: to sell, to learn or to schmooze.

I think a lot of companies try to find a way to send people who can do all three things, and I suggest that if you can find someone who can do even two of these things, you’re very lucky. Let’s remind ourselves of what really goes on (or ought to be going on) at these shows.

Selling:
This is where someone puts on the uniform, which usually is a golf shirt that doesn’t fit and a pair of black or khaki pants, and stands for six to eight hours. This is shameless shilling at its finest and the goal is to engage passers-by, drag them into your display to see things, get their name into the funnel (or not) and move on to the next person.  The skillset here is called sales. It should be done by sales people. Good sales people. Not junior ones. Not the ones it was cheapest to fly in. Not the ones who do it every year. The good ones. The ones who can qualify leads, push them into the funnel or further along the funnel or even close something. Good sales people love shows because they make lots of money at them. Poor sales people hate shows because everyone can see how bad they are at it.

Learning:
Most shows or conventions or whatever you call them offer a great opportunity to listen to speakers or attend workshops. While there are rare exceptions, most of these types of activities are open to exhibitors as well as to attendees. Any marketer who is serious about selling to a particular industry is an idiot if they aren’t sending someone to these sessions, even it means buying an attendee pass. You will probably need to spend a fair bit of time convincing the Hand-Wringers that education is also an important outcome of a given trade show and that the people who are standing at the booth are not going to be able to attend the education sessions. They just won’t. That isn’t always obvious to Hand-Wringers.

Schmoozing:
This sounds like exactly the thing finance will simply not condone. Imagine going all that way just to talk to key customers? What a waste of money it is to see all the players in an industry in one place so you can pick out future partners and size up competitors. How can you possibly justify standing in front of the industry making a speech or leading a session on how your particular bit of it works? It’s just marketing wasting money again when they host a hospitality suite. That money is much better spent on hiring another financial analyst to go through the credit card slips. Oh, dear; that sounds bitter.

My issues aside, the schmoozing factor is likely the most important in the long term and the one paid the least attention. These are conversations, people. Which is why this needs to be done by senior executives. They don’t need to come for the whole show, but if it’s a major event in a key industry, you need to have a VP or better working that show and it’s your job to make sure he or she has a schedule jammed full of speeches, meetings, meals, sit-downs, tire kickings and analyst briefings.  If you see them hanging around your booth checking their phones, you aren’t doing it right.

Next time: How to choose your events

BizMarketer is written by Elizabeth Williams
I help companies have better conversations
Drop me a line at ewilliams@candlerchase.com
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