Here’s a great article from USA Today about managing leads after a trade show. I love this tip and will definitely implement it at our next show:
Start tracking contacts and leads as you get them. For every trade show, we bring a separate bound notebook stapler, and pens. We staple cards into the book as we meet contacts, making notes about who they are and why we should follow up. We NEVER let that notebook out of our sight; it’s like gold. You can also create “lead cards” or keep a computer in your booth.
To her point, managing as much as the information flowing as possible on-site will save you hassle after the show – a time when you really need to nap. Also, take advantage of lead retrieval technology if the show management offers it. It’s affordable and a great net to catch additional information about the people who have stopped by.
What do you do with leads once you generate them?
Excellent. It is often the cause of failure in what would otherwise be effective trade show campaigns. The common-sense answer is easier said than done: Have your best employees respond to them quickly and consistently to qualify them into prospects.
Our research shows that the average salesperson only makes four to five attempts to contact them the first week. This means only 55% of a company’s leads will actually get contacted.
There are solutions available that trigger tasks and callbacks frequently and immediately after they are entered into the datatabase. They will continue to make twenty or more attempts at different times of the day and different days of the week to boost contact rates above 85%. Also, these solutions can automatically market to these leads and continue to generate prospects every 3-4 weeks for 2 years or more.
Speed is critical. We are finding that most leads sit somewhere between forty-eight and seventy-two hours before the salesperson actually attempts the first live contact. Much of the slowdown in routing leads is because there isn’t a pre-defined process to decide which salesperson get’s to work the lead. Many sales managers still dole out leads by hand after taking time deciding who is best suited to work each of the leads.
Bottome line: Acquire a system that also allows the salespeople to immediately and frequently respond to leads and turn them into prospects can boost net results by 20 to 200%.