Ahhh… trade shows.  Ever notice that trade shows usually happen in the coldest months of the year.  Sometimes I wonder if the economy would really slow down in winter if it weren’t for all of the trade show travel.  Especially in the building industry.  While there certainly could be retrofitting and renewable energy work going on in Montana in, say, February, it is a lot more pleasant on a warm spring day in May (like today).  I’ve overheard on more than one occasion, “I’m starting to think it is only the trade show industry that’s making money in renewable energy right now.”

What spawned this post was yet another request for us to display at a trade show.  Now, don’t get me wrong.  As a born marketer and sales person, I like the opportunity to shameless spout quippy marketing phrases about our company as much as the next marketeer.  But I have to ask myself, “when is enough, well, enough?”  And more importantly, “what is our/my motivation for participating?”  Or, “what to we expect from this event and/or hope to accomplish by attending?”  And don’t forget, “how much is this really going to cost us?”  Being a softy, I often ponder, “is this good for my community?”  Finally, “will there be, could there be, should there be a decent ROI (return on investment) for participating, how am I going to measure that, what is break event???”

ETC… ETC… etc… etc… and so on and so forth.

It is only May and SBS has already participated in 5 trade shows (where we actually set up a display of some sort), 3 or 4 conferences and numerous trainings (as in a half-dozen or more).  I feel confident that we’ve passed up at least as many opportunities as we’ve taken.

While the hard part starts with deciding to attend or not, what to bring, how to make the display look better than last time, finding staff to work without going over-time, etc… I really think the most difficult part is after the show.

• What went right and what went wrong?
• How can we set up quicker and tear down quicker?
• What did our competitions’ booths look like that made us look good or bad?
• Are we dropping the ball in some area of getting our message across?
• Should we have a give-away?

It does get a little tedious and disheartening when the first half of the day (or even the first full day) of the trade show revolves around the folks who are only looking to sign-up for raffles, scoring for free swag, or who’s kids are looking for candy to put in their free plastic hard hat.  Isn’t Halloween in October?

I digress, the hardest part comes after the event.  FOLLOW UP CALLS.  I am still sitting on a list of calls that need to be made.  I did an online survey for the folks who had email (with minimal response).  Some of the staff called the folks that they markedly remember having in-depth conversations with – decent warm leads that are turning into a little business.  The rest are up to me.  (Can I get an intern?)

When it comes down to it, a trade show is never free or just a few hundred dollars for the booth.  They are set-up hours and tear-down hours, they are manning the booth hours, they are printing marketing pieces and buying bottle-opener key chains hours, and they are hours of followup calls.

Be sure to assess all of these areas before you commit to your next event.  We certainly did and that’s why we’re delighted to be at the Hamilton, Montana Farmer’s Market Energy Fair on May 22nd from 9am-noon.

C’mon down and say hi.  We’ll be shamelessly marketeering and you may even score a free bottle-opener key chain.

Tags: marketing, sales, trade show, trade shows