[Insight] Things to do after CES

How to Turn Your Sales Lead into Sales I

The real work for companies begins after CES (Consumer Electronics Show) ends. Although the trade show itself is not the end of the contract process, it's actually the start. What's crucial is the tasks that need to be carried out after CES.

These can be divided into three main categories: 1) Self-diagnosis of CES activities, 2) Evaluation of trade show performance, and 3) Company-wide performance management.

Self-diagnosis of CES Activities

The following questions can help companies evaluate their overall CES activities. It’s beneficial for all participating employees to review these after the last day of the trade show or upon returning to the company. This review will provide feedback on what influenced the performance from the preparation stage to on-site operations and what future strategic changes might be necessary.

--------------

1. What was the CES exhibit product (technology)?

2. What was the purpose of participating in CES?

- Product (technology) promotion and brand awareness

- Discovery of potential customers (vendors, distribution networks, end customers, etc.)

- Local customer response survey

- Product (technology) sales, contract signing, or investment attraction

- Others

3. What were the achievements related to these objectives?

4. What were the main activities at CES? (booth demonstrations, buyer consultations, award receptions, corporate events, session presentations, etc.)

5. What level were the buyers we met?

- A-Level (on-site purchases, investments, or confirmed contracts)

- B-Level (MOU signing or continued consultations)

- C-Level (long-term client management)

6. What were the main reactions or feedback from buyers, visitors, or other participating companies?

7. What challenges or difficulties were faced during the preparation and participation in CES?

8. What changes in strategy and plans are expected after participating in CES?

9. What needs improvement or change for the next CES participation?

--------------

Trade Show Performance Evaluation

Evaluating the performance of the trade show is not just about the number of consultations or contracts. Every participating company should evaluate based on its objectives. Thus, the evaluation method should be varied, just like the objectives are varied. The table below shows the evaluation method according to the purpose of participating in the trade show.

Objectives	Evaluation Method
Introduction to the new product	Number of purchase or sample requests
Discover potential customers	Number of customer data obtained
Sales & Contracts	Number of agreements or contracts drawn up
Increase brand awareness	Comparison of the number of press releases and SNS exposure before and after the trade show
ROI	Cost-to-cost ratio of participation in the trade show
Current Customer Care	Number of local customer visits

After evaluating the participation objectives, it becomes possible to share the results of the CES participation clearly. It’s important to remember that regardless of the objective, the evaluation must be data-driven. For instance, a statement like "the promotion went really well" is meaningless for brand awareness evaluation without data support. Similarly, consultation amounts must be confirmed with documents like MOUs or contracts to be considered effective results.

Company-wide Performance Management

Lastly, after all evaluations are complete, the met buyers are classified by grade as below.

Buyer Rating	Explanation	In-house administrator
A	Buyers who requested a contract or sample right away	CEO
B	Buyers who requested to revisit or sign an MOU in the future	C-level Managers
C	Long-term manageable buyers	Sales Team
D	Unnecessary people	Discard

As shown, A-level buyers are directly managed by the CEO. Employees cannot handle buyers who demand immediate contracts or samples. Buyers with whom MOUs are signed on-site can be upgraded to A-level and should be managed by executives such as department heads or directors.

C-level buyers with long-term growth potential should be maintained by the responsible team or sales team as they can move to A or B-Level in the future. D-Level buyers, who are essentially unnecessary, can be ignored.

Trade Show performance is a company-wide responsibility.

It seems that the responsibility of the trade show performance is not solely on the booth staff. The role of the trade show booth staff is to bring as many sales leads as possible from the floor. However, converting these into sales is a company-wide responsibility.

Therefore, no matter how much marketing is done at the trade show site, if company-wide responsibility management does not follow, the performance of the trade show can only be minimal.

Converting sales leads secured at CES into sales falls under company-wide responsibility, and this is precisely what needs to be done after CES.

(C)VM Consulting