Lead Management Program

1. Set up a meeting with sales management. 
2. Ask them "What is the definition of a "sales ready" trade show lead?"
3. Create questions that you can record in the booth to qualify attendees.
4. Go back to sales and get their buy in.
5. Tell sales that they will only be receiving qualified leads from the trade shows.
6. Train your booth staff to ask these questions in the booth.
7. Train your booth staff to avoid SELLING in the booth.
8. Create a simple lead management system to collect this info and deliver it to sales.

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.

Do you use an Internet connection at your trade shows?  If you are paying more than $299, then EventConnect can save you money.  Typically the internet connection that you can rent for a trade show costs between $1000 and $3000.  Event Technologies has put together a package that allows our customers to use the Verizon Broadband Wireless Network to provide internet access in your trade show booth.  This service was originally created to help our customers with their trade show lead retrieval and lead management programs, but is now available for use on it's own.  Most trade show strategies these days are focused around saving money, and here is a product that can save you thousands of dollars. 
The two most asked questions we have heard since releasing this product are:

(1) How is this different than plugging a Verizon or Sprint Modem into my computer?
The Answer: Our system allows you to network (wireless or wired) four (4) computers in your booth.  In addition, we include a Wilson Electronics antenna that improves your signal strength and the speed of the service.

(2) Are we allowed to use a service for internet access that is not provided by the trade show.

The Answer: Yes.  100%.  The show can't stop you from accessing the internet on your phone, or with a wireless modem on your computer, and this is no different.  Here is one of the many laws that guarantee that you can not be told how to access the internet at your trade shows: Telecommunications Act of 1996: 

The Telecommunications Act of 1996 explicitly prohibits telecommunications carriers from entering into exclusive contracts with commercial building owners or their agents for the provision of interstate telephony and internet services. The FCC ruling explains that exclusive contracts prove detrimental to the consumer, provide an unfair monopoly to the telecommunications carrier, and stifle innovation and choice with respect to communications technologies and providers. Additionally, the Act grants tenants in multiple tenant environments (including temporary leaseholders) the ability to place antennas one meter or less in diameter used to receive or transmit any fixed wireless service.

Additionally, nobody is allowed to block the cell signal at the exhibit hall because it is illegal and punishable by up to a year in prison and/or an $11,000 fine.  Additionally, can you imagine how angry attendees and exhibitors would be if their cell coverage was interfered with.  And lastly, it would be extremely irresponsible of the trade show management to interfere with potential 9-1-1 calls that may need to be placed during the show.
For more information, or to place an order click here.

I talk to a lot of marketing people that are trying to figure out how much money their tradeshows are actually bringing in. A trade show manager that I spoke with the other day, was tasked with figuring out her companies trade shows’ Return on Investment (ROI). If she sent us the leads from her show, could we give her a number? She wanted a “Yes or No” answer. Unfortunately, it is not that simple. It is a tough number to calculate when you’re talking about trade shows, especially if you have a long sales cycle.
 

The obvious idea is to set up a lead management program that will reference the accounting database and match that against the leads that were collected at the trade shows. Before you run off to your accounting department, let’s think about how effective this reporting will be. What if your sales cycle is 6 months to 2 years, which is often the case. Analysis of the trade show leads may not be complete until 2 years after the event. Along the way, you will be generating a running tally that makes your show lead management look ineffective. And when you finally collect all the trade show sales data, 2 years later, is this information useful?
 

A different, more immediate, way of reporting on your shows is available if you are accurately qualifying your leads, and generating a lead rating for each lead. Immediately after the show, you should know the quality, or lead rating of each lead collected. Based on this lead scoring, you will know which leads should turn into trade show sales, that is, if the sales reps do their job with the trade show follow up. 
 

