September 2003
The great disconnect

At one of our events last year, we generated 250 leads. Not one was followed up,” according to an exhibit manager from a major IT company who attended a town hall meeting at the Computer Event Marketing Association’s (CEMA) Summit in July. I don’t know about you, but I was shocked by this admission. If show leads aren’t followed up by sales, exhibit managers will find it impossible to prove the value of shows to top management. What can show organizers do to help?

First, get buy-in from top management. According to a recent CEMA survey (see page 12 for additional results), only 48 percent of top executives are actively involved in developing objectives and strategies for events. Set up face-to-face meetings with top management, sales and exhibit managers. Do your homework beforehand, and present them with customized market analysis. If everyone is behind the show, then the salespeople will be more likely to follow up those leads.

Second, help your exhibitors prove their ROI to make the case for participating in your show. Provide attendee lists and demographics. Find out who they want to reach, and give them those names after the show. That way they can follow up with all of their potential prospects, even if they didn’t stop by the exhibitor’s booth. Provide access to resources for attendees to reach exhibitors before, during and after the show.

Third, help exhibit managers qualify show leads. The biggest gripe that sales reps have is that show leads aren’t qualified. Ideally, sales reps should attend the show to qualify their own leads and make that important face-to-face connection for the first time. But if that’s not happening, teach exhibit managers to qualify leads. Help them develop a list of questions for each and every prospect that walks into the booth. Ed Jones, Vice President, Consulting Services for Nth Degree, recommends his clients qualify by: industry segment, company type, company size and title.

None of this is really our “job,” but we may need to step in and address these fundamental issues during challenging times. Today’s exhibit managers are most likely managing all aspects of marketing and would probably welcome the help in accomplishing their goals. Also, along the way, we’re likely to gain the trust of these exhibit managers — which we apparently need. Only 7 percent of exhibit managers rate show management as “extremely helpful” in accomplishing their event marketing goals, according to the CEMA study.

In addition, 94 percent of show organizers said they were at least somewhat familiar with the general marketing objectives of their exhibitors, according to a survey conducted by ebrain at TS2 in July. In contrast, only 77 percent of exhibitors said that show organizers were at least somewhat familiar with their marketing objectives.
We should be intimately familiar with our clients’ marketing objectives. It requires a more consultative sales approach — which means more time, more face-to-face meetings, more travel and perhaps more than training for those making the sales calls.

Danica Vasos
Editor in Chief
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