News and Product Updates

Five Different Pizzas Make the Topic of Trade Shows Extra Easy to Swallow

February’s “Lunch & Learn,” hosted by Steve Cragg, Vice President of Sales and Marketing, was an unequivocal success—if you consider how few slices of pizza were left over! In all seriousness, the lunchtime lecture boasted one of the best-ever turnouts for the company. Whether that was because five types of pizza were served or because staff desperately wanted to unshroud the mystery of trade shows is up for debate, but according to one unnamed observer (maybe), “the training room was rapt with attention.”

Jokes aside, Steve led a thoroughly interesting presentation about trade shows, explaining their primary purpose as well as fixating on some key trade shows that TC Communications has participated in for years, such as DISTRIBUTECH and IWCE (International Wireless Communications Expo). But first, Steve provided some background on how TC’s marketing team engages customers and leads over email, even customizing messages using Salesforce, while also deploying targeted ads on Google and social media platforms such as LinkedIn.

This background set up an opportunity to introduce the final piece of the customer engagement puzzle: company trade shows. For years, TC Communications has entrusted marketing and sales leaders such as Steve himself and Sales Director, George Spencer, with representing the company at numerous trade shows that occur throughout the year in various cities.

In just two weeks, for example, several members of TC’s marketing and sales teams will head out to Orlando, Florida for DISTRIBUTECH, a sprawling trade show that happens to be the leading annual transmission and distribution event in the nation. Other upcoming trade shows on the slate include IWCE in March and in October, the IPSTA (Illinois Public Safety Telecommunications Association) Conference in Springfield, Illinois, where TC Communications has historically generated strong leads and good business, despite its small size.

What makes for a successful trade show? “The thing that makes it good is the people who go there,” Steve said. “We want to talk to the technical people who use our products.” Even when colorful backpack-toting, clad-in-plaid trade show visitors who are less interested in starting a meaningful business dialogue than in chatting wind up taking up the team’s valuable booth time, Steve says that trade shows are worthwhile for the visibility, opportunity to meet existing customers, and valid business reason they provide to contact potential customers.

Despite some setbacks as the industry slowly backs away from trade shows due to falling attendance post-COVID-19, not to mention the difficulties onsite that can arise from issues related to booth location and size, trade shows remain an important and exciting facet of TC Communication’s marketing methods and will continue to be influential, even as the industry adapts.

At any rate, people liked the pizza! Go Steve (and Trinity)!