Unlock the secrets of SaaS growth

Treat exhibitions and trade shows like your inbound demand generation funnel to unlock pipeline success and better ROI.

Of all your marketing activities – there’s a high chance that trade shows and exhibitions rank as some of the most significant investments you’ll make. Based on my experience in the cybersecurity market over the last few years, it’s not uncommon (once you’ve factored in the cost of booth space, building your stand, and flying in a sales team), to be spending upwards of $150-200k for a modest 20sqm stand at a 2-3 day event.  

That’s significant, and any dutiful marketing professional will have asked themselves whether that budget could be put to better use elsewhere.

But like anything – it’s all in the execution. I’ve spoken to CMOs and marketing leaders who have come back from a top-flight trade show with a pitiful amount of opportunities and barely enough pipeline dollars to cover the cost of a team dinner. Yet, I’ve been at the same event and secured in excess of $2m of pipeline. 

What did we do differently? Well, quite simply it’s about treating a trade show as its own mini-sales funnel, and mapping your existing demand generation and sales funnel stages to activities on your stand. 

5-Step Approach: Treat a trade show as its own mini-sales funnel, and map your existing demand generation and sales funnel stages to activities on your stand.

1. Qualify visitors (Leads)

Attendees visiting your stand are your leads. Think of them in the same way as the thousands of visitors you have to your website. Some are there with a real need and intent, others will just bounce. It’s the same as visitors to your stand, so maximize your resources. Don’t run the stand as “show and tell” to just anyone that visits you. Have your front of house staff run basic qualification. Do they have a challenge that you can address, or are they swag-hunters looking for a free pen? 

2. Handover to Sales (MQL)

Your front of house team have now found your MQLs. These are the visitors you really want to get in front of a demo or talking to a sales rep. It’s not always going to be possible, but where you can, these visitors should be passed to the right sales rep for the demo. This is important as it ensures continuity in any post-event follow-up, next-step meetings, and nurture. 

3. Run the Demo 

Your sales reps are now running demos to MQLs, so make sure they treat it as a discovery session – and not just a “show and tell”. Have them use the time to understand the prospect’s requirements, budget and timeline. 

4. Book your Next Steps Meeting (SAL)

The biggest mistake for building pipeline at an exhibition is waiting until the event is over to diarize time for follow-up, so always bring BDRs or SDRs with you to the exhibition; they are heroes when it comes to getting prospects to commit time in calendars. If the sales rep thinks it was a worthwhile discussion, bring the BDR / SDR into the discussion and have them close the prospect for a next-steps meeting. We’ve literally used secret signals so that a sales rep can indicate the need for a BDR/SDR to join them and calendarize Next Steps. I’m not kidding! 

5. Prepare for Post-Event Activity 

You’ve probably trained your stand staff to badge scan as many attendees as they can; and that’s ok, just make sure you know your swag-hunters from your SALs. Often, badge scans will enroll onto a dedicated conference app that you can download from after. Unfortunately the note taking facility on these apps is usually too slow and too easily forgotten. 

Instead, just keep a spreadsheet open on a communal laptop / tablet and ensure SALs are recorded. These can then be cross referenced against all badge scans and segmented for the correct follow-up. 

---

When to assign pipeline dollars?

Any calendared next-step meetings with SALs should immediately result in an opportunity being created. If you’ve performed on-stand discovery during that demo, there should be enough data to post an indicative pipeline value against the opportunity. Your sales reps may be uncomfortable committing to a pipeline number this early; however, remind them that this is no different to any other demand generation funnel, where posting an opportunity value after an initial discovery with next steps agreed may be perfectly normal. 

It’s also a vital piece of data for you to quantify the value of the exhibition before it ends. This is key as most large exhibition organizers look to have their sponsors commit to next year’s event before you’ve even packed up your stand (or risk being at the bottom of the list for future stand allocation). I deplore this “urgency” tactic – particularly if your sales cycle runs for several months. But at least this approach gives you a general sense of the ROI when measured against pipeline value. 

It’s worth noting that in the immediate days after the trade show, the pipeline dollars you assigned during the trade show will probably fall, simply because it’s unlikely that you’ll achieve 100% conversion on your next-steps meetings. But remember, you’ll also gain additional pipeline from meetings booked from the SAL (no next steps) cohort! 

Don’t Forget Team Planning

Of course, to ensure this process works, everyone needs to understand their role.  It’s worth spending time in advance selecting your team based on expected stand traffic and pipeline goals. Use a matrix, such as his example, to map your team against the funnel activities you need to accomplish.