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Trade Show Leads
What to do with all the leads you get from
events
Somewhere, some time, you will
get yourself a handful of leads. It may be from
a networking event, a seminar, a conference, or
the mother load of all lead gathering events, a
trade show. Regardless of their origin, there
are a few things you can do to help manage these
leads to use them to your best advantage.
Now, each source of leads usually comes with its
own set of rules. If you get them from a
networking event, they will have a different
level of quality and qualification than those
that come from, say, a seminar or conference you
attended. Hence your handling of these leads as
well as your follow up will vary. Trade shows
have their own sets of rules since there is a
large amount of pre-show work you should do in
order to collect the largest amount of qualified
leads you can. Notice I said qualified leads.
That’s the number one goal of having a booth at
a trade show. You can’t just hand out yo-yo’s
and collect hundreds of business cards or lead
forms from people who only stopped by your booth
to get their free gift. That’s the difference
between a qualified lead (someone who shows
genuine interest in what you are displaying) and
a visitor (someone who just wants the toys you
are handing out, or is just curious).
I’m not going to go through what to do to
optimize your trade show experience in this
article. I am going to talk about what to do
with all the leads you get from participating in
a trade show. I am assuming you already read
articles and books on how to prepare for a trade
show and did the countless hours of research to
ensure you get a ton of worthwhile leads. Hence,
getting qualified leads is assumed. Now we need
to discuss what to do with those leads.
Obviously, going through the hard work and
spending time and resources to acquire leads
only to have them sit in a pile on someone’s
desk collecting dust is a huge waste of time and
money. Don’t laugh – I see this happen very
frequently.
I know someone who spent a few thousand dollars
to have a booth at a local chamber of commerce
expo to show off their new business – waterless
grass systems and artificial putting greens for
residential usage. He collected several (many)
dozen leads of which numerous amounts were from
extremely interested visitors. Unfortunately,
when they got back to the office and unpacked
everything the next day, they realized that they
had lost all their leads. What a waste. Leads
should be treated like gold! I will assume that
you will figure out how to get quality,
qualified leads and that you won’t lose them.
Here then are eight tips on what to do with all
those good leads you get from your next trade
show.
1. The most important thing to do, in my
opinion, is consider timing. The sooner you
follow up on a lead you obtained from a trade
show or similar event, the better. Leads from
these sources age faster than a cheap wine.
People will actually forget that they visited
your booth at all, let alone what it was you
were discussing for 45 minutes. When I go to
trade shows as an attendee, I always throw my
business card in as many fishbowls as I can. Not
because I really expect to win a trip or gift
basket. But I like to see which companies
actually follow up with me. In nearly all cases,
less than 10% of companies ever contact me after
a show, ever! Follow up quickly and with
everyone. If you can call them the day they
return home from the show, then do it. If you
said you’ll mail them information after the show
(which is always better than handing out
literature at the show since it almost always
ends up in the trash), then overnight it as soon
as you get back, if not sooner. If you have
fellow employees back at the office while you’re
at the show, set it up so that when you call
them during the show with someone’s address,
they’ll overnight the information so the
interested parties will have it as soon as they
return to work or home.
2. Pick out the higher probability and
most qualified leads and follow up with them
first. Although one never knows where a lead can
take you, or when, you should really follow up
on all of them. But prioritize them so you
manage the hot ones first.
3. Call once per week till you reach
them. Don’t give up too soon and don’t call too
frequently (i.e., every day) or else you will be
a nuisance. These days it takes from six to
seven attempts to get through to someone in
business. On average, a typical sales person
gives up after two or three. Be patient and
persistent.
4. Mix up the methods you use to contact
them; including phone, fax, email and mail.
People respond to contacts differently. There’s
a better chance that you will reach them, and
get a response, by using various media. Phone
and email are usually the best since they are
more real-time. I frequently rotate. I’ll call
the first, and maybe second, time. Then I’ll
send an email a week later. Then I’ll call again
a week after that. And so on. You’d be surprised
how many times I get a response from the emails
more than returned calls. And they are
frequently very positive and productive.
5. Organize your business cards (or lead
forms) by category. You decide how to categorize
them since it will vary by business, industry,
product interest, and/or your process. Then
follow up using various ways and with different
messages depending on the category. Track your
success and failure with each method so you can
do more of what works and less of what doesn’t.
6. Attach the business cards you collect
(or lead forms) to 5x7 cards so they stand out
more and you have room for notes, dates,
appointments, etc. Manually organize these cards
by putting them within the pages of your
calendar (Daytimer-type book) so you know when
to follow up with them. Write notes on the back
of each card with your conversations, meetings,
follow-ups, etc. This method is good for a low
volume of leads, but can become overwhelming and
a lot of work if the lists and/or follow up
activities get too large.
7. For larger lists and activities, use
automation. A PC with a simple and good contact
manager (e.g., GoldMine) can save you enormous
amounts of time. Plus, you will be able to
simply follow up or do email campaigns, letters,
etc without the burden or administrative
overhead of doing this manually. Thus, you will
be able to do more with less effort. And doing
more means more contacts and follow ups with
your prospects. If you are part of a larger
organization that has a marketing department
that handles leads using automation, make sure
you are part of the database network so you can
share this valuable information to do your
follow ups and track your progress.
8. Have a process and strategy before you
begin. Whenever you get a lead, whether it is
one from an incoming phone call or a stack of
business cards from a trade show, you have to
have a consistent and well thought out plan of
what you will do with them (i.e., call first,
then send email, then fax, then send your
newsletter, etc.). You should do this process
each and every time for consistency. If you know
your process works, because it was developed
from processes you’ve done before that are
proven to work, then doing them for every lead
you get will increase your probability of
getting to the next step (i.e., a meeting to
learn more about your prospect’s needs and to
discuss your product/service in more detail). If
you don’t have a process or don’t know if the
one(s) you use work, then start experimenting
with different methods and techniques, measure
their results, and refine and replicate the ones
that work the best.
Successfully managing the leads you get from
events takes commitment and time. If you’re not
prepared to spend the time needed to handle
these leads properly, then why participate in an
event to begin with? Treat these leads like gold
and you’ll increase your sales results.
Good
luck and good selling!
Russ Lombardo
PEAK
Sales Consulting, LLC
russ@peaksalesconsulting.com
(702)
655-5652
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