Are Trade Shows a Sales or Marketing Function?
by Guest Contributor – Peter LoCascio
Most sales and marketing people have very different personalities. Depending on corporate culture and management style, the important functions they manage can either work well together or be very challenging. This is especially so for the Exhibits Trade Show Manager, who is responsible for successful trade show exhibit planning, execution, and measuring results. In many corporations, the trade show exhibit program is considered a marketing support function and usually reports to either a marketing, marketing communications, or advertising manager.
The distinctive personalities of marketing and sales people when faced with everyday business situations reveals the difference between the two. Those dynamics often dramatically show themselves when people are faced with the tasks of trade show planning and successfully executing exhibit functions on the show floor. Simply stated, marketing people tend to be more strategic, conservative and long-term thinkers.
Sales people, on the other hand, are often considered more tactical, short-term thinkers who are action-oriented and impatient with any esoteric concepts that fail to deliver immediate sales results. It is critical during the formative planning stages of any major trade show that the Trade Show Exhibits Manager understands and carefully empathizes with both sides of these dynamics and seeks to find common ground in establishing fully supported exhibit goals and objectives. Once a coordinated plan is established and documented in the form of a pre-show briefing memo, the trade show exhibit manager must pay close attention and be ready to adjust to any tactical or strategic variances while striving to attain the stated show goals and objectives.
Peter LoCascio
Trade shows are marketing opportunities that need to be developed into sales.
And the best way to justify the cost of exhibiting at any trade show is to establish an analysis which delineates the value of meeting many new prospects and existing customers face to face within 3 days of the show as compared to any other form of marketing and sales activities.