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Author name: Mollie Ring

Return on Investment

Getting a Poor Response from Your Trade Show Follow-up?

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With 75+ years of experience in trade shows and in-person events, one of the most common questions we get asked is “Why are people who express interest in us at the trade show, not responding to our follow-up emails?” At MEET, we believe there are a number of factors that contribute to poor follow-up response rates. The first and most common reason is that the person you are targeting was never a prospect, to begin with. Prospects vs. suspects As discussed in our previous post: The Top 5 Mistakes Trade Show Exhibitors Make, thinking that “everyone” is a prospect is among the most common mistakes. In order to qualify as a prospect, individuals must meet three criteria. They must have a need, the resources (money) to fulfill that need, and urgency. To simplify, we like to use the phrase: NEED MONEY NOW The most common reason why people do not respond to trade show follow-up is that they do not have a need, the resources, and/or urgency for your solution. Even those who have a need for your product and the money purchase it will not qualify as a prospect today if they lack urgency. A trade show strategy that fails to target true prospects and instead aims to engage high volumes of trade show participants (also known as suspects) is more likely to result in poor follow-up response rates. How do you improve your trade show response rate? Another question we often get asked is “How can I distinguish real interest from fake?” The best way to ensure that people you enroll at a trade show are truly interested in your product or service is to develop an offer that addresses the number one problem that keeps them up at night. In the B2B world, this will be the aspect of their business they feel most challenged by. Do your homework. By taking the time to identify buyer personas that help you identify your ideal customers’ greatest challenges, you will have a unique opportunity to develop an offer that speaks directly to their needs, triggering them to self-identify as a prospect on the trade show floor. Prospects who self-identify in the face of a well-crafted offer are showing real interest in your product or service. For more information on crafting an offer that will attract your ideal customers and the value of testing different offers to improve your follow-up results, check out our Special Report: How to Maximize ROI with a Trade Show Strategy Plan, or reach out to us today. Maintain an efficient trade show follow-up strategy The final factor that may be causing poor response rates is an inefficient trade show follow-up strategy. We often hear people tell us that they like to give prospects a few days to “settle back into the office” after a show before they follow-up. This is a huge mistake if for no other reason than the longer you wait, the more competition you’ll have for someone’s time. For a moment, put yourself in your prospect’s shoes.  You arrive at a show with a short list of urgent problems you’re aiming to solve. You meet a handful of providers who could potentially solve those problems for you. The same evening the show ends, one of those providers sends you an email to set up a follow-up call. Now you can return to the office with a potential solution in the works. Everyone wins! You might be wondering, how is it possible to follow-up with every prospect immediately following a trade show? That’s where we can help. As part of a larger trade show strategy plan, MEET can help you design a series of post-event engagement tools that will immediately initiate the process of enrolling qualified prospects into your marketing funnel. We’ll also share our strategies for prioritizing prospects during an event to ensure you are using your time most efficiently. For more perspective on how to formulate a trade show follow-up strategy that works, check out our Special Report: How to Maximize ROI with a Trade Show Strategy Plan, or reach out to us today. About MEET (meetroi.com) helps international B2B growth companies soft land and scale in the U.S. through trade shows and in-person events. MEET’s processes help its clients ramp-up sales quickly and maintain a steady stream of high-quality prospects going forward.  Contact Bill Kenney for a free, no-obligation consultation bill@meetroi.com or +1 (860) 573-4821.

