When faced with a budget crisis beyond proportion and mounting promotion and industry trade show demands, one company stood up to adversity and made a new name for itself by spending smarter.
While working for Virtual Systems, a Point-of-Sale (POS) software client, I learned that one of the annual budget items was $275,000 spent on a single trade show for the POS industry. The sales and marketing teams always put a lot of planning, money and thought into the show, and almost always came home hungry, with little to show for it.
The reason: The show was almost sold out with competing POS companies, all working to out-do each other’s booths, presentations, giveaways— all the traditional trade show avenues. It was time to put an end to this cycle.
By recommending that the client send the sales team to the show on the floor, but not invest in a booth in the “Me Too” contest this industry expo had turned into, we freed up over $225,000 that was then invested into three other trade shows attended by the company’s key clients: One in gift shops, one in bookstores, and one in pharmaceutical retail. In each convention, they were now the only POS company on the floor. The result: Sales growth of more than $ 3 million in new orders.
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