Who is Gorilla 76?
We're an industrial marketing agency that helps midsized B2B manufacturers identify, attract, engage and drive sales opportunities with ideal-fit customers.
Let's break down the ROI of trade shows
Hi. Matt Sciannella here — Strategy Director here at Gorilla 76.
But before I came here, I was a Director of Marketing for a welding company. And yes, I ran my share of trade shows.
I’m not breaking any news here, but trade shows aren’t cheap.
The question I’m going to answer:
Is the cost of trade shows worth it when you look at how much new business you generate?
Let’s break it down using numbers based on a major trade show I used to run.
Cost per attendee: $5.75
At our biggest trade show, we budgeted $230,000 for our 40’ x 60’ booth. That included everything from drayage to material handling to on-site labor to electricity/utilities to rigging to trusting.
About 40,000 people attended.
$230,000 / 40,000 attendees = $5.75 per opportunity to talk to attendee
Except in reality, you won’t get an opportunity to chat with all 40,000 attendees, because it’s a guarantee not even a quarter of attendees will see your booth or notice it, unless you’re one of the big dogs exhibiting.
Cost per badge scan: $767
This is the real carrot for exhibitors … the badge scan.
The badge scan is what trade-show management has been selling you as the reward for all that spend time put in.
If your trade show is anything like mine was, you’re probably looking at a few hundred badge scans. For argument’s sake, let’s call it a clean 300 badge scans.
Here’s how that breaks down:
$230,000 / 300 badges scanned = $767 per lead
This equates to 300 sales opportunities, right?
Not quite.
Just because you scanned their badge does not mean they’re ready to buy. Most of these people are simply perusing around and looking at anything that catches their eye.
And remember: This person has probably gotten scanned 50 times at this show. They will barely remember you by the time they unpack their suitcase at home.
Cost per sales opportunity: $26K
After the show, we have to see how many of these 300 badge scans turn into opportunities, right? Let’s say your team miraculously flips 9 of these leads, or 3%, into an opportunity.
What are you paying per opportunity?
$230,000 / (9) = $25,556 per sales opportunity
That leaves your sales team with about 9 opportunities to work.
Cost per sale: $115K
Say your team closes 1 in 4 sales opportunities — a pretty healthy close rate.
With 9 opportunities, you’d close 2.25. Of course, you can’t have a quarter of a sale, so we’ll round down to a clean two.
You’re looking at a customer acquisition cost of:
$230,000 / 2 = $115,00 per closed-won sales opportunity
If your product or solution is $100,000, congratulations. You just lost $30,000 before accounting for travel and expenses.
The bottom line: You’re losing money to make money
What else could you be doing with that $230K?
You no longer have to wait until the big trade show to reach your audience. You can reach them 365 days a year online through paid social media.
And instead of paying $700+ per badge scan, you’ll be paying $2-11 to get a hyper-qualified person to interact with your brand.
- How paid social can supplement (or replace) trade shows as a new business development strategy
- Arguments to overcome common C-suite objections to reducing trade-show spend
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