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How much would this annoy you?

04/10/22Posted in Exhibiting, Stand Management, Trade show marketing

How competitive are you? 

Competitive enough to be angry with yourself if you knew a rival business at a trade show achieved more leads than you? 

Would your level of anger depend on how many they beat you by?

Less than ten, perhaps being something you can live with. 

Would you rationalise it like this; 

“They were luckier on the day. They pulled a few more leads than us. So what?

“I’m not going to beat myself up over a few leads difference.”

Of course, there’s usually no way that you can know how another exhibitor has fared. 

And here, I’m not talking about a poorly prepared exhibitor and stand that attracts very few visitors versus a packed one. 

No, the point to highlight is what the implications of leads lost to a rival might mean, especially where stand size and spend are similar. 

Let’s stick with ten leads. 

Let’s assume that you and your rival usually convert one-third of your show leads into sales. 

And that the typical average first sale value for you both is £900. 

Your rival is £2,700 (3 sales x £900) up on you before they’ve left the hall. 

Subsequent orders in a year from each convert bring the total to £3k.

Now they are £9,000 ahead of you (3 x £3,000). 

If they retain two of those clients for five years, their company is £30,000 better off than yours.

And all because they came away with ten extra leads from that show. 

That’s without factoring-in up-selling or additional growth from the new clients. 

It’s all hypothetical, but it is how sales and lead conversion work. 

So don’t get mad. Get better than your rivals at extracting sales. 

Three of the six modules in Trade Show Stand Mastery Part 1 are about sales. 

Module 4 highlights how one marketing manager achieved a 160% year-on-year increase in sales from the same event. 

Full details of what’s covered will be found here. 

Very best, 

David

David O’Beirne

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