ROI is just another fancy buzzword that belongs in the same category as synergy, monetize and 2.0, right? Well, yes — and no. It may be everywhere these days, but don’t hold that against it — ROI, or return on investment, is an important part of any business’ strategy, especially in lean times. And if you can help your customers calculate their ROI and show the value of attending shows, they’re more likely to keep buying from you.

“It’s more important now than it ever has been to know ROI; exhibitors are pulling out of shows without any really good idea about what shows they should pull out of,” says Barry Siskind, president and founder of International Training and Management Co. “When you just start chipping your show schedule without any idea whether you’re throwing the baby out with the bathwater, it becomes really difficult.”

Why ROI Matters
Trade shows can be expensive — there are show fees, airfare in many cases, hotel stays, meals and wages, not to mention the actual display. But we don’t need to tell you that trade shows can also be hugely successful in generating revenue, either on the spot or down the line. While the attitude right now may be to cut, cut, cut, that can be dangerous. If you can help your clients understand what return they’re getting on their investment of going to the shows (and give them the tools to justify these expenses to the higher-ups), you can continue to make the kind of sales you need to make.

The good news is that now may be the best time for your customers to stand out from the crowd by continuing their marketing efforts — but they need to be strategic about where they’re spending their dollars. “If you don’t know where you’re going, any bus will get you there; you’ve got to know what you want out of the trade show,” says Susan Friedmann, aka The Tradeshow Coach. “ROI is your benchmark, your yardstick, your way to decide whether or not the show’s been worthwhile to you.”

She says to think of it this way: When you go to college, you go with the aim of earning a degree. To accomplish that, you choose a major, plan the classes you’ll take, and make sure you have enough credits to graduate on time. Sure, you can switch majors five times, be a super senior, and play a lot more beer pong than everyone else, but then your ROI on all that money you (or your parents) are sending to your school won’t be as great (unless, of course, your goal is to become a beer pong champion, in which case, your ROI will likely be very good). Your entire college experience is planned with that end goal in mind, and so should your client’s trade show program.

How to Measure ROI
Measuring ROI starts with having a realistic goal. Let’s say your customer wants to get a number of quality leads at a show, and they have two people staffing the booth. Each staffer can talk to six people an hour, and the show runs 20 hours total. That means they’re looking at a maximum of 240 leads in the most optimal conditions, so they should be conservative and aim for something like 190 leads.

“When I talk to exhibitors, they want to get lots of leads; well, what is ‘lots’?” Friedmann asks. “They want to get 500, but that’s not possible. You’ve got to have realistic goals going into the show right at the very beginning.” They can then look at whether they met their goals and figure out how much it cost them to get each lead (calculated with the total cost of attending the show in mind) to determine if the show was profitable.

Leads aren’t the only benefit of a trade show, though. Other popular objectives include sales dollars and awareness of a new product. You may notice that some are quantitative — adding up total sales or counting leads is pretty straightforward, but that’s only a small aspect of measuring returns. Companies also should look at ROO (return on objectives) and ROR (return on relationships).

ROO and ROR are the warm-and-fuzzy sisters of ROI. Unless an owner is independently wealthy and just in business for kicks, the end goal is always money-based, but there are lots of ways to eventually increase the bottom line — ROO and ROR will tell companies if they’re making steps in the right direction.

“A lot of events that we do these days have to do with ongoing relationships with people and upselling,” says Candy Adams, known as the Booth Mom. “Too many people are using a shotgun approach, saying it’s a numbers game. Numbers are nice, but give me a focused group of people — this is where the rubber meets the road, is these relationships, this ROR.” It may seem difficult to measure these types of variables, but it can, and should, be done.

Maybe your client wants to reinforce the company’s brand message. They could set up a survey to test the three key points they’re trying to convey to see if people are taking away the intended message (it helps to offer some kind of small incentive for completing the survey). Other ways to measure these soft objectives include looking at spikes in online traffic or the number of coupons that people redeem. What a company does depends on what result it’s hoping for. “It just requires some forethought and sitting down and working out the metrics,” Siskind says.

Increasing ROI
Now for the question that your customers are surely the most interested in — how can they get more bang for their buck?

Use an on-target display. As you well know, even a good message can get lost in a display that’s not properly suited for the objective, so take the time to understand what your customer’s goals are before recommending an exhibit. You can play a big role in a company’s success at a trade show, and if their ROI is good, they’ll remember you.

Follow up. Suggest to clients that they designate someone on staff (or hire a contractor) to compile the leads from a show, track Web site hits or send out packets of information. Adams tells the story of a company that spent $250,000 going to a show. Then the holidays came, and no one wanted the job of organizing the lead information, so they didn’t — resulting in a quarter million dollars that would’ve been better put to use in an interest-bearing account than squandered at a show.

Make adjustments. The worst thing a business can do is go to all the trouble of figuring out their ROI, then stuff the report in a drawer. They might learn something’s not working, but that’s OK — it’s better to know than to keep doing the same old thing. “Don’t have an ego about it — take from that and learn from it, admit if you make a mistake, and just don’t make it again,” says Linda Musgrove, the TradeShow Teacher and author of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Trade Shows. You may want to have a roster of consultants you trust that you can recommend to customers if they’re missing the mark or just want more help defining the metrics.

By serving as a resource for your clients and helping them figure out what’s working and what’s not, you can increase the value of your products and services, heightening the chances that they’ll come back to you for their display needs. ROI is more than a buzzword — and when used correctly, it can help you grow a business into one that’s buzzed about.