4 Myths when Exhibiting at an Industry Trade Shows

Trade shows create excitement as industry professionals all come together in a single location. Meeting other exhibitors, attendees and maybe a couple of speakers gives the sense of anticipation that this is going to be a good year.

Then reality sets in.

Myth #1: Trade Show Leads Help Keep the Funnel Full

There are two types of teams that work the trade show booth. Those that scan every badge, and those that only scan what they believe will be meaningful. However, not all trade shows have badges to scan (or not willing to pay for the scanner). Most times the booth worker asks for a business card. But by the time the attendee gets to your booth, they are out of cards. Some have a pad of paper or use their phone to take a picture of the badge, but that doesn’t always work, especially if you have more than one or two visiting your trade show booth at a time.

At the end of the trade show, you look at the list of trade show leads. You do your due diligence and call to follow up and set an appointment. The trade show lead doesn’t remember you, or recalls the conversation. The ‘warm’ or ‘hot’ lead is just simply a cold call.

Myth #2: Trade Show Leads Bring the Opportunity Further Down the Sales Funnel

You had some great conversations at the trade show and you’ve marked them as ‘hot’. Based on the conversation, there’s a need for your product or service and the trade show lead needs to buy it soon. The trade show lead tells you to call them to follow up after the show.

When you make the call to the hot trade show lead, you come to find out that:

• * He/she is just the information gatherer, in the evaluation team.
• * He/she was picking up information for someone else.

Tip: Use the SalesLeads Sales & Marketing Intelligence database to find other contacts within the trade show leads company. You’ll get the full name, title, email address and phone number.

Myth #3:  You Get to Meet the Project Manager, or Decision Maker Personally

The trade show attendee visits your booth. They speak about a project in detail and with authority. You spend time learning more about what the trade show lead needs, what’ going on in their business as to why they need it and finally, the timeline of the project. Definitely something to continue a conversation when the trade show lead gets back to the office.

You scan their badge, and the title looks good. When you get back to the office and make the follow up phone call, you find out that ‘things have changed’. The person you spoke to again:

• He/she is just the information gatherer, in the evaluation team.
• He/she was picking up information for someone else.

Tip: You know there’s a project going on and you need to reach the right project manager and decision maker. Use the SalesLeads Sales & Marketing Intelligence database to find other contacts within the trade show leads company. You’ll get the full name, title, email address and phone number.  Also, be sure to check the SalesLeads Project Report. We may have already reported on the project, which includes a summary of the project, along with contact team’s information.

Myth #4:  Exhibitors get a Full List of Attendees with eMails and Phone Numbers

When you are an exhibitor, you want every person’s name that signed up and attended, along with the email address and phone number. Your company just paid a few thousand dollars to attend, you believe you should get the full trade show attendee list. Some shows do a great job providing that valuable list, but more and more shows do not provide the list, citing, “we promise privacy” to the attendees. If you don’t get them at the trade show, you don’t get the trade show lead at all.

Maintaining Other Sources of Leads

During trade show season, it’s important to keep up your other avenues for lead generation such as the website or SalesLeads Project Reports. Our Project Reports give you the results you are looking for:

• * We keep the funnel active with new lead opportunities
• * Our leads can bring it further down the sales funnel
• * You get the project manager and decision makers name, email address and phone number

Isn’t that what you are looking for? Open a free account and keep the sales funnel active.