Imagine this: You had an excellent exhibit, with a ton of visitors as well as a wealth of leads.
However following the show, your great effort fizzled into nothing because your hard-earned leads gathered dust on top of someone else’s desk.
Lead management happens to be the least noticeable, yet biggest final component of your display show marketing.
Seek to get not only leads, but qualified leads. This will make make your sales staff value them and follow up.Train your staff to qualify leads at the show based on high, medium, and low qualified levels, and then label them as A, B, or C leads.
Have a lead fulfillment plan prepared prior to a show starts. Don’t place confidence in just a business card from visitors: Have a good lead card or electronic lead retrieval system so you have sufficient space to record details on your booth visitors’ wants and needs. Have one person responsible for lead fulfillment, data entry within your CRM database, and lead transfer to sales.
Build Relationships. Build more frequent touches with leads after the show (via calls, emails, or mailers).Prepare in advance show to be ready to quickly send fulfillment right after the show — even during the show. Incorporate in the procedure the opportunity to customize fulfillment to include exactly what the visitor specifically asked for.
Do more lead follow through! Check in regularly with your sales team to report on lead progress. Look out for the link that is very often broken: What booth visitors disclose to your booth staffer as well as what your booth staffer responds is not passed on to the field sales staff, which causes lack of motivation for lead follow up and frustration with the booth visitor.
So much of excellent lead management starts with proper preparation of your staff. Yet what happens after the show is just as important.