Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

• About Trade Shows and Events
• • Are trade shows still relevant? Most B2B marketing dollars are spent with the hope of someday getting face-to-face with the target prospect. Trade shows deliver the most efficient way to this objective. Trade shows, both in-person and virtual, remain highly relevant for driving a steady stream of high-quality prospects. The question is not “should we participate in trade shows?” Rather, it’s “how do we participate in trade shows?” For more on this topic, check out MEET’s “The Top 5 Mistakes that Exhibitors Make at Trade Shows…and What to do About It!”
  • When entering the U.S. market, does it make sense to only go to the largest trade show(s) in my industry? While it may make sense to attend your industry’s largest trade show, it is rarely a good idea to make that the centerpiece of your market-entry strategy. In the first 6-12 months of your international scaling journey, it is important to test and iterate your marketing assumptions – quickly. Small, local, and regional events not only keep cost and time investment down, but they occur with great frequency thereby allowing for more rapid evolution of your targeting, value proposition, and calls to action. For more on this topic, check out MEET’s “The Top 5 Mistakes that Exhibitors Make at Trade Shows…and What to do About It!”
  • How do we select the right events to participate in? The U.S. event ecosystem is vast and diverse. Effective event selection takes precise persona-based targeting and a strong criteria-based scoring system. Most companies fail to do this and as a result, end up going to the wrong events, wasting incredible potential energy. For more on this topic, check out MEET’s “Find and Select the Best Trade Shows for Participation and Exhibiting” webinar.
  • Should we have salespeople in our booth? While most exhibitors do, it almost never makes sense for B2B companies to have salespeople in their booth. The goal of the booth is to help identify the small percentage of attendees who are prospects. This activity is better done by people who are more transaction-oriented. Salespeople should be in one-on-one meetings with people who are already in the pipeline to move those opportunities to the next sales stage. For more on this topic, check out MEET’s “5 Reasons Why Your Salespeople Should Never Be in Your Booth and What to Do About It!” webinar.

• About MEET
  • What does MEET stand for? MEET stands for My Expo & Event Team.
  • How did MEET get started? MEET was started in 2012 by Kelly and Bill Kenney to solve the U.S. trade show exhibiting challenges experienced by B2B companies. Over the years, MEET has evolved to specialize in helping international B2B companies gain traction and scale in the U.S. through trade shows, events, and strategic connections. Our unrelenting focus has always been to help our clients both exceed their U.S. growth goals and maximize their trade show and event ROI (return on investment).
  • Can MEET help with in-person, virtual, and hybrid event participation strategies? Yes. The development of strategies that not only integrate each event type but also all modes of marketing is our specialty. Just like a great band or orchestra, when all of the instruments play well together, there is beautiful music.
  • How long will it take to begin seeing results? In most cases, the first prospective client and partner meetings are being set within 4-6 weeks of starting. The timing of results has some variability, this is normally dependent on the flow of information and a company’s marketing asset readiness. 
  • Can MEET help make strategic connections? Yes. Our network is deep and vast with resources to help our clients with almost any need.
  • Can MEET help us get speaking opportunities? Yes. As frequent speakers ourselves we secure target speaking engagements as well as assist with all aspects of leveraging the opportunity.
  • Does MEET only help with company event participation strategy and representation? No. We also help our clients host private events for small groups of targets customers, e.g., executive briefings, lunch and learns, social gatherings, etc. We also leverage our strong network to help with strategic connections to prospects, channel partners, and top support organizations.

• About Getting Traction and Scaling in the U.S.
  • What are the biggest challenges companies have in gaining traction in the U.S. market? Based on our experience, here are the top 5 challenges:
    • Lack of buyer persona understanding and focus
    • Inability to identify and select the best marketing modes
    • Missing a compelling offer and call-to-action
    • Not properly preparing and underutilizing team members
    • Inadequate follow-up and tracking

For more on this topic watch MEET’s “The Top 5 Mistakes that Exhibitors Make at Trade Shows…and What to do About It!”

• Where do international companies typically fail when working with U.S. partners? We have seen a few challenges in this area. In fact, many of our clients come to us after having horrific U.S. market-entry experiences. Cultural and time zone differences plus the physical distance from the U.S. take extra effort to overcome, even with the best relationships. Typical challenges breakdown into a few distinct areas: 
  • Partner selection: Do they fit your needs? Do they have strong competence and ethics?
  • Partner empowerment: Have you enabled their success with the appropriate information, access, and support?
  • Partner accountability: Do you have a way to track results, adjust efforts, and optimize outcomes?
• Why is an agile market-entry strategy important? Whatever your U.S. market-entry strategy and plan are, it is important for leaders to understand that these frameworks are based on hypotheses with limited information in dynamic markets. Employing a framework that is agile allows companies to test, iterate, and optimize strategies quickly and on an ongoing basis.
• Does MEET have a self-assessment tool for companies who are considering internationalization? MEET has two company self-assessments. The first is specific to U.S. trade show and event participation readiness. The second is a more general internationalization readiness assessment. Both are free and available for use without obligation.
  • U.S. Trade Show Exhibitor Readiness Assessment
  • Universal Internationalization Readiness Assessment

Please feel free to contact us anytime with additional questions or ways that we can be of service at results@meetroi.com.