Uncategorized

The Top 5 Mistakes Trade Show Exhibitors Make

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With 75+ years of experience in trade shows and in-person events, we’ve witnessed many mistakes made by trade show exhibitors. Fortunately, they’re easy to fix—the first step is to recognize when you’re making them. At MEET, we help international B2B growth companies soft land and scale in the U.S. through trade shows and in-person events. We do this because we believe that trade shows deliver the most efficient way to get face-to-face with a target prospect. Failing to fully leverage trade show opportunities is a huge waste of time and resources. Our goal is to help you avoid that mistake and maximize your return-on-investment (ROI). Mistake #1: Thinking that “everyone” is a prospect As social beings, we sometimes experience a sense of fear of missing out (FOMO) when we make a commitment. Some of us also have scarcity mentality, the fear missing even one prospect. Translate these tendencies to your business strategy, and they present as the fears that cause you to continually expand your sense of your best target customer, or buyer persona. The result is a substantially diluted marketing message. In fact, the opposite is true.  A trade show strategy that fails to target narrowly defined buyer personas leads to more missed opportunities by literally clogging your booth with unqualified suspects while high-quality prospects walk by. The challenge with remedying this mistake is that prospects aren’t labeled. As a result, you need to devise a booth offer that targets a narrowly defined buyer persona, triggering these individuals to self-identify and enroll in your marketing funnel. The misconception that everyone who walks by your booth is a prospect = mistake number one. Mistake #2: Failing to proactively select your trade shows “Should we participate in this event?” is a question we get asked repeatedly. At MEET, we believe that question is best answered by a series of follow-up questions, specifically: What other events are you doing? How does this event fit into your annual trade show and marketing strategy? Who is this event targeting? Where does this event fit in our strategy? Or does it fit at all? If we participate, how should we participate? In essence, we aim to better understand the broader context, a.k.a the who, what, where, when, and why, to ensure that each trade show opportunity is a productive fit with your overall strategy. Mistake #3: Misaligned (or totally missing) call-to-action. Though seemingly straightforward, misaligned (or missing) calls-to-action are among the most common mistakes made by trade show exhibitors. Also known as a booth “offer”, a well-aligned call-to-action will attract qualified prospects on the trade show floor to stop, opt-in and engage with your marketing offer by enrolling with their contact information. For more on how to select a call-to-action that will attract high-quality prospects (not suspects), check out our Special Report: How to Maximize ROI with a Trade Show Strategy Plan, or reach out to us today. Pro-Tip: At all costs, avoid enter-to-win booth offers for items that you do not sell. The iPad giveaway is the most classic example. Offers such as these will overwhelm your sales and marketing teams with contacts who have very little interest in your product or service. Mistake #4: Placing salespeople in the booth. Salespeople are trained to deliver the knowledge and expertise needed to sell your product or service. This takes time, which in the booth is your most valued commodity. Placing sales people in the booth not only wastes time that could be spent enrolling greater numbers of qualified prospects, but it also eliminates opportunities to engage with those already in your sales funnel and those already doing business with you as well as build relationships with potential strategic partners, opinion leaders, and speakers. Interested in seeing how many more qualified prospects you can gain by simply replacing sales people in the booth with transaction professionals? Here’s how we do the math. Mistake #5: Inadequate follow-up and tracking Perhaps the easiest mistake for trade show exhibitors to make at the end of an exhausting event is forgetting (or not fully leveraging) follow-up and tracking. As with any commitment of time and resources, you want to know your ROI. Additionally, the contacts you make at trade shows are perishable. Coming up with an efficient system for immediate follow-up will help to ensure that hard work is not left to spoil. Pro tip: Some trade show exhibitors choose to stay an additional day at the event location to get all their follow-up done. This guarantees timeliness and protects against these activities getting sidelined upon return to the office. At MEET, we’ve devised tools that allow B2B growth companies to calculate precise metrics for each stage of their trade show strategy plan and gain valuable insights into areas of strength and opportunities for improvement. Contact us to learn more. For more perspective on how to remedy the top five most common mistakes made by trade show exhibitors, check out our Special Report: How to Maximize ROI with a Trade Show Strategy Plan. There’s a saying that mistakes are meant for learning, not repeating. Everyone makes mistakes. The trick is learning how not to repeat them. About MEET (meetroi.com) helps international B2B growth companies soft land and scale in the U.S. through trade shows and in-person events. MEET’s processes help its clients ramp-up sales quickly and maintain a steady stream of high-quality prospects going forward.  Contact Bill Kenney for a free, no-obligation consultation bill@meetroi.com or +1 (860) 573-4821.

