Skip to content 
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.
