B2B Print Technology Buying is Changing. It is a fact.
B2B Print technology buying is changing. It is a fact.
In Europe, the print technology sector has made its first tentative steps back to trade show exhibiting and visiting. All autumn shows are bound to be the smallest ever as many of the big names have stayed away. As a result, most international events will be more local in feel and substance. I hope these shows are a great success, and they likely will be for the enthusiasts who make the effort. There is much excitement and this makes sense, as we have been starved of connecting! But when this ‘novel’ excitement abates and the dust really settles, what will this mean for the future of large international trade shows which have arguably enjoyed very easy pickings for far too long? Will they ever return to their former footprint? And is the trade show model actually sustainable any longer? Has COVID only served to accelerate a decline? Do the 'mega events' really deliver measurable results?
Every dog has its day, and every product has a lifecycle. We have all seen the shockwaves of change, compounding on the seemingly impregnable Drupa. This event will surely decrease significantly in its footprint and attendance for its next edition. Prior to COVID, people would never have imagined that these print ‘Trade Show Goliaths’ would be affected by anything! Yet now, these mega shows are struggling to retain their pivotal role in their industry. Why? Well, COVID has had many effects, not least that people are beginning to accept and enthuse about different ways of doing things.
Of course, all of us have been confined to digital platforms for 18 months and now have a clear understanding of what is, and what is not essential travel. We have learned that there are other techniques for researching and investing in new technology. While large trade shows will surely continue to exist, buying behaviour has changed, and this is a fact.
Just How is Buying Changing?
This change goes for how businesses buy, and also outside of trade shows. So following this logic, the way that we sell and market our products must change too. According to research, salespeople influence a decreasingly small segment of the buying process while buying decisions are becoming spread across a wider group of people.
Research from Gartner shows that 83% of a typical B2B purchasing decision — researching solutions, ranking options and benchmarking pricing — happens before a buyer engages directly with a provider. The in-person, one-to-one sales model is fading away: B2B sales reps have roughly 5% of a customer’s time during their entire B2B buying journey. More decisions are being made digitally, and according to McKinsey, 70% – 80% of B2B decision-makers prefer it that way.
Additionally, Gartner reports that the buyer journey is more complex than ever. Today’s typical purchase committee includes “six to ten decision-makers, each armed with four or five pieces of information they have gathered independently and must de-conflict with the group. At the same time, the set of options and solutions buying groups can consider is expanding as new technologies, products, suppliers and services emerge.” Thought leadership can play a critical role in influencing this group, but only if you’re able to successfully address a variety of needs.
We have always believed that a mix of information is required, and that thought leadership helps instil confidence in a buyer as to the commitment and the competence of the people in the business responsible for producing and selling the product. Not just the technology itself. And thought leadership must be executed with the right frequency and consistency across all media channels. Not just at large events. Simply relying on a trade show to do all of the ‘donkey work’ is no longer enough. Digital platforms add value while offering an abundance of methods to connect and promote. Digital marketing also enables smaller but innovative businesses to gain a greater share of voice. It really levels out the playing field particularly so compared with trade shows that tend to prioritise the largest exhibitors simply as they are perceived to have the greatest influence. At large trade shows, small to medium exhibitors run the risk of being drowned out in the information overload that is typical of trade shows!
What will certainly be felt among the more laid back trade show organisers who have been used to a footfall and sq. metreage of a certain size is that both exhibitors and visitors will be far less speculative with their time and much more forensic with their budget. Larger corporations, even now, have a ban on travel, and these corporate balance sheets will require a strong justification for a trade show visit, which can easily be categorised as non-essential travel. In short, these corporations will be far more demanding with their ROI while not being willing to risk the health of their key hires.
That said, this change represents a rebalance in marketing terms. I think there is still a place for niche, well-curated and community-driven events. We are humans, and face to face is still critical. But now I believe that it is part of the overall mix, not the major defining format. These events in the future will not command the majority of the time or spend in terms of how we buy print technology and how we market our print technology to buyers.
But what about print technology buying? Is this changing?
It certainly appears so. In our recent FuturePrint & Pack Survey in partnership with Ricoh, which ran through September and received 204 responses from over 30 countries, the feedback from respondents when asked about buying technology certainly seems to chime with the Gartner Research Findings. Most (63%) believe that all of the channels are important in the future, and a significant number believe both virtual events have a continued role to play and that more buying behaviour has moved online now.
In addition, the results below state that over 50% believe international trade shows are now more difficult to justify in terms of exhibiting and visiting. 30% remain loyal to the trade show model, but this, it could be argued, is a surprisingly small amount when one considers just how dominant trade shows were prior to COVID in terms of both the marketing spend for exhibitors and the time and travel investment for buyers.
So how will this look in the future?
Of course, predicting the future is never straightforward, and I expect the feel-good factor surrounding live events to be high for at least the following 12 months if the activity on social media is anything to go by. But I do think that COVID really has served to signal the beginning of the end and the start of a slow but sure decline of tired old trade shows, as they will need to coalesce with new digital platforms for exhibitors and visitors to buy and sell across the year and not confined to a few days a year in a hall.
And we must also think of Gen-Z. For the digital generation, are trade shows even relevant? Why would a digital-savvy buyer of the future want to attend a trade show that will require so much (time, money and energy) of them when there are so many other more efficient ways for them to gain the insight they need?
So I end as I began. B2B Print Technology Buying is Changing. It is a Fact.
The question for leaders and marketers is, what are we going to do about it?
If you would like to download the FuturePrint & Pack Survey & Report in partnership with Ricoh Europe