Exhibitor Tips, Return on Investment

The Key to Identifying High-Quality Prospects

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It turns out that the key to identifying high-quality prospects isn’t a huge marketing budget or a massive sales team. Rather, the key to identifying high-quality prospects lies in the precision with which you execute your strategy. At MEET, we help international B2B growth companies soft land and scale in the U.S. through trade shows and in-person events. We do this because we believe that trade shows deliver the most efficient way to get face-to-face with a target prospect. And if carried out correctly, 100% of those targeted and enrolled will be high-quality prospects that deliver a strong return on investment (ROI). In the advent of social media, trade shows remain the most efficient way to get face-to-face with high-quality prospects. 90% of exhibitors fail to maximize ROI With 75+ years of experience in trade shows and in-person events, we feel confident in our assessment that approximately 90% of exhibitors fail to maximize ROI. This results in wasted money (trade shows aren’t cheap!), and wasted time that key team members could be using to deliver results. What contributes to this loss of valuable resources? Many exhibitors fail to take advantage of the opportunity that trade shows represent. There are a number of reasons why, the first of which is a poorly defined target. What is a high-quality prospect? One of the greatest challenges companies face in delivering ROI at trade shows is defining a prospect. At MEET, we’ve identified three criteria to help our clients distinguish high-quality prospects from the sea of trade show attendees who may or may not approach the booth during an event. High-quality prospects must have a need, the resources (money) to fulfill that need, and urgency. For the point of simplification, we like to use the phrase: NEED MONEY NOW In essence, these are individuals for whom your product or service solves one of their top three problems at this moment. In the absence of any one of these criteria, this individual is not a high-quality prospect and therefore should not be the focus of your trade show strategy. Another key step to identifying high-quality prospects is to understand the purpose of trade shows, i.e. what you are there to accomplish. The goal of individual trade shows and an annual trade show strategy The goal of individual trade shows is to identify and connect with volumes of high-quality prospects. That means that in and amongst the 1,000, 10,000 or 30,000 people in attendance at a show, you are aiming to find the 10 to 300 that are actually prospects today, separate them out, and enroll them in a lead nurturing process. An annual trade show strategy plan helps to manage your prospect pipeline. Its purpose is to avoid ebbs and flows that will overwhelm your sales team, resulting in poor quality follow-up and hundreds of missed opportunities. When executed with precision, an annual trade show strategy plan delivers a steady stream of high-quality prospects, allowing for manageable, un-yielded growth. The key to identifying high-quality prospects Understanding the purpose and focus of each trade show opportunity is the first step to carrying out a successful strategy that will deliver high-quality prospects. The next steps include determining a buyer persona, booth strategy, and mechanisms to ensure effective follow-up. For more perspective on formulating a trade show strategy plan from start to finish, including show selection, hypothesis testing, and measuring for results, check out our Special Report: How to Maximize ROI with a Trade Show Strategy Plan. For access to all of MEET’s webinars and Special Reports, check out our Resources Page. About MEET (meetroi.com) helps international B2B growth companies soft land and scale in the U.S. through trade shows and in-person events. MEET’s processes help its clients ramp-up sales quickly and maintain a steady stream of high-quality prospects going forward.  Contact Bill Kenney for a free, no-obligation consultation bill@meetroi.com or +1 (860) 573-4821.

Return on Investment, Uncategorized

Diving into U.S. Market Entry? Don’t be Afraid to Ask for Help

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You’ve spent boatloads of time carefully researching the decision to plunge into the U.S. market. All signs point to yes. It’s time to dive in. Fortunately, there are many lifeboats to help keep you afloat—the key is knowing where to look. At MEET, we help international B2B growth companies soft land and scale in the U.S. through trade shows and in-person events. To learn more about how we can help scale your business in the U.S. market, contact us today. To highlight some of the work our partners do to support companies endeavoring to scale in the U.S. market, we interviewed Blair Parks, U.S. and Canada Business Manager for the Mayor’s International Business Programme, London & Partners. The Mayor’s International Business Programme is a free 12-month program designed to help UK-based high-growth, ambitious scale-ups expand internationally. To learn more about the program, check out their site here. How does London and Partners help companies taking the plunge into U.S. market entry? “Our primary goal is to help connect founders to networks and mentors,” shared Blair.  “In a place like New York where there are so many associations and networking groups, even investor groups specifically designed to serve Europeans founders, it’s difficult to know where to focus your energy.” Your goal as a founder in a new market should be to meet as many people as possible that can inform and support your business strategy. From an events perspective, however, Blair warns that founders should be selective. “SXSW may be awesome for some founders, but it’s big, saturated, and while fun, may not be a great fit for everyone.” Key Advice! Foreign founders have exclusive access to a number of networking groups and events uniquely tailored to their needs. Don’t miss out on these opportunities to meet investors and learn from peers. The value of building relationships when scaling in a new market While events are a great way to build your business network, the underlying goal is to build relationships. Introducing your team to people in the new market will not only help them assimilate and learn the culture, but it will also help them build social support networks that will keep them onboard. It’s important to understand every networking opportunity for the full value it can offer your team. Building relationships with companies who have achieved U.S. market entry may also help you gain valuable advice and avoid common pitfalls. Support with finding investment U.S. investors are not interested in one-off introductions warns Blair. Equipped with their own teams of researchers, VCs have no trouble finding the best of the best. “They will take meetings if a company is persistent and has a good sell, but in general, they are not interested in these type of opportunities.” London and Partners works to connect investors with UK-based scale-ups through exclusive events. Investors are most interested in maximizing their time by meeting groups of companies. Blair’s team facilitates these opportunities. Key Advice! It’s not always necessary to have an existing U.S. office or existing U.S. customers in order to get funding from a U.S.-based VC. That said, you may be asked to set up an office with senior leadership on the ground, so prepared to move quickly! In preparation for meeting with investors, Blair encourages founders to research those who are truly the best fit for their company. “Look at their history and their appetite. Look at the profiles of those they’ve invested in previously and how many were European startups.” Support with building your team According to Blair, European scale-ups often face difficulties and frustration when recruiting and hiring high-quality employees. Many scale-ups fail to invest in accountants and HR advisors to support this process. “When putting out a job description and assembling your employee benefits package, companies need to know how to appeal to U.S. talent and how to be competitive. Dedicated HR firms can help” “In order to attract the best talent, you need to do everything you can to stand out. That means getting it right from the beginning.” Be bold and ask for help From Blair’s perspective, those taking the plunge into U.S. market entry have two things to learn from American companies: be bold and ask for help. “You need to think like an American. Don’t be afraid to say you’re the best because that’s how American companies present themselves.” “Americans are also not afraid to ask for help. It’s part of our culture. Keeping everyone—customers, investors, team members, in the loop at every stage and seeking out support from peers and mentors when you need it is crucial to U.S. market entry success.” To learn more about this topic and the work of London & Partners, check out our full interview with Blair Parks on Issues and Opportunities when Endeavoring to Scale in the U.S. Market. About 
MEET (meetroi.com) helps international B2B growth companies soft land and scale in the U.S. through trade shows and in-person events. MEET’s processes help its clients ramp-up sales quickly and maintain a steady stream of high-quality prospects going forward.  Contact Bill Kenney for a free, no-obligation consultation bill@meetroi.com or +1 (860) 573-4821.

