Dos and Don'ts for Improving Trade Show ROI
Determine how many leads you’ll need to generate based on your close rate to justify the cost of attending the show. For example, if you will invest $40,000 on a trade show, your average sales per new customer is $10,000, your close rate is 25% on leads from trade shows and you want a minimum ROI of 100%, then you need 32 sales opportunities from the show. This means you will probably need between 250 and 350 leads.
Calculate the number of leads per hour you’ll need to generate (a general rule of thumb suggests that each person will generate three or four qualified leads each hour, but fewer for capital equipment and complex sales; more for commodity sales or where the sales cycle is short). Based on the number of attendees and show schedule, you can then determine whether the show makes sense for you to attend.
Once you’ve made the commitment, here is what you should and should not do to maximize your ROI for trade shows.