Lead Management System

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.

“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.

Every trade show you exhibit at seems to have a different trade show lead collection system.  How are you supposed to bring any consistency to the leads if the capabilities of the trade show lead scanner and demographic information you collect at each show is different?  This is a good quesiton and the honest answer is without some extra effort, you can't. 
 

One way to avoid this problem altogether is to buy your own lead collection software system that you can use at all of your shows.  However, these systems are expensive and require an equal amount of effort to maintain and setup at each event. So if you don't have the man power and money to manage one of these systems, or the budget to hire someone to do it for you, then you are left with the only other option: the trade show lead retrieval system.
 

The good news is that it can be done with some preparation and a bit of effort.  Using the custom qualifying option available at most of the shows and assigning one of your staff to follow through with the sales lead distribution and determining which leads sales should look at and which are not worth their time, will greatly increase your trade show ROI.
 

Of course you can hire a vendor like Event Technologies (shameless plug) to manage this process for you for a fraction of what you are spending to exhibit.  If you have the man power, please read our White Paper on how to get a handle on this process.  In addition, continue reading through the blog for other ideas that will improve your trade show sales efforts.

There are 10,000 business to business trade shows [1] held annually in the US and Canada that are tracked by the Center for Exhibition Industry Research (CEIR). The 1,500,000 plus exhibiting companies at these events in 2007 rented over 1.5 million Net Square Feet (NSF) of exhibit space and spent an average of $216 [2] for every attendee with whom they had a face to face conversation in their booth. All of this activity and money, $15 billion in the USA in 2007, generates literally millions of trade show leads, which according to CEIR, upwards of 80% are never followed-up – Ever!
 

A significant percentage of trade show leads never make it from the booth to the sales organization because of trade show lead management issues. If and when they do arrive, sales people complain that either the leads are worthless because they have no qualification info, or they arrive so late that they are too cold to warrant any effort. In either case, they usually end up at the bottom of an already large stack of less than productive opportunities and with that goes all that hard work and money.
 

The reasons for undelivered leads or sales getting worthless or late arriving trade show leads vary by organization and industry but by far and away the major contributor to the problem is the fact that trade show leads are different from those generated by the Internet, direct mail and media advertising and far more difficult to handle. If you think you can simply take trade show leads from the exhibition booth and drop them into your CRM system for distribution to sales reps you are in for a big surprise! Trade show leads are square pegs – they do not easily fit into the round processing holes of your CRM system.
 

First is the data completeness – much of it lacks qualification information. It is commonplace for exhibiting companies to rent badge scanning equipment from the show organizer to read the demographic data contained on the attendee admission badges and record some simple, preprogrammed "qualifiers" such as "SEND INFO" or "ADD ME TO YOUR MAILING LIST" to help with trade show follow up. These trade show scanners usually print a paper record of the badge information on which notes about the attendee’s interests can be hand written. Unfortunately, the information collected is rarely adequate to determine which leads are "sales ready" and in most cases it is not formatted for easy analysis. Exhibitors who choose not to ask to have their rented scanners preprogrammed with customized qualification data or simply collect business cards and write the notes on the back face even larger issues going forward.
 

Second is the time factor – trade show leads age very quickly. Everyone knows that to get the most out of your trade show investment you must get to the "hot" prospects before your competition. Since all of your competitors emerge from a trade show with the same list of leads, the sales organization that can focus on the high priority leads immediately will have the first crack at the high priority opportunities. The sales rep going straight for the A leads will beat the rep working alphabetically every time but the trick is identifying who are the A leads.
 

Third is the data quality – it is not very clean. The lead data coming from a trade show is more complex, contains more errors and is in a different format than any of the other lead data generated by web based, email or direct mail campaigns. Each show employs a different lead retrieval system for collecting and storing lead data.
 

At the end of the show the trade show leads are commonly made available to the exhibitor on USB memory sticks or files downloadable from the show’s website. In addition, show organizers use different schemes and formats for storing the lead data. If a company exhibits at 15 shows annually they have a good chance of seeing a dozen different, yet equally challenging formats and many IT organizations are not staffed or motivated to effectively handle the data. Simply put, there is nothing simple about processing trade show leads.

For exhibiting companies trade shows are classic good news, bad news propositions. The good news is that you have the opportunity to set up a branch office in the middle of hundreds or even thousands of potential customers. The bad news is that your competitors have the same opportunity and the prospects will see them all. When the show is over the race for trade show sales is on and as was once said, "… winning isn't everything, It's the only thing!"[3]

[1] Events with 3,000 net square feet of exhibit space and 10 or more exhibiting companies

[2] Exhibit Surveys Inc. – Annual Trade Show TRENDS 2007

[3] Henry Russell ("Red") Sanders – UCLA Football coach 1956
 

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.

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 a third party exhibitor lead retrieval system. 

There are 4 main arguments against third party lead retrieval systems: compatibility, resources, expense, and improving technology.
 

Compatibility - Third party lead retrieval systems can read most of the badges out there. Most isn’t all. Some companies encrypt their badge so these systems can’t read them. Some have proprietary badges that enable the exhibitor to use their own software as long as they rent the show box. While these shows are not common, they do exist.

Resources - While most of the third party systems are not horribly difficult to setup once you’ve been trained, there still is a setup process. You need to figure out who is providing the trade show scanner at the show (to make sure there are no compatibility issues), obtain a sample badge for setup, import your company logos, and type in your survey questions. While it doesn’t take too long to get the lead retrieval system setup, if you have 40 shows per year finding any free time can be difficult. 

