Bess Blackburn Here's a thought: It is important to send members of the Sales Force to Trade Shows. I notice more and more companies just send executives, managers and marketing people. Sales People can pick out their customers, advance their relationships/connections and advance to better access and closes during field follow up. Often I have used, "I saw Dr. Cronkite at the ADA meeting and he asked for more information."

It takes skill to work trade shows for successful outcomes. We just can't have people behind a booth guled to their phones and tablets. Trade Shows are still wonderful opportunties to connect with the customer. But it takes the right people with customer focus to work them and do the follow up.

I have to agree with Bess.
Trade Shows, Exhibitions & conferences are a definite sales arena.
Marketing choose & book the event based on its business relevance. Their role is then to support with all correct products, brochures etc. Having worked in the past at Sales Manager level in B2B publishing & Exhibitions/Conferences. Training of sales staff to maximize the short time span for customer contact is crucial. It is all about the quality for follow up.
Companies pay a lot of money to be at the shows then lip service to the application.
Most Booths/Stands will have people behind tables on phones, laptops or tablets, drinking coffee etc, as if they are on patch. They represent the whole sales team, not just their own customers.
You have to create an environment where people are attracted to talk to you.
No contact, No leads, No follow ups

Dave Sheppard, CMAA I agree with Robert and Bess. It comes down to targeting (the right show) and execution with the right team (Marketing and Sales). It takes pre-show marketing, sales execution at the show, and follow-up by both sales and marketing to make a trade show fully effective for an organization.

And, of course, that is assuming the organization has a clear objective for that show. Amazingly enough, I have seen a few organizations that did not. They just "showed up " and thought something would happen. That will not work.

With all that stated, Rick, I do sympathize with your comments as some shows do not cater to their exhibitors. Some shows just take your money and don't care about your traffic. That's not acceptable. The best shows work hard to ensure attendee traffic at the exhibition and at your booth. You may have recently attended a show that doesn't do a good job ?

Cheers - Dave

Rick Mondick Thank you Bess, Robert and Dave for your thoughts. When Distar was doing around 25 shows per year we did have the right sales people in the booth. Maybe I need to revamp our entire trade show program.

I'm with Rick on this one - TS's are not worth attending unless your products/services are going to be featured in some way within the program or unless you have a significant business announcement to make (product launch/new clinical data etc). As a new small start up the investment required to get a share of 'noise' at a major show is now far greater than in the past - show organisers should think hard re how could support innovation/start ups keen to gain a foot hold at major events

I think trade shows are for far more than just sales. If you send a "dream team" to the right show, each with a clear objective, you can: 1) pick up new leads (sales) for all the territories 2) glean industry info (marketing) 3) explain the rationale behind the product development (R&D) 4) run workshops at the booth and also attend some of the talks (medical education).
Anyone have additional thoughts on that?

Good question about trade shows being dead. I was beginning to feel the same thing. At least when it comes to leads. I think the potential "death of trade shows" was a feeling as far back 2 years ago for me. However, one of the things that I began to really gain out them is the networking. I am seeing it is better to attend and walk the shows rather than be tied to an expensive booth.

Dave Sheppard, CMAA Daniel, I agree with your strategy for some shows. For B2B opportunities, I completely agree with your thoughts.

Fo other shows that target a company's customers, it may be important to be present with your sales team to execute one's sales objectives for the show. I want to be sure to have a conversation with my customers and not just leave it to my competitors.

Rick Mondick Thank you to everyone who commented. Now, has anyone either reduced or expanded their trade show budget for 2015? What changes are you going to make? Thanks, Rick.

Rick, see http://linkd.in/best-trade-shows, a conversation about medical device trade shows. You may add a comment there if you like.

I Attend 10 Trade shows a year. Walk 6 and have a booth at 4. Depends on meeting and what we can get out of them as far as 1. Leads, 2. Exposure, 3. Contacts and networking.
I guess I am spoiled as remembering the trade shows of the 80s and early 90s when making a profit was not a terrible thing and the sales reps dominated the shows, as they were a vitale part of the surgery team and entertained their doctors. ever since the failed Hillary care- Shows have limited sales activities, Like trade show not open over the weekend, or limiting the show to 3 days. Example AAOS trade show wed thru Fri, we are tearing down the booth just as most American surgeon are arriving, so most sales reps don't attend any more. It was done on purpose. They want Companies money but not sales people ( not to pick on AAOS just an example). Most large Meetings were a week long experience open to all in the industry. but not today. It is almost not worth it for small companies to attend anymore.

As a whole we are looking at reallocating our tradeshow budget and this is a continual process. We support major shows - absolute must - but we've decided to invest in taking a large mobile Big Rig on the road to hospitals to showcase our solutions and in this case local reps support. In addition, we also host peer group meetings, customer forums and special invite engagements at targeted physician, nurse or pharmacy shows that we are in in order to leverage our team who has flown out to support the event. These range in sizes but have proven to be successful. We may have a 20x20 or 10x10 booth but much more activity outside of the 4 walls of the exhibit area.

Bess Blackburn Jennifer, I like the "Big Rig" Road Show approach. While at Pfizer and later, Smith&Nephew they proved to be very effective especially with learning suites. I can also envision one rolling up to Congress to educate them on specific procedures.
If you ever are in thoughts of Renting the "Rigs", there is a company called Filmwerks (Motion Pictures and Events) that specializes in outfitting the Rigs with company logos. Mike Satrazemis is the contact.

Dave Sheppard, CMAA Bess, Thanks for the info !

Have ever succed to calculate in any manner the ROI of trade shows. If you find some accurate way to do I think you'll cry for the time and money lost so many years supporting doctors lobbies.

Dave Sheppard, CMAA ROI can be good if one executes on both a marketing and a sales plan. It's key to include both in your value proposition.