Cancellation of Trade Shows Underscores Need for Digital Transformation

If we press rewind and go back to 2008, agencies and brands saw the writing on the wall, that digital transformation was coming, and it was time to act. In retrospect, for many at the time, that meant rethinking web strategy or designing website for mobile devices.

Fast forward 12 years, and COVID put everyone in their place, and exposed those that hadn’t taken the need for digital transformation seriously. And, to be fair, perhaps it showed all of us that we needed to take it even further — even those of us who may have been all over it.

For the past few months, there has been great deliberation from the NAHB and NKBA as to what would happen with their cornerstone trade shows, the International Builder Show and the Kitchen & Bath Industry Show, respectively. For some time, the thinking was a hybrid in-person/virtual setup, with news breaking late last week that both organizations have opted for a virtual-only setup in January.

This has led many brands we work with, and no doubt countless others, to pivot and rethink their strategy surrounding the single largest industry event(s) of the year. The benefits of these shows write themselves, however to me there are three key objectives for brands in attendance:

1. Showcasing new products, innovations, and offerings.
2. Relationship building.
3. Loading the sales pipeline for the year ahead.

In our time supporting brands at these shows, we’re often given the mandate that they want to “own the show” — to truly stand out with a memorable presence. That’s evidenced further by the awards handed out at the show. But what now, in a “at home” environment where all engagement is virtual? Surely we can’t just ignore the need to generate demand for our products, and to generate leads for our sales teams.

In the discussions we’ve been having with clients trying to navigate this new world, I remain firmly of the opinion that delivering on objectives 1 and 3 is absolutely doable in a virtual selling environment. In the case of object 2, no matter how hard we try, virtual meetings aren’t the same for relationship building — and that’s okay. Let’s stay focused on the elements here that we can control, and perhaps, invest in tools we’ve yet to invest in to better equip our sales and marketing teams to navigate the virtual selling environment that is likely here to stay longer after the pandemic is behind us.

The challenge is in embracing this new digital world for what it is, rather than contorting it to try and behave like the trade show experiences we’ve come to know so well. At first this might seem like it constrains our thinking, but I think we should view this as a creative opportunity to rethink the way we present ourselves, and our products. Rather than being constrained by the status quo, or forcing past behavior into a new worldview, it’s time to rethink what we want a virtual selling environment to look like and build it.

Showcasing new products, innovations, and offerings.

It goes without saying that integral to the trade show experience, is the showcasing of new products, innovations, and service offerings. All of which are certainly achievable in a digital environment.

• Should we be developing VR tools that allow our customers to view our products in their spaces? To walk around them, place them on walls, or refinish surfaces?
• Should we be developing web-based configurators where customers can mix and match products and see how they might impact their projects, or see them in action?
• Are we telling our holistic brand and product story effectively in the owned digital tools at our disposal? Is that story reflected in social, on our website, in our advertising?
• Do we have downloadable spec sheets, interactive videos, and other critical tools that our sales team can easily put in front of prospects via email, or in their browser, to showcase the latest and greatest we have to offer?

Loading the sales pipeline for the year ahead.

On the flip side of this equation is building our digital tools in a way that integrates into our overall marketing automation and CRM infrastructure (assuming we have those in place), and using user interaction to inform future content.

• Do we have the ability to track user behavior across our digital ecosystem?
• Do we have a marketing automation strategy, backed with meaningful lead scoring models and content that delivers against user behavior?
• Have we defined an MQL from an SQL, and are marketing and sales defining them the same way?

We don’t have to bite this all off as once. We can certainly crawl before we run. And the time is right to take a step back, audit our digital strategy, and identify and prioritize the opportunities ahead. We face a unique opportunity to rethink our selling strategy, to embrace digital infrastructure, and to actually deliver on digital transformation as its meant to be rather than relying on the status quo.

That might be a bit of a mind shift change.

That’s okay. It’s time.

Jeremy Heilpern is the founder and CEO of Atlanta-based Ammunition, a member of the global agency network Worldwide Partners, and an independent full service agency building brands that build the world.

Ammunition partners with brands to drive business with leading-edge digital strategy, personalized CRM, break-through creative, and everything in between. For more information, please visit www.ammunition.agency

Jeremy can be reached at: jeremy {at} ammunition {dot} agency