Uncategorized

U.S. Market Entry, When is the Right Time to Scale?

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For many companies across the globe, U.S. market entry represents unrivaled opportunity, a veritable pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. And while many international firms do find success on U.S. shores, others are forced to retreat with empty coffers. The decision to scale in any market is complex; one that requires numerous phases of self-reflection, evaluation, and calculated risk. Knowing when, and if, your company is ready for U.S. market entry is the first step. Support is out there—the key is to know where to look. At MEET, we help international B2B growth companies soft land and scale in the U.S. through trade shows and in-person events. In an effort to explore this question of when is the right time to consider U.S. market entry, we spoke with Blair Parks, U.S. and Canada Business Manager for the Mayor’s International Business Programme, London & Partners. The Mayor’s International Business Programme is a free 12-month program designed to help UK-based high-growth, ambitious scale-ups expand internationally. To learn more about the program, check out their site here. To help founders determine the right time for U.S. market entry, Blair explores a series of questions with her clients. Is your business solid and stable in your home market? Financial stability is the most obvious place to start. Does your company have the necessary investment capital on hand and in projected sales to afford U.S. market entry? Fortunately, through support from agencies like London and Partners, international scale-ups can be connected with U.S.-based firms specializing in tailored cost projections. Beyond financial stability, you’ll need a solid team. Blair makes sure her clients have the necessary support, from HR to legal, as well as employee buy-in for international expansion. Finally, Blair helps her clients gain a realistic understanding of the amount of time and energy it takes to set up internationally. “A lot of people don’t realize how much you’re going to have to travel back and forth to get this office set up. Make sure you’re at a place in your life when you can commit that time and energy.” Like sand in an hourglass, time does run out for firms exploring U.S. market entry.  Money, investor support, employee retention: all are limited resources during a high stakes expansion. This makes timing all the more critical. Is U.S. market entry the next best milestone for your company? Many international firms perceive the U.S. market not only as exciting but endlessly bountiful. Blair works with her clients to make sure that U.S. market entry is truly the next, most logical step and that they have considered other markets in Europe as well as Canada. “The U.S. may not always be the best place to scale first. Companies need to ask themselves: What is the competition in the U.S.? Is there a market? Logistical factors like time zone and ease of travel may make European expansion a good practice or interim step.” For data to support this decision, Blair encourages companies to drill down into their client data, even explore the source of their web traffic to which parts of the world their company is gaining the most traction. This will help to determine the next best market. Jumping in with both feet There are actual risks to only partially committing to U.S. market entry. Embracing the time and resources international expansion requires is a critical step in the scale-up process. “If you tell your prospective clients or even your current clients that you’re coming to the U.S. and it takes too long, it looks like you don’t have your house in order.” Whether you take Blair’s advice to send a senior manager from the home office to lead the expansion (see our post on common post-scaling pitfalls) or decide to scale digitally, your full commitment to the U.S. market must be visible. “Companies often get attracted by an opportunity and think this is a “hot time” to be in a particular city like San Francisco. If it’s really too soon or doesn’t make sense for you yet, I recommend waiting.” To learn more about this topic and the work of London & Partners, check out our full interview with Blair Parks on Issues and Opportunities when Endeavoring to Scale in the U.S. Market. About MEET (meetroi.com) helps international B2B growth companies soft land and scale in the U.S. through trade shows and in-person events. MEET’s processes help its clients ramp-up sales quickly and maintain a steady stream of high-quality prospects going forward.  Contact Bill Kenney for a free, no-obligation consultation bill@meetroi.com or +1 (860) 573-4821.

