When Virtual Does Not Yet Fare Well as Face-to-Face for B2B Sales

As parts of the world gradually attempt to emerge from the Covid pandemic, business-to-business and business-to-consumer operating practices are in flux. Face-to-face business meetings disappeared, replaced by video conferencing and other tools. Industry exhibitions and trade shows were virtually impossible for much of the past 18 months. 

As we recover, there remains much belief that virtual formats will remain more important than in the past. So what do we know, at this point, about what works--and seems not to work--for virtual events?

So far, the consensus of business-to-business trade show professionals is that some aspects of the face-to-face experience do not translate well to virtual formats. 

“Virtual exhibit booths do not work for some events,” says a report by the Center for Exhibition Industry Research (CEIR), which surveyed 346 executives globally who are responsible for putting on business-to-business trade shows. 

The survey reports “exhibitors are complaining of inadequate ROI,” including lead generation, for example. 

Also, “motivating attendees to opt-in to engaging with exhibitors has been problematic,” the survey finds. Similar problems appear in the area of engagement. 

“Engagement and networking in the virtual space is difficult,” the study says. “Keeping attendees engaged for extended periods of time is challenging as is getting them to log back in.”

“There is some pushback on the part of attendees to engage via video; this makes networking and engagement with exhibitors challenging,” the study says. 

Event organizers have found that virtual event sales cycles are longer.