The next step after the trade show lead capture and lead rating, is to assign a percentage to each group of leads based on the chance a deal will close. This number doesn’t have to be perfect, just an educated guess (you can fine tune this as you go). If you know a deal will close, assign it 100%, hot leads may be 75%, warm leads 30%, and cold 0%. Then you take the average size of a deal for your company (in dollars), and multiply it with these percentages and the number of leads for each rating group. This will allow you to generate an estimated dollar figure that will tell you how effective your trade show sales effort was.  
 

This will take some effort, but it will be worth it the next time you have a meeting to talk about budget. Not to mention that you will have the info needed to focus the attention back onto sales if management is asking what happened with the tradeshow leads, because at the very least, you will have a list of tradeshow leads that should have turned into sales.

“So how many leads did we get?” This is normally the first question everyone asks when gauging the success of a trade show. Unfortunately, if you are looking to increase trade show sales this is the wrong question. The question should be, “how many good leads did we get?”  

If you are giving away a trip to Hawaii, you will collect a ton of trade show leads. But how many of your 1,000 leads are interested in your company vs. interested in going to Hawaii? Unless you have a good trade show lead qualification process, you may never know.  

Regardless of your promotion (or lack thereof), it is imperative to qualify the leads onsite. There are a few different ways to accomplish this. One way is using the show provided exhibitor lead retrieval system. Most of the systems out there offer 20 custom qualifiers. For some companies, this is more than enough to determine which leads are good and which are looking for a freebie. If your needs are more robust, you can use third party trade show lead retrieval software. There are a few third party companies out there.  Most of them are very reliable and offer just about everything you could want to qualify leads. 

Once you qualify the leads you can implement a lead scoring system for lead rating and implement a good trade show lead management program. Then you can answer the more important question of how many good leads you collected at the show.  For more advice on how to better manage trade show leads, take a look at this article HERE.

We get a lot of calls from people asking if we have a replacement for the lead retrieval scanner they rent at the shows.  Usually the goal is to reduce the cost of this rental at every show.  I definitely understand this because $350 is a hefty charge for 3 to 5 day rental of a simple electronic device.  Unfortunately, there is no direct replacement for the lead retrieval box that will work at every show.  
Obviously you can find software products that can read all the trade show badges, but that is going to be a little more expensive than $350 per trade show.   More like $1000 per show to rent a lead retrieval software system that is customized and managed by a company like ours, or between $2500 and $8500 to buy one and manage it yourself. 
So what can you do if you want to get better leads for your sales people and don't want to spend thousands improving the system.  There is no easy answer to this question.  Without an internal or external person to drive the trade show lead capture and follow-up process, you are not going to get the results that you want.  
However, one idea is to use the show's rental lead collection box and program it with a BANT lead form.  BANT stands for Budget, Authority, Need, and Timeline.  With the right knowledge (which can be found on this blog), you can parse this answers into a lead form on the back end.  For example, if you qualified a prospect with "Has Budget", "Decision Maker", "Have a sales rep call", and "1 Month", you can fill in the questions. 
Now that you have the questions and answers, you can assign a lead rating system (info can also be found in this blog), and then deliver only the "sales ready" leads to your sales people.  And if you are thinking, "it doesn't matter because sales doesn't follow-up anyways" then you need to get them involved.  Ask them what they want, and deliver it to them. 
That said, in my opinion, there is not enough importance put on the lead collection/qualification and processing of the leads after the trade show.  At a trade show where a company might spend 20K or more with the goal of collecting some sales ready leads, why is $350 too much when it is the only direct expenditure associated with the show that is helping to collect and qualify the trade show leads.

I was recently reminded that there is a "secret" to a successful trade show lead management program.  Last week, one of our customers exhibited at the ASHP 2009 show in Las Vegas.  At this show, they had a huge booth, and typically collect between 300 and 400 leads.  They are a multinational corporation, and just like every other exhibitor, they expect to collect a certain number of hot trade show leads, and to have those leads turn into sales after the event.

