Monday, 14 April 2008
Bigger
Ping had a small 10x10 booth at the RSA Security Conference last week. It's always entertaining to walk the floor and see how much money is spent on corporate puffery. As a practical matter, money spent on a show floor hardly ever makes sense from a dollars per lead analysis. Companies such as us do it only because it is a convenient way to meet face to face a number of customers, prospects and partners who'd otherwise take months to see individually. But, these people seek us out, so it doesn't really matter if we're in the back with a 10x10, or in the front with a 20x20.
Personally, I think it's smarter to have a consistent presence than to pretend to be bigger than you are. I know a number of the companies on the exhibit show floor were spending VC dollars to afford their 20x20 and I just have a hard time relying on a show floor presence being the most efficient way to generate leads. I think the war is won the 360 days you're NOT exhibiting.
That said, we had an amusing little thing happen to us. Someone wandered by our booth and when they saw the Ping logo, they stopped and paused, looking perplexed. When one of our sales team inquired, the gentleman said, "I thought you guys were bigger than that."
At first, I wasn't sure how to take that comment. But I've since decided it's really a compliment in disguise. I'm now decided we should keep our booth to 10x10, no matter how big we get. We'll spend the money we save on great software.
