Posted July 30th, 2009 by Zach
“I will say that the attendance is down, but the leads we are getting are more qualified then the years past.”
Sound familiar? This statement has been the cornerstone statement for the 2009 trade show year. It seems that every one who ever gets asked “How has the show been?” has been told to answer this way.
But is it really the case? Are the leads more qualified?
First of all, I just want to say that I hope this is the case. I really hope that companies are sending out the decision makers due to the economic downfall this year and not the information gatherers.
From shows that I have attended and from companies that I have asked they all seem to say the same thing and agree with the statement above. However, as they are telling me that the people that they talk to are more qualified it almost seems like they are being forced to say this, like their boss is telling them to say this so they can justify the expense.
In the end though, does that really help anyone? If the exhibitors say that they are happy with the leads / attendees that they talked to why would show management change anything? Then, the next year the same effort will be giving by show management as they are being misled that they did a good job. Who, then, is really to blame?
Don’t get me wrong I’m not saying that show management always does a great job or isn’t in some way responsible for the poor attendance. But how can you get mad at them if the message isn’t consistent?
Take for example the TS2 show. Some said that the show was not good for them at all, and then others said that they had great results. Is this a case of the company telling themselves what they want to hear and not being truthful? Or maybe they just did a better job a grabbing people as they walked by? In my opinion if the message isn’t consistent and the exhibitors aren’t brutally truthful then it will never get fixed.
What is your take?
I think this is somewhat a product of hearing, reading, and being told that is what you're going after. The real test is to follow through with the leads, work with lead measurement companies to track results, and actually looking at the cost of each sale. Measure Inc is great at going through the numbers and working with companies on this. They've helped us in the past and we've done work with them for our clients. Another part of the problem, purely as a visitor to a show, is the people simply asking to scan your card, then (trying to) talk to you about their product. We were fairly happy with the results of our booth at Exhibitor. We had an interesting booth with content that people stopped to visit, told their friends to visit, and made them want to talk to us. We weren't overly pushy about scanning cards, but we made an effort to earn that card swipe and it worked out. "Qualified leads" really become insignificant, what matters, in my own personal opinion, is the follow through leading to the sale.