Expense - Trade show software is more expensive than the systems provided onsite. If you exhibit at enough shows it makes sense on the surface, but when you put other costs into the equation you really have to use the system at a lot of shows to make it the same price as the show system. The sample badge I mentioned above normally doesn’t come free; companies normally charge $100-500 for it. The setup time isn’t a cost out of your budget, but your time comes at a price. Another cost is shipping the unit from show to show. When everything is factored in it is difficult to do enough shows to make the cost of these systems comparable to the cost of the trade show scanner offered by show management. 

Technology - The scanners offered by the shows have improved over the years. Using the show system to collect trade show leads is a very good option in some cases. Some companies even offer a lead retrieval software system that has many of the same custom features as the third party systems. Depending on your trade show lead qualification needs, some of the more basic systems can often get the job done as well. 

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

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 for using a third party exhibitor lead retrieval system. 

Third party trade show lead retrieval solutions are software based and normally run on a laptop or a handheld device (they can also run on tablets, kiosks and other PC based computers). They vary in capabilities, but for the most part they enable you to customize a survey with as many questions as you need, put your company or product logos on every screen and customize an export file format. They also can read just about any trade show badge out there. Some systems are available for purchase and some work on yearly license agreements. 

This all adds up to a system that you can use at just about every show, customize for perfect trade show lead qualification and create an export file that will be the same at every show. Having this data opens up a world of opportunities for trade show follow up. You can electronically fulfill information requests immediately, easily upload leads into your CRM with custom tabs for your qualification data and provide reports to management letting them know how the trade show leads were. Because this is a consistent process at every show, implementing a lead management system becomes much easier. No more typing in leads from paper or dealing with different formats from the different boxes you use at every show. 

While the sticker shock for these systems throws off a lot of exhibitors, if you sit down and crunch the numbers it can actually save you money. If you purchase a system it will eventually pay for itself (it’s just a matter of how many shows you do). For the systems you lease on yearly agreements, as long as you exhibit at enough shows it will either be the same price as the trade show lead retrieval system or cheaper. 

Even if you don’t exhibit at enough shows for the cost to be the same as the show system, these lead retrieval systems are also available for rent. While the rental price is normally more expensive than the show system, their capabilities are so far superior it’s worth it. In fact, because they are so different, it really doesn’t make sense to compare the cost of these systems vs. the cost of the show system. The question is: what is it worth to your organization to collect highly qualified trade show leads (vs. just the contact info you get from the show system). Ultimately, if you exhibit to collect trade show leads, you should be willing to pay a premium for your lead retrieval system.

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.

“How do I get my sales people to follow up on the trade show leads?” When I was at Exhibitor 2009 last spring, I heard this question repeatedly. I spoke with frustrated managers who put their heart and soul into trade show lead generation only to have the reps never follow up on the trade show leads. I suggested sitting down with the sales manager and getting down to the root of the problem. 

Usually, the reps will say that the trade show leads are no good. For the most part they are right; industry studies show that only 10-20% of trade show leads are actually ready for a sales call. So if you send out a list of 1,000 names you scanned at the show to the sales force, they will probably make a few calls and write the leads off as garbage. 

To combat this, ask the sales manager exactly what the sales department wants. If they need qualification information, make them define it precisely. If they only want the “hot” leads, ask them to categorize what a hot lead is. You can implement a lead management system that will ensure proper trade show lead qualification, lead rating, and sales lead distribution so the reps only receive the hot leads. This will give the sales reps no excuse for inadequate trade show lead follow up. Additionally, it will ultimately increase your trade show sales as well as your trade show ROI. If you would like to read a more in depth article on how to generate sales ready leads at trade shows, click HERE.

Most trade show managers cringe when they think of their company’s lead management system. It just gets worse when they think about improving it. Unfortunately there is no one way to handle trade show leads. Every company has different products, sales cycles, number of sales reps, CRM system, IT staff, marketing resources...well you get the idea. When faced with improving trade show lead management, forget about how you currently handle the leads. Instead write down the ideal trade show lead management solution. Start by answering these questions:

What information do you need to collect onsite for adequate trade show lead qualification?

Do the reps need to receive every lead, or just the leads ready for a sales call?

How quickly do you need to get the leads to the reps? 

Once you get these questions answered, you can determine what type of trade show lead retrieval system to use onsite. The rest all depends on those variable factors I mentioned earlier (CRM system, number of reps, resources, etc.). However, if you know what you ultimately want to accomplish there are lead management solutions available that can help you figure out how to accomplish your trade show goals. There are many trade show strategies that can vastly improve your trade show sales. If you would like us to evaluate your current lead management process for free, please click HERE.

Another suggestion: It’s ok to improve your process one step at a time. “Fixing” your current system most likely won’t happen overnight, so tweaking your trade show strategy for little improvements is better than sitting back and cringing at the thought of your current system.

Trade show lead generation is the reason most exhibitors go to their shows. Many companies struggle with adequate trade show lead qualification. Some ask too many questions, some too few and some just ask the wrong questions altogether. Proper lead qualification is a very important step in any lead management system. 

Most exhibitor lead retrieval systems offer standard lead qualifiers. These vary from show to show and system to system. The good news is most trade show scanners also offer custom qualifiers. They will give you 10 to 20 customized responses for each lead you collect. It is imperative for marketing and sales to work together on determining the qualifiers. Remember, these are sales leads so obtaining marketing driven responses is not the best trade show strategy here. Unfortunately, the sales department doesn’t always know what they want.

Think of the 10 to 20 custom qualifiers as responses to questions like: What is your timeframe to purchase? How much budget do you have for this project? I recommend starting with a set of BANT “questions” – Budget, Authority, Need and Timeframe. This will give you a good place to begin the conversation and you can brainstorm with sales from there.  If you can implement a good trade show lead qualification process, you will be able to apply lead scoring, lead rating, improve sales lead distribution and ultimately increase trade show sales. For additional trade show advice, 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.