My team perform both customer appreciation and research work at events at which we exhibit; they set associated targets and measure them. These are two ways they prove the value of exhibiting. And the business thanks them for it.

Thanks for your comment, Traci, and your perceptive questions. I have a theory to explain why the bosses of exhibit marketers don’t understand these three points:

People are imperfect.
Management is made up of people.
Do the math.

Seriously though, looking at each point:

1. The Value of Trade Shows: Bosses may not fully understand their value because they are too focused on getting immediate results and can’t wait for their lengthy b2b sales cycle to play out, they may be hypnotized by the bright shiny object of electronic marketing, or as you say they don’t measure where their sales come from and so they default to cost per lead (often expensive for trade shows) versus cost per face-to-face contact or even ROI.
2. How To Exhibit Better At Trade Shows: A coach I know once said “Practice doesn’t make perfect, practice makes permanent.” It’s all too possible to have a boss that wants to keep doing trade shows the way they’ve always done it, rather than try new things, or heaven forbid, actually make changes based on measurement and feedback.
3. How Much Effort It Really Takes To Do Trade Shows: In today’s “streamlined” marketing departments, it seems like everyone is now doing the job that two or three people used to do. Exhibit marketers may be too scared to speak up about their workload, knowing there are plenty of unemployed marketing folk out there willing to shoulder their burden. And the job itself includes so many little details to touch that individually look simple, but add up to a tidal wave of organization and double-checking stress. Bosses may just not believe it’s that hard.

Certainly exhibit marketers can help themselves by better communicating the overall value of trade shows, the need to experiment to improve, and what the breadth of activities they are doing to market their company at trade shows. Even better, demonstrate how their activities are directly growing sales, enhancing their brand, and reducing costs, or else their boss will stop listening.