Trade Shows – To Exhibit or Not To Exhibit

How do you know when and where to spend your company’s limited marketing dollars on trade shows? The answer is not an easy one. It will depend on a lot of input from different resources.

First you need to determine what is your reason for exhibiting at a trade show? Is it to sell product at the show? Is it to find new potential customers? Is it to brand your name or product? Once you know why you are going, you need to determine which shows will best help you accomplish that goal. This will require research into the various shows available to you that cover your industry/product. Look at the shows past visitor counts. Is the show growing or dwindling? Also, look at the titles of the visitors. Are these the individuals you need to meet?

We recently determined that a show we had previously attended regularly, was really no longer promoting the type of products we sell. Our product line is designed for production facilities and the show in question had started promoting more of the process end of the packaging industry. Thus, we determined that the show was not the best show for our products and we were better served by putting our money into other shows.

Another important step is to track your success at each show. Keep statistics on how many visitors stop by your booth at every show. Track the number of quotations you create as a result of those visits, and the number of actual sales you get as a result of a visitor from the show. Compare these statistics from one year to the next. Watch for downward and upward trends that are not a result of something unforeseen (like a hurricane during the show affecting travel), or a major change in the economy. Also, note whether you spent more money on pre-show advertising from one year to the next.

The compilation of these statistics will make it easy to determine which shows are worth the money to your company.

The author, Marge Bonura, is the Director of Sales & Marketing for New England Machinery, Inc. (NEM). NEM is a leading packaging machinery manufacturer of bottle unscramblers, cappers, orienters, retorquers, lidders, pluggers, pump sorter/placers, scoop feeders, hopper elevators and much more. The company has been in business since 1974 selling to the food, beverage, pharmaceutical, personal care, chemical, household products, automotive and other industries. For more information on NEM, visit their website at www.neminc.com.