Exhibition and Tradeshow Review of ROI

Following on from the last blog on Exhibition and and Tradeshow review and follow-up where we reviewed the logistics, sales lead follow-up plus feedback and analysis.  We will now look at reviewing the original objectives to see if the ROI was achieved.

ROI (Return on Investment)

• Review your ROI by looking at your original objectives for attending the trade show and see if they were met. If this included a sales target it may take some time before you can determine how successful the show was at generating revenue.
• The two primary reasons for exhibition performance measurement are
• To justify the investment.
• To gather information to make your investment more profitable.
• A good measurement system can help you determine whether you should continue exhibiting at a specific show, and if so to what extent. It can help you identify your exhibit program’s strengths and weaknesses. It can also provide benchmarks for comparing different shows you that have exhibited at, and measure what your exhibition return was for the current year when compared to last year’s show. You can even look at how your marketing budget spent on trade-shows compare to other sales and marketing media. If you’re going to win the game of exhibiting you must have a score keeping process.

There is a very good article by Jefferson Davis of Competitive Edge which is available on the Internet in a number of places including:

http://www.ewea.org/offshore2011/fileadmin/eow2011_documents/exhibition/9_Exhibit_Measurement_Made_Easy_How_to_Measure_Exhibiting_Results_and_Return_on_Investment.pdf

The article outlines six basic measurements that almost every company should be measuring:

1. Return on Objectives: What specific goals were you pursuing and what progress did you make toward those goals?
2. Exhibit Budget versus Actual: What was your total exhibiting budget and what did you actually spend?
3. Post-show Sales Written: How many orders and what was the total value of orders written after the event? Ideally, you should measure post-show sales at the 90 and 180 day points, unless you have a very long sales cycle. Also take into consideration the frequency of the show.
4. Quantity and Quality of Leads: How many leads did you capture? How many were A – B – C leads? What is the estimated total sales potential of the leads?
5. Cost per Lead: What was your cost per lead? Divide total number of leads captured by total show investment to determine this number.
6. Cost per Interaction: What did it cost you to generate a face-to face contact? To determine this number simply multiply your total lead count by 2.4. This will give you a pretty accurate method way of determining your total booth traffic. Then divide total show investment by estimated total booth traffic.

These six basic metrics are by no means all that could and should be measured, but they are a very solid starting point. They will give you a very good picture of whether you are winning the game of exhibiting.

There is one final metric that all exhibitors should attempt to measure – the elusive exhibiting Return on Investment. To determine ROI accurately you must first be able to track at-show and post-sale revenue. Once you have that, simply follow the formula below.

Here is a Return on Investment example:

Total post-show sales from exhibit leads:                250,000€

Less cost of sales or gross margin:                             -190,000€

Equals Gross Exhibit Profit                                         60,000€

Less Exhibiting Costs:                                                    20,000€

Equals Net Exhibit Profit:                                           40,000€

Net Exhibit Profit 40,000€/Exhibit Costs 20,000€ = 200% ROI

Track the trade show organisers analysis of the show number and type of attendees to check whether this might be a show you would like to continue to attend.

You now have the basis for having the analysis and justification for exhibiting and also for participating in future exhibitions.

 

Exhibition Review and Follow up part 1

Completion of an Exhibition

Your exhibition at a trade show has now finished and there are certain steps you should complete before the whole project is wrapped up.

Logistics

Hopefully the stand or pop-up, all the equipment, literature and give-aways have been carefully packed and returned to office or place of storage.

• Check that all items have been returned.
• Unpack boxes where literature needs to go back on the rack or in the literature cupboard.
• Assess how many give-aways you have left and, if they will be required for your next exhibition, keep record of the number. Order replacement stocks as required.
• Check that the pop-up has been correctly stored in its box or container and note any breakages or things that need to be fixed before next show.

Sales Lead Follow-Up

The same process should be used for both paper lead forms and leads collected from a scanner in the form of data files.

• Review leads and grade each according to their urgency, for example as hot prospects or as courtesy follow-ups.
• Arrange a meeting with all sales personnel and sales management regarding the leads and allocate the leads to appropriate representative or product team.
• Follow up leads with the required action, for example send out an email or letter thanking attendees for visiting the stand or showing interest in your company, send out literature as requested, or follow up by phone to arrange a meeting etc.
• Track results.
• Remind all stand personnel to make sure that any business cards collected are input into the sales database or CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system so that they are updated with relevant information.

Feedback Follow-Up and Analysis

• Send out a feedback form asking stand personnel for their feedback on specific aspects to do with the trade show that you are interested in and also ask them how they felt it went overall. Ask for any suggestions for improvement etc. Once you have the feedback forms returned analyse them for any learning points or actions required.
• Follow up with a debriefing meeting for all stand staff and sales and marketing personnel, so that they can share findings and discuss how to improve exhibit performance for the next show.
• Track the trade show organiser’s analysis of the show attendees by number and type to check whether this is a show you would like to attend again.
• Review lead contact details and analyse their job titles and profiles to check whether this is a show where the people with the appropriate job roles you want to reach are attending.

The next blog will include reviewing the original planned objects and follow up ROI