Tracey Schropp - Exhibitor Magazine

SHOW SCHEDULE / MEASURABLE OBJECTIVES
The main reason for Nordson ASYMTEK’s exhibiting at tradeshows has been to
showcase products to specific target audiences. The company did not traditionally
define exact quantitative goals to tie to the objectives below but the one measurable
objective expressed after most tradeshows by management had always been “How
many leads did we get” A lead-tracking system and detailed lead form for surveying
each customer that visits the booth had provided these measurements:
1) Number of leads and ability to compare show to show, year to year
2) Quality of leads:
A = Hot (has need and budget)
B = Warm (has need or budget)
C = Cool (has interest but no need or budget specified at this time)
3) Customer Product Interests – to respond to the customer for post-show follow up
and help align demos to the audience, making corrections the following year
A new customer relationship management (CRM) system enhanced the tracking of
leads from a tradeshow by following which turn into opportunities and the monetary
amount of closed sales, along with the event budget and actual cost data to follow ROI.
One limitation is a delay to measure results since the sales cycle can occur over a span
of years.
Besides the leads to sales (monetary) ROI objectives, there are other very valuable and
important objectives to Nordson ASYMTEK’s exhibiting at tradeshows including:
4) Face-to-face networking and meetings - As learned in Session 30801: “Business
Marketing Strategies and Tradeshows”, this relationship marketing comes from
the fact that retaining a customer costs less than obtaining a new one.
5) Introduction of new products.
6) Technical expertise and live demonstrations onsite – Referring again to Session
30801: “Business Marketing Strategies and Tradeshows”, the market’s
perception of the product or firm (brand) is dependent upon product performance.
7) Prove to our customers that we are the preferred solutions provider.
8) Publicity, Meetings with magazine editors.
Three additional objectives specific to the Productronica 2009 show were:
9) Combine 3 sister companies into a shared booth.
10) Introduce the new Nordson corporate branding.
11) Concentrate on saving costs during an economic downturn.
CTSM Portfolio – Tracey Schropp Page 9