Seven Tips for Surviving the 2010 Financial Industry Tradeshows
By Kelly Williams, senior vice president, William Mills Agency
Too many conference rooms sat empty in 2009
For more than a decade I’ve attended most of the big financial industry conferences. There’s no denying it, we’re now in a “global climate change” at these shows, and I predict things will never be the same again. Long gone are the days of bankers lining up at the door of the exhibit hall waiting for the opening. Over the past couple of years, the volume of financial industry conference attendees (bankers, lenders, buyers/decision makers) has dropped through the floor, and it’s never going to bounce back.
This isn’t any new news to the exhibitors, but still too many vendors are using the same trade show playbook that they used 10 years ago! Millions of dollars are wasted on outdated trade show sales and marketing tactics. Too much time and effort is still spent on squishy balls and leaky promotional pens. Too many sales people are standing in empty booths tossing Nerf boomerangs to the bored sales people at the empty booth across from them. For those companies whom I’m describing (and you know who you are), this is madness and it’s got to stop!!!
Here’s some quick advice for the 2010 trade show campaign.
1) Kill the island booth – The only folks who care about the size of your booth are the booth manufacturers. Scale down to a 10’ x 10’ and use the tens of thousands of extra dollars to…
2) Get a hospitality suite – I guess it still happens sometimes, but I haven’t witnessed a truly substantive sales meeting in a trade show booth in years. It’s always interesting to see how vendors spend so much money and resources on their booths, only to take prospects over to the lunch tables on the side of the hall floor or back to their hospitality suite.
Smart companies realize the importance of having a captive prospect. Get your prospects away from distractions, off the exhibit hall floor and up to your hospitality suite. The trick is getting a suite at a hotel that is adjoining the show. If it’s more than a block away from the conference, forget it.
3) Go lean and mean – In 2010, expect even fewer attendees at all conferences. Do your homework before deciding on the total staff needed for the event. Having your booth overstaffed with few prospects on the floor isn’t just a waste of money – it looks silly! Bring only your best, brightest and most attractive sales people.
4) There’s gold on them lunch tables – the best spot, by far, to meet prospects, customers, partners and influencers is the lunch tables on the exhibit hall floor. My most successful clients held more meetings at the lunch tables than in their booths or suites. Don’t just use these tables for lunch. The tables are free, it’s typically quiet, they are always open and there’s plenty of room to meet.
5) Kill the cocktail parties – How many times have you heard this conversation at a conference? “Are you going to the XYZ party tonight?” “No, I’m going to the ABC reception, then we’re going to the Gaslight District. Maybe we’ll see you down there.”
At a recent trade show, I saw the president of a new small company standing at the bottom of an escalator handing out flyers to his cocktail party for later that evening. His party was to be held 10 miles away from the conference at a no-name restaurant. As I ascended the escalator, I glanced back at this man as he smiled and nodded nervously back at me in a last ditch effort for me to attend his event. I felt so badly for the poor guy that I almost didn’t throw away his flyer when I got to the top of the escalator.
If you’ve got $50,000 to burn, then maybe you can pull off a successful party. However, I’ve seen too many companies attempt to have a reception only to get stomped by bigger companies with bigger parties. Let’s face it, cocktail parties are nice to attend and meet new people, but I challenge the entire financial industry to show me one example of where they made a big deal at their own party.
My advice: Go to the other company parties and sponsored events. Save the $50,000 and use it to take your best customers and hottest prospects out to dinner and/or a show.
6) Don’t just work the show, work the city/region – good hunters and great sales people know that if there isn’t any action in one spot, then move on to another spot. The high cost of travel, combined with waning conference attendance means it’s important to see if there are any prospects/customers in the city or region of the show. Many financial institutions simply don’t have the budget for their people to attend conferences any more, but this doesn’t mean they aren’t available to meet with you at their office.
7) Work with your allies – I expect a growing trend of vendors sharing booth space with strategic partners in 2010. This idea is not new, but it’s becoming more popular as true strategic partners work together to identify mutual prospects/customers and present their products/services together at these conferences.
Kelly, all good points. We were very happy that our 10×10 booth outdrew the people on either side of us by at least 2 to 1,. I’d also suggest that having principals and or developers is a useful tactic rather than only sales people. It is a great way to get the developers to understand what environment they operate in. The prospects find it refreshing to be able to really interact and brainstorm ideas.
Hurrah Kelly! These sentiments have been simmering for a long time among many of us who attend show after show after show. Some shows have reduced or eliminated physical exhibit halls in favor of ‘virtual’ exhibit halls. The dilemma for most companies is: how do I reduce booth presence (and thus cost) but avoid any mis-perception that my company isn’t doing well?
I, for one, would like to see exhibit halls completely rethought – perhaps turned into spaces suitable for ’speed-dating’ like meetings where you can locate a category of services and speak to a number of providers quickly.