Uncategorized

Common Pitfalls When Endeavoring to Scale in the U.S. Market

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Back in January, we explored issues and opportunities companies face when endeavoring to scale in the U.S. market through an interview with Blair Parks, U.S. and Canada Business Manager for the Mayor’s International Business Programme, London & Partners. The Mayor’s International Business Programme is a free 12-month program designed to help UK-based high-growth, ambitious scale-ups expand internationally. You can check out Part 1 of our conversation with Blair, where we explored some of the resources offered by London & Partners and the types of questions companies should ask themselves when considering the right time to scale. As the U.S. and Canada Business Manager, we asked Blair what criteria companies should look at when geographically assessing which U.S. market to enter first. Criteria for geographic selection According to Blair, companies should assess the market in terms of three criteria: sector, client base, and culture. “First look at where your sector is the strongest. For example, if you’re a life sciences company, look at San Diego, Boston, Nashville, etc. Do your homework.” “Next, assuming you have a pre-existing customer base in the U.S., assess their location. Many companies assume they need to be in New York but after looking at their client data discover the Midwest is a better fit.” “Finally, look to see where you fit culturally. London/UK companies tend to align better in pace and culture with east coast cities. The shorter flight also makes it easier to make frequent trips.” Blair also noted that for companies with investors, it’s critical to get their opinion on where to set up first. Common pre-scaling pitfalls Sometimes the best way to avoid a mistake is to know about the ones others have made. We asked Blair to share the most common missteps companies make before entering the U.S. market, during the discovery phase. “When engaging with potential American customers, they should feel your company’s commitment to the market.” According to Blair, too many companies fail to communicate in the same language (i.e. British versus American English) and forget to use the right time zone for their meetings. These small mistakes send a message that the company is not fully committed to the U.S. market. As Blair says, “not being in their world is a really big mistake.” This is true for investors as well. According to Blair: “going on fact-finding missions to the U.S. is a great idea, but don’t go meeting with VCs before you’re ready. You don’t want to use up those introductions and business development meetings if you’re not ready to deliver.” Common post-scaling pitfalls What are the most common mistakes made by companies who have already scaled and are just not successful in the U.S? Blair focused right in on poor budgeting as the most common mistake. Many companies fail to account for the higher costs and competition of hiring talent in the U.S. when compared with other countries. Pro Tip: More UK companies these days are sending over a senior member of their team to set up the business rather than leaving it up to a U.S. salesperson who should be tasked otherwise. Assuming you have the right person for the job, sending over a someone from headquarters will help to ensure that the culture of the company, as well as the product or service, is being transferred as intended. A common pitfall with hiring a U.S. salesperson to run any scale-up is they tend to feel isolated and may not have the same company buy-in. “If you do go with an American first hire, make sure that you’re visiting them regularly and bring them over to visit the home market so they begin to feel an attachment, get to know people and can recognize the team by face.” The importance of localized communication At MEET, we talk a lot about the importance of localized communication with our clients and how to make sure that every opportunity to interact with customers is flawlessly executed. We were curious about how London & Partners does the same. “As an American, I will look at their website and see if it serves me; I often catch some language that clearly doesn’t fit with the U.S. market.”  The Mayor’s International Business Programme will also make connections with U.S. marketing firms upon request. Regarding the website, make sure that any existing clients you’d like to promote are companies with name recognition in the U.S. Listing domestic UK companies that Americans are unfamiliar with may actually hurt your credibility. Finally, while Blair does not believe it’s necessary to regionally localize U.S. communication, she did emphasize the importance of having a U.S. address on the company website. “Americans really value being able to get in touch with someone in their home market.” You can check out Part 1 of our conversation with Blair Parks on our blog page, or access our full interview on Issues and Opportunities when Endeavoring to Scale in the U.S. Market. About MEET (meetroi.com) helps international B2B growth companies soft land and scale in the U.S. through trade shows and in-person events. MEET’s processes help its clients ramp-up sales quickly and maintain a steady stream of high-quality prospects going forward.  Contact Bill Kenney for a free, no-obligation consultation bill@meetroi.com or +1 (860) 573-4821.