Dealing with the large amount of data that was generated at this show reminded me how such a simple goal can be very difficult to execute.  As you can read about in the other blog entries, we have strategies for trade show lead collection and trade show lead management, so I won't go into that here.  What I will say, (here is the secret) is that without someone to push the leads through the process after the show, you are not going to get the results you expect.

Most companies that we talk to have trouble with all facets of the trade show lead generation and management process, and this is mainly due to a lack of planning and follow through.  Bottomline is that if nobody is put in charge of this process, then the leads are not going to turn into sales on their own.

When talking about trade show lead capture, exhibitors have two viable options: the trade show scanner offered by the show or third party trade show software. Let’s explore the argument against using the show provided system. 

While the trade show lead retrieval system provided at the show is the most commonly used trade show lead capture device, it has some drawbacks. The main drawbacks are customizability, scalability, and appearance. 

Customizability - The main argument against the trade show scanner is the limited custom features. Most offer 20 qualifiers, which is good, but what if you need more than that? Some of my clients have 20 products they want to record. That leaves no room for the real important qualifying info (budget, authority, need and time frame) for your trade show leads. Plus, sometimes you run into a system where they offer no qualifiers.  Trade show lead qualification is very important, and these systems can’t adequately meet many exhibitors’ needs. 

Scalability - If you exhibit at 15 shows per year, you could see 15 different lead retrieval systems with different qualification capabilities. Another issue is with each system you will receive your leads in a different file format.  This makes it very difficult to implement a solid and consistent lead management program. 

Appearance - When you have put a ton of work and resources into making your booth look perfect, the last thing you want to do is put a big ugly gray box on top of your counter. While some of the systems are small, you are ultimately at the mercy of the trade show scanner supplier. 

When you combine the limited custom features, scalability, and appearance of the show provided systems, you may want to look elsewhere for your trade show lead generation needs.  There are many different third party lead retrieval systems that have unlimited customizability and provide you a clean looking, consistent way to collect trade show leads. 

If you would like a free consultation to help you determine the best system for you, please click HERE.

Post Show

After the show there are a number of different trade show lead management responsibilities. Here are some facets of a good lead management program and who takes care of each task.
 

Lead Cleanup – Depending on the trade show lead retrieval system used, there may be duplicates, bad swipes and just bad information in your lead file. Traditionally, the marketing department takes care of cleaning up the lead file before sending it off to sales

Lead Rating - Some companies implement a lead scoring system for proper lead rating. In this scenario, the sales department has to acutely define the different levels of rating and make sure they are in line with what is collected onsite. This technical process is usually outsourced to lead management solution experts, but can be taken care of internally by either the sales or marketing department. 

Sales Lead Distribution – Delivering the leads to the appropriate sales rep in a timely manner is vital to any lead management system. The sales lead distribution process really depends on internal systems in place and corporate structure. However, the sales lead distribution process is normally taken care of by either the sales or IT department.
 

All in all, the trade show lead generation and management process is not as simple as it seems. However, with thorough planning and preparation, you can implement a good lead management solution. If you don’t know quite where to start, we would be happy to give you a free consultation of your current process to give you some pointers.  For more information, please click HERE.

Every exhibitor has different goals for their trade show program. One common thread with almost every exhibitor is collecting qualified trade show leads.

I have a lot of managers as me where certain responsibilities should lie regarding trade show lead generation and management. When thinking about trade show leads, the responsibilities of marketing and sales seem fairly cut and dried. Marketing manages the show so they’re in charge of trade show lead capture and the sales department is in charge of the selling, so they take the leads after the show and handle trade show lead follow up. 

Unfortunately there are a number of details that fall somewhere in between departments that are imperative to a successful trade show strategy and increasing trade show ROI. This is the introduction to a series on the responsibilities of marketing and sales during pre-show planning, onsite execution and post trade show follow up in regards to trade show leads. 

To go to Part 2 (pre-show responsibilities), please click HERE.

