I’m not a big fan of trade shows for building materials companies. They are a big expense that, for some companies, are not a good investment.
There are two reasons for this:
- Companies do a poor job of setting themselves up for success at trade shows.
- Trade shows do a poor job of helping the exhibitors succeed.
What to do?
An often overlooked way to get better results from your trade show budget is to diversify your trade show participation. Many companies simply choose the bigger shows. The problem with this is that it’s much harder to get noticed at these large shows.
The other problem is that it’s easy to look at the large number of total attendees, but not consider the small number of them who are actually good prospects for you.
Consider different shows. If you are in the glass or fenestration business, GlassBuild may be a much better show for you.
Here’s why: All of the attendees are interested in glass, windows, and doors. At a larger show that appeals to a broader audience, the number of real prospects could be less than 20% of the total.
If you want to grow your sales in the building materials industry, you need the support of contractors, dealers, distributors, and specifiers. You can promote your product at another show only to lose the sale when these important influencers change your customer's mind.
Step one in selling glass, windows or doors (and all of the components and equipment that come with them) is to have the support of the glaziers, fabricators, dealers, distributors, and specifiers who focus on these products. If these people go to a trade show, they go to GlassBuild.
GlassBuild Wants to Help You
Often, associations and trade show management companies treat exhibitors like second class citizens. Their priority is to meet the needs of the attendees. If they don’t put on a great show, attendance will drop, there will be fewer exhibitors and less money to make it a great show.
Rather than trying to help the exhibitors improve the results from their investment in the show, they see the exhibitor as an ATM machine who should be maxed out.
The National Glass Association, host of GlassBuild, has made changes that will benefit the companies who exhibit at GlassBuild. Andrew Haring, their VP of Business Development, has industry and exhibitor experience. Rather than bringing in someone from another association or trade show management company, they brought in someone with first-hand experience with the frustrations of exhibiting at trade shows.
He is bringing this knowledge to GlassBuild to make it a better experience for exhibitors. Some of the areas he’s focusing on are increasing the engagement opportunities across the show with more networking and demonstration spaces. He’s also going outside-of-the box, working one-on-one with exhibitors to push unique brand experiences beyond the conventional trade show model. Most importantly, he’s listening.
Maybe after five years of challenging the way building industry trade shows are managed, I’m starting to get through. I’m hoping that making GlassBuild a better experience for the exhibitors will set an example for the other shows.
Ask yourself: Are you exhibiting at the right shows? If you’re in the glass, window or door business, shouldn’t you be at GlassBuild?