The Sales Reps Don't Follow Up on the Trade Show Leads

Marketing says that the sales reps don't follow-up on the trade show leads. The sales reps say that the leads from the trade shows are unqualified, and their time is better spent on the leads they get from other sources. Probably, both marketing and sales are right.

I think we can all agree that trade show leads are valuable. At any trade show, a certain percentage of the leads collected are "Sales Ready". Unfortunately, most exhibitors never take the time to figure what their sales people think is a "hot" lead. Most exhibitors assume that since the sales people are in the booth, they will qualify the leads. In the booth, this does not usually happen. Sales people do what they do best, SELL. When the badge is swiped, there is often little or no qualifying information collected.

After the show is over, these unqualified leads are handed off to the sales reps who see them as a waste of time. Some companies actually dump all these leads into the "Sales Database" and then complain when these leads don't turn into sales.

A growing trend for corporate marketing is to employ advanced lead management systems to implement a nurturing program for the leads that are not sales ready. Trade show leads that are "hot" can be sent directly to sales, but the other 70% to 90% of the leads should be emailed the monthly newsletter, invited to webinars, and informed of your new capabilities until they declare themselves to be ready to buy. If you take the time to develop this nurturing program, you will find that the leads you hand to sales will be much more appreciated than the list of names that is exported out of the show scanner.