How many times has your sales team come home deflated from a trade show saying it was an abject failure.  Although they can’t quantify it with anything more than anecdotal evidence, there are five main reasons trade shows can fail to deliver the goods.

1)  You’re at the wrong show

Make sure that the people who attend the shows are the decision-makers you’re trying to reach.  Tire kickers, Sunday drivers and ‘get out of school for a day’ visitors are not usually in the market for anything other than a distraction — and maybe the opportunity to collect a goodie bag of swag.

2)  You’re wearing the wrong glasses

Unless you’re selling the ‘shamwow’ or the latest cleaning miracle onsite, you’ll need a more subtle measure of success than ‘sales made’ or ‘appointments booked’.  An email list of potential customers might be a more realistic target than leads generated, simply because people are wary of the sales pitch and may be reluctant to declare their level of interest.  Since sending one email costs the same as sending 1000, a compelling after-show email follow up campaign is probably more important than trying to close the deal onsite.  It’s also important for all sales staff to know exactly what the goals are.  Any appointments booked are gravy.

3)  You forgot to show up

Your booth is in a great location and looking snazzy.  What could possibly go wrong?  Plenty. Next time you’re at a trade show, check out the number of booths that feature someone sitting behind a desk, playing solitaire or otherwise avoiding eye contact with the traffic flow.  Even the greatest gimmicks and give-aways will often feature a junior staff person blindly handing out the goodies without so much as a how-do-you-do.  If you’re not prepared to engage, you might as well stay home.  Yes your feet will hurt. Plan accordingly.

4) You thought the trade show was the main event

Participation in a trade show includes three important phases: Pre-Show Marketing; At-Show Marketing and After-Show Marketing. If your team thinks the event is over when the booth is packed up and stuffed into storage, that’s precisely the most common failing point. Before you even sign the contract for the booth space, you should know exactly what the follow-up plan will be. And follow it through.

5) You forgot to keep score

Once you get back to the office, don’t forget to pull out the plan – review the objectives and score the results.  If they were less than expected, you’ll at least have a yardstick by which to evaluate next year’s show and motivate the sales team.