Align on Objectives and KPIs

Set measurable goals for each trade show and align them with your company’s larger marketing and sales objectives to track ROI and enable continuous improvement.

Why it's Important

Creates clarity and shared expectations
Enables accurate performance measurement
Justifies investment to leadership
Aligns marketing, sales, and ops on common success metrics
Drives accountability and continuous optimization

How to Implement

Define core goals (lead capture, pipeline generation, meetings booked, etc.)
Differentiate metrics for brand vs. demand-focused shows
Align with company-wide revenue and marketing KPIs
Assign pre-, during-, and post-event KPIs
Involve sales in goal-setting process
Use benchmarks from past events to guide targets
Build real-time dashboards to track metrics
Define how each KPI will be measured (manual vs. automated)

Available Workshops

KPI Alignment Brainstorm
Trade Show Objectives Ideation
Post-Mortem Metrics Review
Sales-Mkt Goal-Setting Sync
Event Attribution Modeling Workshop
Real-Time Dashboard Mockup Session

Deliverables

Event-specific KPI framework
Success definitions by event type
Sales & marketing goal alignment doc
Benchmark comparison report
Event reporting dashboard template

How to Measure

MQLs and SQLs captured
Meetings booked pre- and onsite
Sales velocity and opportunity conversion rate
Contribution to pipeline and closed-won deals
Event-sourced revenue vs. event-influenced revenue
Follow-up engagement rate
ROI: (Revenue – Cost) ÷ Cost

Real-World Examples

Marketo

Tracks trade show success by number of demo requests converted to opportunities within 30 days.

Box

Measures lead quality by sales-accepted leads and opportunity conversion rates from events.

Gong

Uses meetings booked and follow-up engagement as leading indicators for event ROI.

Get It Right

Align goals with the full sales funnel, not just lead capture
Set benchmarks based on historical and industry data
Define what counts as success before the event
Use automation tools to track KPIs in real time
Adjust targets as your team and strategy evolve

Don't Make These Mistakes

Setting vanity metrics (e.g., badge scans) as your main KPIs
Failing to involve sales in the goal-setting process
Not connecting trade show KPIs to broader business goals
Using the same KPIs across all event types
Measuring success only after the event instead of during

Provided courtesy of Dawn Mallyon, Exhibitor Growth Strategies