The cheapest and easiest trade show lead follow up method is sending a post show email. After successful trade show lead qualification with your preferred lead retrieval system it is fairly simple to put together a customized email for your trade show leads. The easiest way to do this is by using the mail merge feature available in Microsoft Word, a basic email program, or a web service. This will enable you to send a personalized message to each attendee. The message can be a simple thank you with a link to your website and corporate contact information. 

There are a number of more advanced trade show strategies that can help the sales process. If you use a trade show scanner with custom qualifiers or trade show lead retrieval software, you can implement a lead rating program. This will enable you to send a different email message to the A, B, and C leads. You can also send links to specific brochures requested onsite if you record that information during onsite trade show lead qualification.

There are email services out there that can track who opens the email, who clicks on which link, who wants to be removed from your list, and much more. When implemented across a few shows, using an email service can be a powerful lead management solution (notifying a sales rep that a prospect has opened your email 5 times is VERY helpful information). While the marketing department is a great resource to put together the correct email message, if you are short staffed you may want to hire an outside firm to write the email message for you. To implement some of the more advanced trade show lead follow up techniques, you may also want to talk to lead management consultants about a customized lead management program.  For additional trade show advice, click HERE.

If you own or consistently rent a third party lead retrieval system you have probably come across an encrypted badge. Many exhibitors use lead retrieval software to ensure proper trade show lead qualification as a part of their trade show lead management program. Since you have made such a large investment in implementing your lead management system, don’t sit back and let the show encrypt the badge on you. 

The bottom line here is the show organization chooses who the trade show scanner vendor is. It is the show organizer’s responsibility to ensure that you, their client, are happy. Much of the time show management isn’t aware that their badge is encrypted, so I recommend starting at the top. Call the manager of the show and express your displeasure with the decision to encrypt the badge. Ultimately, you have a system in place that works for you and the lead retrieval system vendor is making it impossible for you to accomplish your goals at the show. You are outraged that the organization is putting one of their vendor’s needs in front of yours.

Depending on your presence at the show, you may want to involve other exhibitors. If you don’t know who else uses trade show lead capture software, contact your trade show software vendor and they will be happy to help you (this is something they deal with constantly and are willing to fight for). This is a winnable battle if you start early enough. I’ve actually taken part in a number of successful campaigns where show management removed the badge encryption.       

 
Lead rating is a key component to trade show lead management.   We’ve found that when companies just scan leads and send them out, the sales department loses faith in the leads and they stop following up on them. One way to combat this is lead rating. Rating the leads effectively separates the good leads from the bad. When done properly, rating leads can increase the efficiency of your post show sales efforts by 70%. 

In order to implement a successful lead rating program, you first need a good trade show lead qualification process.  A good place to start with trade show lead qualification is using BANT criteria (Budget, Authority, Need and Timeframe). When writing your qualifiers, it is important to involve both sales and marketing. Getting a clear definition of a hot vs. cold lead from sales is ultimately how you will rate the leads. 

Once you have the qualifiers set, you can use a trade show strategy called lead scoring. Lead scoring involves assigning a numerical value to each qualification response.   For example a “Contact Immediately” response might be worth 100 points while a “Contact in 6 Months” response could be worth 25 points. Once you have assigned a value to every response, it is time to create some mock leads to see if your lead rating system generates an accurate lead rating. To do this, you add up the total numerical value of all responses for each lead. Wherever the point total falls within a certain predefined range will determine the rating of the lead (for example Cold < 149 points, Warm 150-299 points, and Sales Ready > 300 points).

This can be a confusing process, but there is help out there. You can use lead scoring software, a home grown lead management process or a full service lead management solution. Lead management system companies can help you implement anything from a simple lead management solution to the most complex trade show lead generation and management system. The good news is that whatever steps you take to improve your trade show lead management program will help increase your trade show ROI. For additional useful trade show tips, click HERE.