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Trade shows: How to measure results

Measuring results from trade shows is only something that can be assessed after the fact, and in fact it would be very difficult indeed to assess the profit margins brought about by trade fairs until at least six months to a year after the initial show, although the information is extremely helpful to collate, and to look at in preparation for next year's show.

By keeping a tally of the contacts that you made during the show, and what contracts followed, you can effectively get a total of trade show generated sales which puts you in good stead for assessing whether another trade show will be of effective use to your company.

Following up leads and keeping a note of where that lead came from in a database gives you comparisons between sales generated from other sources and those generated from Trade Shows. Having codes to feed in with data, showing which source really does make it easy to split the figures to give accurate costs.

Having six months to a year's worth of business records following a trade show, figures that are gleaned can be compared to the costs laid out in pre-show advertising, and the cost to you of the trade show, both in staff, and in fees. By balancing the cost against the profit, you can see whether indeed the profits justify further shows. The balance will be the effective increase in sales, though won't give the full picture until balanced against the costs of providing the orders dispatched.

An overall look at profits, weighing up costs in total of products, advertising, and show fees, against income gives you a better picture and by keeping charts of progress based on information you compute, you can tell just how effective those sales shows were for your Company.

Learn more about this author, Rachelle de Bretagne.
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