Dos and Don'ts for Improving Trade Show ROI

How do you decide whether a trade show was worth your money, time and effort? Chances are, when you follow up afterward with the team staffing your exhibit, you are told: “The show was great—we had good traffic and productive conversations.” But this level of detail does not quite satisfy after you have spent several thousand dollars or more. Sometimes the argument is made that you have to go to a trade show because competitors exhibit or because people will think your business is suffering if you don’t. The only good way to decide on events is to set goals, track and measure return on investment (ROI). This is especially critical when you consider that trade shows cost an average of $10,000 per person participating, including all the show expenses plus the travel, entertainment, lodging and time away from the office.

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.