Uncategorized

Issues and Opportunities When Endeavoring to Scale in the U.S. Market: Part 1

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For foreign companies looking to enter and scale in the U.S. market, knowing when your company is ready and what resources are available is fundamental to successful growth. To explore best practices (and common pitfalls), and learn more about the valuable resources available to growth companies, we sat down with Blair Parks, U.S. and Canada Business Manager for the Mayor’s International Business Programme with London & Partners. London & Partners is the Mayor of London’s official promotional agency, working to promote London internationally as the leading city to invest, work, study and visit. Administered by London & Partners is the Mayor’s International Business Programme, a free 12-month program designed to help high-growth, ambitious scale-ups who are looking to expand internationally. Through events and workshops with corporate executives who have successfully scaled their companies in foreign markets, mentoring, network-building and international trade missions, the Programme offers a full range of high-value resources to companies well positioned to succeed abroad. For more information on eligibility criteria and application dates, click here. We spoke with Blair Parks, Business Manager for companies looking to expand to the U.S. and Canada, to learn more about the resources London & Partners offers and her perspective on best practices when scaling internationally. How do leaders decide if their company is ready to enter the U.S. or Canada? According to Blair, it starts by asking a few fundamental questions: Is there even a market in the U.S. for this product or service? Is the industry comparable? What will the competition be like? Is there remaining market share? Is there an easy way to find answers to these questions? In short, no. According to Blair, finding your best answers will require hands-on research and time spent in the new potential market. “Speak to American companies, speak to American friends. There’s no shortcut for really doing your homework. That means coming to the U.S. often and really committing to this market.” Useful Tip: Blair recommends that when coming to the U.S. market, set up meetings with prospective clients or stakeholders as an American. That means sending meeting invites in U.S. time zones and using U.S. dial-in numbers so prospects don’t have to incur costs. Paying attention to these details leaves a strong impression. Once a company has determined they are ready to scale outside of the U.K., how does the Mayor’s International Business Programme help them? Helping companies build networks and connect with mentors to help guide them through this process is a critical first step. Another is helping them navigate the U.S. market in terms of best-fit locations. “Companies always think they need to look at New York and San Francisco when in fact, there are a lot more resources outside of these cities available to international companies. Places like Dallas and Atlanta will have time to speak to you and the data to help you learn about their market. They may even show you around.” “And while Atlanta is considered a tier two city in the U.S., it’s bigger than a lot of cities in Europe and around the world. One of our recent Fintech companies, who assumed they should scale in New York, was blown away by how they were received in Atlanta. It’s important to keep an open-mind when scaling.” To learn more about this topic and the work of London & Partners, check out our full interview with Blair Parks on Issues and Opportunities when Endeavoring to Scale in the U.S. Market. For access to all of MEET’s webinar content on how to successfully scale your company in the U.S. market through trade shows and in-person events, subscribe to our YouTube Channel. About MEET (meetroi.com) helps international B2B growth companies soft land and scale in the U.S. through trade shows and in-person events. MEET’s processes help its clients ramp-up sales quickly and maintain a steady stream of high-quality prospects going forward.  Contact Bill Kenney for a free, no-obligation consultation bill@meetroi.com or +1 (860) 573-4821.

Return on Investment

Using Data to Improve Relationships and your Trade Show Strategy Plan

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The power of applying metrics to your trade show strategy plan is described perfectly by Made to Stick  authors Chip and Dan Heath: “Once we know something, we find it hard to imagine what it was like not to know it.” That’s because simple calculations such as cost per lead or average revenue per customer permanently impact how you select and invest in trade show opportunities. Developing metrics and the necessary systems to efficiently track them, is but the first step to improving trade show ROI. Data not only informs where and how we allocate resources; it has the ability to enhance strategic relationships that sustain greater ROI in the long-term. At MEET, we believe that data can significantly enhance your capacity to manage, build trust, and improve efficiency with three stakeholders: event hosts, prospects and your sales and marketing team. Here’s how. Using data to improve relationships with event hosts As experienced event hosts, we know how frustrating it feels when an exhibitor stops attending an event but can’t explain precisely why. It’s frustrating because in many situations there are relatively simple adjustments that can be made to improve ROI, however, without available data, it’s impossible to know where to begin. As described in our recent post on MEET’s customizable Exhibitor and Trade Show ROI Cookbook, collecting measurable data that paints a precise picture of how each event is performing, from leads generated, to cost per appointment and cost per revenue, empowers exhibitors to work with event hosts to find ways to improve ROI. Comparing performance data event-to-event and year-to-year is an easily digestible way to present this data to event hosts, proactively improve your outcomes, refine your trade show strategy plan, and help the marketplace evolve to your needs. Why bother working with event hosts to improve ROI rather than finding new events each year?  Because exhibiting at the same events year over year helps you build relationships with that community. It may also offer opportunities to speak and do hospitality, all of which raises the profile of your company and builds sustained ROI. Using data to improve relationships with prospects Understanding the role of metrics in improving prospect relationships boils down to the question why measure at all. We measure because we want to make more intelligent decisions. We want to adjust our trade show strategy plan based on substance. A common mistake we witness time and time again is exhibitors who promote their product or service rather than the problem they are aiming to solve. Promoting the problem and not the product requires understanding your buyer persona. In other words, it requires data. Using data, in the form of buyer personas and tested marketing strategies, allows you to be empathic. Prospects who feel heard and understood by your brand are more compelled to opt-in and let you help them solve their problem. Data can also help you sustain customer relationships and minimize the risks associated with the ebb and flow growth. Using data to improve relationships with your sales and marketing team We often refer to the refrain “if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.” In essence, employing measurable outcomes provides new opportunities to set goals and manage the performance of your event team. For example, going back to our post on the Event Cookbook, every member of the booth team should have a clear idea of how many quality leads they are responsible for each day based on your overall revenue goals and in the context of historical event performance. Salespeople should have goals for one-on-one meetings and partner conversations. Achieving performance goals requires setting up your sales and marketing team for success. This includes establishing clear expectations and investing resources into the systems and strategy to support them. For more on using metrics to inform your trade show strategy plan and improve your relationships with event hosts, prospects and your team, check out our recent webinar: Benchmarks, Goals, Metrics, and ROI: Everything You Need to Know About Measuring Trade Show Results. About MEET (meetroi.com) helps international B2B growth companies gain traction and scale in new markets and countries through trade shows and in-person events. MEET’s processes help its clients ramp-up sales quickly and maintain a steady stream of high-quality prospects going forward. Contact Bill Kenney at MEET today for a free trade show participation assessment bill@meetroi.com or +1 (860) 573-4821.

