6 Reasons Why Small Businesses Should Not Have A Booth At Trade Shows
March 31, 2008
My kids love trade shows as they get to “touch and feel” new products and fill their bags with free candy, pens and stickers.
My small business customers at the same time are hesitant to sign up for trade shows this year. They turn to me for advice.
We talk about their experiences in the past and that’s how we came up with some reasons why small service oriented businesses should NOT attend trade shows.
- No measurable return on investment. You pay for the booth, spend time setting it up and talking to trade show attendees, give away hundreds or thousands of key chains and calendars with your company name on them and talk to hundreds of people. Weeks and months later you can’t tell whether you have any leads, prospects or clients resulting from attending the show. Was it really worth the effort?
- The only people stopping at your booth are your current customers or little children taking candy out of your candy dish. You don’t have to pay a lot of money to see your current customers, you could take them out to lunch or send them a present.
- Major networking events take place off the trade show floor behind closed doors and you have no access to them. This is a continuing trend, take notice!
- You will play catch up for 2 weeks (also think of lost income) after leaving your office for 3-4 days to attend the trade show. You may miss some opportunities and important phone calls while attending the trade show.
- Your competitors’ booths with bells and whistles indicate that their marketing budgets are substantially larger than yours. Unless you target a niche market and have a very good marketing strategy, you will not get noticed.
- Don’t go if you don’t enjoy socializing. Networking is the primary reason why many small business owners attend trade shows year by year. In my opinion, trade shows are most beneficial for small retail businesses and manufacturing businesses showcasing their new products.
Comments
Got something to say?