Why Do Tradeshows?

Posted October 22nd, 2008 by Karl

Why should you attend and exhibit at a tradeshow?

Probably the most frequently asked question by businesses who are considering their first tradeshow and probably the simplest and easiest to answer.

The answer is simply - profits!

Tradeshows generate billions of dollars in direct and indirect sales every year for businesses using them as part of their marketing strategy.

No other sales activity comes close in terms of ROI and effectiveness than tradeshow exhibiting.

Consider this; ask yourself how many sales calls one of you or one of your reps can make in a day?

Three?

Five?

Ten?

Now think about how many people you can talk to you who are actively looking to engage in business discussions at a tradeshow exhibition?

Thirty?

Fifty?

A hundred?

Tradeshows are highly effective at bringing people looking to do business together.  Attendees are looking for products and services to meet their own needs and demands while they will also be attempting to keep abreast with market developments themselves - remember they are in the same business you are in; making money.

There is a sales maxim, “If you want to hunt lions, go to Africa!”, and this definitely applies to tradeshows with their huge attendance of potential customers looking for products and services to satisfy their requirements.

Tradeshows are Cost Effective Routes to Market

Many businesses considering exhibiting focus on the cost aspect of the exercise to the exclusion of the real objective; making sales and profits.

Experienced exhibitors do not do this as they have prior experience of the success that tradeshow exhibitions bring them them.  Experienced exhibitors treat tradeshows as a key profit center and not as a cost center.

Think about the cost of a traditional sales call.  How much does it cost for a sales rep to find a prospect, make the appointment, pay the visit and close the sale?

The cost of one in-person sales call varies depending on location and business type but it is usual to find the cost in the range $250 to $700 per sales call when you factor in al the costs including salaries, benefits and employee costs as well as the direct sales costs.  This is before the production of marketing materials and samples.

A local tradeshow exhibition will probably run to approximately $700 for the day; in other words the cost of one in-person sales call.

When you are performing a cost-benefit analysis to assess whether exhibiting at a tradeshow is going to be worth the money invested, accurately assess the cost of in-person sales calls and compare this to the dozens of in-person sales opportunities that a tradeshow will provide.

So what do I need to get started?

Placing yourself in a position to seize the revenue opportunities presented by tradeshows requires you to decide what you are looking to produce from the effort.  Obviously, sales and profits are key business motives but just as with any sales activity you need to get back to basics and realistically assess what your sales targets are going to be.  Then you need to plan how you will achieve them and we are going to be dealing with these issues and where to exhibit in future posts.