Bear shaving your trade show marketing

To solve the global warming problem, let's shave the bears. Seth Godin defines Bear shaving as

...the efforts we go to do deal with the symptoms of a problem instead of addressing the cause of the problem.

Example: You have a leaky roof and you shave the bear by buying buckets.

Imagine you've hit a downturn.  You need more sales.  You have to work harder for sales.  Now you're asking yourself, "Where can I cut my budget to get through this?"

You look at the cost to exhibit. That's a big number. You know your people complain about doing trade shows.  You can't even see that exhibiting at trade shows increases your sales. This is a no brainer to you - stop exhibiting.  BZZZ - you just shaved the bear.

If you cannot track the results from your exhibiting efforts, then you don't even have a trade show strategy.  Take the first step and stop rationalizing poor trade show results.  You need to know how to cut your trade show budget and sacrifice nothing.

Maybe you think, "We are branding our company."  Ok, but are you training your staff on how to stop, qualify and collect information from qualified attendees?  If you train your staff, they will know why they are there and enjoy the day. You will get qualified leads for your sales staff.

Trade shows are one of the best interactive opportunities to increase your sales, communicate your brand and be remembered.  Are you bear shaving your trade show marketing?