Do You Have A Trade Show Strategy?

Preparing for a trade show requires a lot of time, money and attention to detail. There are order deadlines that can’t be missed - booth design decisions, marketing initiatives, setting up for the show, reservations to make and a long laundry list of things to do. But aside from the actual planning of exhibiting at the trade show, has your company created a strategy for the show? Does everyone involved know why your company is going? What are the ultimate specific goals and does the entire team know them? Have you sat down and had strategy meetings?

It’s important to set specific strategic goals for every trade show and track your success at reaching them. For example, how many leads do you expect to receive? How many sales? What is the dollar amount of all sales you need to justify the cost of the show? How do you track the leads after the show is over? Who does the follow up? How is the follow up tracked? Who/how are the sales tracked and for how long? In the packaging industry we often find that it may take months or even years for a sale to close that was a direct result of someone seeing our machines at a trade show. If we don’t continue to track that information, we won’t know how truly successful the show was for our company.

If you don’t know what you expect to get out of the show, why would you spend all the money in going to it? Take the time to strategize with your sales staff prior to the show. Set goals. Make plans on what it will take to reach those goals. The better prepared you are in advance, the better the outcome will be for your company.

The author, Marge Bonura, is the Director of Sales & Marketing for New England Machinery, Inc. (NEM). NEM is a leading 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.