Focus Your Resources

by: Fred Tremblay

I have seen a number of discussion groups and blogs lately centered on the topics of lead retrieval and follow-up. When the subject includes lead retrieval I immediately assume the audience is trade show managers. Trade show managers execute the lead collection (by ordering the lead scanner), but this is where their responsibility typically stops. They are usually not missioned with lead follow-up. In most organizations marketing and sales have this responsibility and there are a number of reasons why it does not get done in a timely manner including the following:

• Trade shows don’t happen every day so the required systems and procedures are not always in place or get “rusty”
• Sales reps don’t want to leave their pipeline of qualified leads to cold call into a bunch of unqualified contacts
• The data from each show is different and not everyone is equipped to handle the various formats

One solution is to establish a separate response function to address the leads immediately after the show rather than dumping them on the marketing department. I have interviewed a number of successful marketing executives who agree that trade show leads seem to get lost when merged in with other leads.

To get the most out of your trade show investment you must get to the “hot” prospects before your competitors, who all emerge from the event with the same list of leads. Being first requires an exhibitor to collect consistent qualification data to use with a prioritization methodology or rating system that points their follow-up efforts to the high priority leads. Without a rating on every lead, they all look the same.

Trade show follow-up probably should include an email, a personal validation call, and a direct mail piece to the high priority leads before ever sending them to sales. Contacting your leads with more than one method can increase the effectiveness of your trade show follow up and help insure that when the sales force is engaged they are focused on converting prospects to customers rather than cold calling into another list of names.