I must confess out of the gate that I do not believe exhibiting at tradeshows is worth the money. I have been skeptical for years even prior to launching RSuite CMS. In the twelve plus years that I have been in the publishing and information industry with three different companies, I have never heard of a hot sales lead coming from a tradeshow.
Here’s what I do hear from my colleagues in the industry who exhibit regularly:
- If we don’t exhibit, people will think we are not doing well or we are out of business
- We have to exhibit to get a speaking slot at the show
- We committed to the event organizer for several years
Not one mention of actually getting a sales lead.
I am not here to tell you that Really Strategies will never exhibit to demonstrate our RSuite product, but we need to pick and choose very carefully. Just as publishers and other information companies want a quick return on investment when they purchase a CMS, a CMS vendor wants a quick return on investment from exhibiting at a tradeshow. Based on my unscientific study of the many vendors we work with in the industry, a return on investment from exhibiting at a tradeshow is becoming less likely.
So what should a CMS product vendor do? Should we risk not appearing like a viable company and spending our marketing dollars on other creative ways to build our brand or should we exhibit at every industry tradeshow at $5,000 per show with very limited success?
Software sales are not about booth traffic and cool giveaways anymore, it’s about networking and partnering. With all due respect to my friends in the industry who run tradeshows, let’s come up with a creative way to help CMS product vendors instead of offering an exhibition comprising of a 10 x 10 booth with one table, two chairs, a trash can, and a $700 internet connection. Oh, did I mention the black curtain you get behind the booth?