Return on Investment, Uncategorized

Quantify your Trade Show Strategy Plan with an Event Cookbook

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MEET helps B2B growth companies develop and effectively leverage trade show strategy plans. One way we do this is by offering customizable tools to maximize ROI for every prospect facing opportunity. Among our most popular tools is the Exhibitor and Trade Show ROI Cookbook (Event Cookbook). By setting goals and utilizing metrics to better inform trade show strategy plans, MEET’s Event Cookbook allows clients to quantify how events are producing across a variety of indicators and over time, opening the door to new opportunities to improve ROI. Two functions of every trade show At MEET, we believe exhibitors should view expo and trade fair opportunities from two perspectives: in-booth and out-of-booth engagement. The purpose of the booth is to separate general attendees from prospects. Transaction professionals, individuals who are trained to efficiently qualify high volumes of prospects, operate inside the booth and should be evaluated using a set of metrics that reflect their unique responsibilities. The beauty of employing transaction professionals inside the booth is that they free up your salespeople to engage in longer one-on-one meetings and competitive intelligence outside the booth. These engagement activities boost ROI in different ways and therefore must be tracked using different metrics. (For more on how to best utilize salespeople in your trade show strategy plan, check out this post.) Setting Goals Differentiating between the unique revenue generating roles of your exhibiting team is the first step to utilizing the Event Cookbook. The next step is goal-setting, specifically: Prospects Potential Revenue Goal This is the potential value associated with prospects identified inside the booth by transaction professionals. Agreement Signed Revenue Goal This is the potential value associated with outcomes of one-on-one meetings between members of the sales team and existing prospects represented by closed agreements. Partner Goal This is the number of new strategic partners your sales team has enrolled through out-of-booth engagements. Competitor Goal This is the number of competitors your sales team has gathered intelligence on to better inform your trade show strategy plan, including booth offers, messaging, staffing, and event selection Your ability as an exhibitor to estimate these figures with greater accuracy will improve over time.  Calculations such as average annual revenue per customer, calculated by dividing your annual revenue by the number of customers that paid you, is among the simple input calculations we use to inform these goals. Other valuable calculations used as inputs to your Event Cookbook include: • # of prospects to yield an appointment • # of prospect 1st appointments to a proposal • # of proposals to close Feel free to contact us any time for more guidance on how to use our Event Cookbook to set measurable trade show goals. Calculating results of your trade show strategy plan As described earlier, results are tracked inside and outside the booth separately based on the different roles and responsibilities of your exhibiting team. Inside the booth metrics can be broad, e.g. leads generated per day, or drilled down to leads generated per hour per person. The power of a tool that allows you to drill down to this level of specificity lies in your ability to set personalized, daily goals for each member of your event team. A well-crafted booth offer and exhibit display will improve their likelihood for success by ensuring these leads are high-quality prospects. For more on how to improve your likelihood of success in identifying high-quality leads, check out this post. Outside the booth, from a sales perspective, the Event Cookbook allows you to track results such as cost per dollar of revenue, a highly valuable indicator of event success that can be used to track the ROI by event. Testing the effectiveness of your value proposition, booth offer, and staffing strategy will be reflected in this number. To the extent that certain factors remain constant, you can also use this data to inform your event selection process and how you engage with event hosts. Using the Event Cookbook to improve Trade Show ROI Collecting measurable data that paints a precise picture of how each event is performing, from leads generated, to cost per revenue, empowers exhibitors to work with event hosts to find ways to improve ROI. When research and experience tell you that your buyers are in attendance at a particular event but your data indicates a consistent lack of performance, that is the time to share these results with event hosts to explore how you can work together to improve ROI. Whether it’s strategies to boost sales or lower your costs, small changes in your trade show strategy plan will show up in your Event Cookbook and can be used to inform future investment decisions. Interested in previewing the Exhibitor and Trade Show ROI Cookbook? Email us or give us a call. And for more on how to use metrics to inform your trade show strategy plan, check out our recent webinar: Benchmarks, Goals, Metrics, and ROI: Everything You Need to Know About Measuring Trade Show Results.   About MEET (meetroi.com) helps B2B growth companies effectively leverage at trade shows and in-person events. MEET’s processes help its clients ramp-up sales quickly and maintain a steady stream of high-quality prospects going forward. Contact Bill Kenney at MEET today for a free trade show participation assessment bill@meetroi.com or +1 (860) 573-4821

