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What ROI can you expect from a tradeshow? Exhibitor magazine uses the following as a benchmark:
$189 per attendee that visits your booth
$276 per attendee that engages in conversation
Is this a good value? Compare it to other sales methods:
Cost of an initial face-to-face meeting:
| $96 for a tradeshow lead | vs. | $1039 without a trade show lead ($443 to identify prospect prior to initial sales call; $596 for field sales call) |
-Exhibitor
Calls required to close sales:
| 54% of sales initiated from a trade show lead require 3 or fewer sales calls to close | vs. | 61% of sales from other sources require 3 or MORE calls to close |
-Center for Exhibition Industry Research
How does this stack up for advanced manufacturing companies? Optics and photonics companies that attended Photonics West 2013, for example, averaged 42 leads. Based on typical costs, that’s $258 per lead — that's slightly lower than benchmark.
Do you measure ROI? Looking to improve it? Download our quick-reference tip sheet for maximizing tradeshow ROI.
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