Trade fairs are suffering due to corona: cancellations cause problems for exhibitors

The economy is currently feeling the effects of the Covid 19 virus. The authorities are reacting with drastic measures. One of them: Many trade fairs are currently being cancelled or postponed. This hits the exhibitors particularly hard. They have set their annual plans and goals, and trade fair appearances are an important measure for achieving them. To prevent losses, companies must now look for alternative methods of lead generation. The probably best ones come from the world of data.

Exhibition cancelled. Exhibition postponed. In times of the corona virus this scenario has become reality. In the entire DACH region, events, including trade fairs, have been prohibited for a while already. Nobody knows at the moment how long this state will last. It is to be feared, however, that it will take months rather than weeks until normality returns. The consequence: It is unclear whether trade fairs will take place at all in 2020, even if they are postponed to a later date in the year.

These cancellations or postponements cause problems for many companies. Quite a few use trade fairs to establish business contacts and acquire new customers. This source of lead generation is lost or massively limited. And the cancellations come at very short notice, sometimes weeks or even days before the start. This makes planning very difficult. What is certain is that the current situation will leave a hole in sales. But only if you don't switch over to alternative methods of lead generation. And there are many of them.

Those who do not react immediately will suffer losses

The current scenario hits entrepreneurs unexpectedly and is unique in its form and impact. This hits many companies very hard. On the one hand, they have already invested a lot of money in their trade fair booth and measures, and on the other hand, they have set ambitious annual targets, i.e. sales targets, and planned the marketing budget for the necessary measures accordingly.

The pressure on marketing and sales is increasing massively. Managers insist on compensating for the losses in other ways if possible. Nobody has time to wait and see. The holes in sales that are now emerging can hardly be covered.

CEOs, CMOs and CSOs are in the same boat

CEOs want to achieve the annual targets. Marketing managers must look for alternative ways to generate leads. Sales managers want qualified leads with high quality and probability of contract conclusion. But is it enough to simply buy lists of companies and run expensive outreach campaigns or cold calling as a plan B? Very probably not.

Despite all the hectic pace and increasing pressure, those affected should definitely keep a cool head. There are alternative methods for lead generation - and they are promising. In order to survive the corona crisis as unscathed as possible, it is now worthwhile placing lead management on a data-supported basis. The two most obvious methods here are Twin Analysis and Smart Data Analytics. Both look into a company's data pool, enrich this data with additional information and provide lists of potential customers who are qualified and highly likely to have a current need for certain products and services.

Please read our article «No marketing leads because of the corona virus: What to do?». describes the data-based lead generation methods in detail.

Nobody has time to wait and see. Corona will have some massive effects in 2020 and will continue to have an effect in the coming year. Companies that are already conducting marketing and sales on a data-based approach and consistently digitalising today are not only surviving the crisis much better, they are also securing an effective long-term advantage over all those companies that are missing the bus to digitalisation and use of data.