Return on Investment, Uncategorized

Measuring Milestones in your Trade Show Strategy

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In our recent post, The Case for Calculating Trade Show ROI, we talked about the value of measuring trade show return on investment and provided some simple measures of success to get you started. While every sales process looks slightly different, each is characterized by a number of stages or milestones from initial contact to contract. In this post, we’ll explore where and how metrics can be applied to these milestones to better inform your marketing and sales strategy. 5 Milestones to Achieving a Sale Contact: This is your initial awareness of the individual you suspect may qualify as a prospect. Prospect: You’ve qualified your suspect as a prospect by establishing an apparent need, the resources to fulfill that need, and urgency for a solution, i.e. NEED, MONEY, NOW. 1st Meeting: You have held a first meeting with the decision-maker to qualify interest and lay the groundwork for the relationship. Second or third meetings may be necessary during this stage. Proposal: In the B2B context, a proposal is delivered to clarify the statement of work, goods or services. Contract: The point at which revenue begins to flow or a purchase order is secured. Again, while each sale will require a slightly different allocation of time and resources, applying a standard matrix to the process is a valuable first step to measuring for success. The Marketing Funnel At MEET, we like to think of the process of achieving Milestones 1 and 2 and 3 as a marketing funnel to the extent that initial contacts are moved through a lead nurturing process that over time builds increasing amounts of trust. For a visual of MEET’s marketing funnel, check out this post. At the top of the funnel, when engaging with contacts or suspects, are marketing awareness activities such as social media, advertisements and event presence. Once the contact has established interest in the product or service, there is movement down the funnel toward Milestone 2. Prospect nurturing activities start to build intimacy. They include webinars, white papers and other materials that demonstrate to the individual precisely how their unique solution can be solved through your product or service. The bottom of the funnel (Milestone 3) occurs once the prospect has established initial trust in you and your solution and is ready to begin the sales process by setting a first meeting with the sales team. The Transition from Marketing to Sales The distinguishing factor in B2B sales, particularly those initiated through trade show marketing, is the transition in responsibility from marketing to sales. Again, the goal of the marketing funnel is to employ an array of awareness and trust-building tools that nurture prospects to the point where they are ready to engage with the sales team, transitioning from a passive prospect to an active one. From a metrics perspective, milestones are an extremely useful way to measure the success of different marketing strategies based on their ability to move contacts down the funnel and into the hands of your sales team. Measuring the time and resources associated with this transition from marketing to sales, and within sales between first meeting and contract, are critical inputs to resource maximization. For example, knowing that each proposal requires an average of five meetings indicates the time and resources that will be needed at the point of transition to close a sale. While every sales process will be unique, setting a standard or benchmark will improve your capacity to accurately measure your marketing strategy’s ROI. Using the transition point between marketing and sales in your sales pipeline is a great place to start. For more on how to use metrics to inform your trade show marketing plan, check out our recent webinar: Benchmarks, Goals, Metrics, and ROI: Everything You Need to Know About Measuring Trade Show Results. About MEET (meetroi.com) helps B2B growth companies effectively leverage at trade shows and in-person events. MEET’s processes help its clients ramp-up sales quickly and maintain a steady stream of high-quality prospects going forward. Contact Bill Kenney at MEET today for a free trade show participation assessment bill@meetroi.com or +1 (860) 573-4821.

bill@meetroi.com

+1 (860) 573-4821

+1 (860) 573-4821

bill@meetroi.com

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