Calculating Trade Show ROI

I talk to a lot of marketing people that are trying to figure out how much money their tradeshows are actually bringing in. A trade show manager that I spoke with the other day, was tasked with figuring out her companies trade shows’ Return on Investment (ROI). If she sent us the leads from her show, could we give her a number? She wanted a “Yes or No” answer. Unfortunately, it is not that simple. It is a tough number to calculate when you’re talking about trade shows, especially if you have a long sales cycle.


The obvious idea is to set up a lead management program that will reference the accounting database and match that against the leads that were collected at the trade shows. Before you run off to your accounting department, let’s think about how effective this reporting will be. What if your sales cycle is 6 months to 2 years, which is often the case. Analysis of the trade show leads may not be complete until 2 years after the event. Along the way, you will be generating a running tally that makes your show lead management look ineffective. And when you finally collect all the trade show sales data, 2 years later, is this information useful?

A different, more immediate, way of reporting on your shows is available if you are accurately qualifying your leads, and generating a lead rating for each lead. Immediately after the show, you should know the quality, or lead rating of each lead collected. Based on this lead scoring, you will know which leads should turn into trade show sales, that is, if the sales reps do their job with the trade show follow up.

The next step after the trade show lead capture and lead rating, is to assign a percentage to each group of leads based on the chance a deal will close. This number doesn’t have to be perfect, just an educated guess (you can fine tune this as you go). If you know a deal will close, assign it 100%, hot leads may be 75%, warm leads 30%, and cold 0%. Then you take the average size of a deal for your company (in dollars), and multiply it with these percentages and the number of leads for each rating group. This will allow you to generate an estimated dollar figure that will tell you how effective your trade show sales effort was.

This will take some effort, but it will be worth it the next time you have a meeting to talk about budget. Not to mention that you will have the info needed to focus the attention back onto sales if management is asking what happened with the tradeshow leads, because at the very least, you will have a list of tradeshow leads that should have turned into sales.

Every company is different, if your company has a short sales cycle, and accounting is willing to work with you, then you should be able to put together a report that details the hard dollars that your show generated. However, if your sales cycle is longer, then a lead management program like the one above will allow you to generate a trade show ROI number.

Trade Show Internet Connection for $299

Do you use an Internet connection at your trade shows? If you are paying more than $299, then EventConnect can save you money.

Typically the internet connection that you can rent for a trade show costs between $1000 and $3000. Event Technologies has put together a package that allows our customers to use the Verizon Broadband Wireless Network to provide internet access in your trade show booth. This service was originally created to help our customers with their trade show lead retrieval and lead management programs, but is now available for use on it's own. Most trade show strategies these days are focused around saving money, and here is a product that can save you thousands of dollars.

The two most asked questions we have heard since releasing this product are:

(1) How is this different than plugging a Verizon or Sprint Modem into my computer?

The Answer: Our system allows you to network (wireless or wired) four (4) computers in your booth. In addition, we include a Wilson Electronics antenna that improves your signal strength and the speed of the service.

(2) Are we allowed to use a service for internet access that is not provided by the trade show.

The Answer: Yes. 100%. The show can't stop you from accessing the internet on your phone, or with a wireless modem on your computer, and this is no different. Here is one of the many laws that guarantee that you can not be told how to access the internet at your trade shows: Telecommunications Act of 1996:

The Telecommunications Act of 1996 explicitly prohibits telecommunications carriers from entering into exclusive contracts with commercial building owners or their agents for the provision of interstate telephony and internet services. The FCC ruling explains that exclusive contracts prove detrimental to the consumer, provide an unfair monopoly to the telecommunications carrier, and stifle innovation and choice with respect to communications technologies and providers. Additionally, the Act grants tenants in multiple tenant environments (including temporary leaseholders) the ability to place antennas one meter or less in diameter used to receive or transmit any fixed wireless service.

Additionally, it is illegal to block the cell signal in the exhibit hall and punishable by up to a year in prison and/or an $11,000 fine.  You can imagine how angry attendees and exhibitors would be if their cell coverage was interfered with. Also, it would be extremely irresponsible of the trade show management to interfere with potential 9-1-1 calls that may need to be placed during the show.

For more information, or to place an order CLICK HERE.

Trade Show Lead Collection on a Budget

We get a lot of calls from people asking if we have a replacement for the lead retrieval scanner they rent at the shows. Usually the goal is to reduce the cost of this rental at every show. I definitely understand this because $350 is a hefty charge for 3 to 5 day rental of a simple electronic device. Unfortunately, there is no direct replacement for the lead retrieval box that will work at every show.

Obviously you can find software products that can read all the trade show badges, but that is going to be a little more expensive than $350 per trade show. More like $1000 per show to rent a lead retrieval software system that is customized and managed by a company like ours, or between $2500 and $8500 to buy one and manage it yourself.

So what can you do if you want to get better leads for your sales people and don't want to spend thousands improving the system. There is no easy answer to this question. Without an internal or external person to drive the trade show lead capture and follow-up process, you are not going to get the results that you want.
However, one idea is to use the show's rental lead collection box and program it with a BANT lead form. BANT stands for Budget, Authority, Need, and Timeline.

In my opinion, there is not enough importance put on the lead collection/qualification and processing of the leads after the trade show. At a trade show where a company will spend more than 10K to exhibit, with the goal of collecting some sales ready leads, why is $350 too much when it is the only direct expenditure that is helping to collect and qualify the trade show leads.