1. The sprint to get your leads fulfilled in the minutes, hours, and days after the show, and
2. The marathon to keep following up your leads for the weeks, months, and even years after the show.

Let’s look what you need to do to win both the sprint and the marathon.

1.  The Sprint of Trade Show Lead Fulfillment

To win the sprint, quickly send out your fulfillment packets, and get the lead information into the hands of the right sales person.  Here’s how:

Get Lead Fulfillment Packets Out Fast (But Not Too Fast)

You can speed up the delivery of your lead fulfillment packets in these 6 ways:

1. Have your fulfillment packet planned and ready before the show starts.  That includes a written cover letter, and enough printed brochures (especially for new products launched at the show), envelopes and postage on hand for the anticipated lead count.
2. Pre-assign one or more people to transfer the lead information quickly into a computerized contact management system.  How you do this depends on how you record leads at the show.  If you just gather business cards, you need to either type or scan them into your database.  Same thing if you use lead cards, although you should then have more qualifying data that takes more time to type.
3. If you use an electronic lead retrieval from the show, after the show you should get a data file that you can import into your CRM database to speed up data entry.
4. Hire a temp if it’s just you and you won’t have time to type all the leads yourself – it’s so worth it!
5. If you are using lead cards or gathering business cards (most exhibitors don’t data-enter their leads at the show), bring pre-addressed overnight packages (one for each show day) and send back the day’s leads to the person who will type them in.
6. Really want to go faster?  Email your fulfillment letter right from your trade show display, and attach pdf files of the product literature with it.  But that may be too fast, as your prospect is likely letting emails pile up while at the show, and will be going back to a big pile of snail mail right after the show.  You may be better off timing your fulfillment packet to arrive about half a week after the show has ended.  But you can still send thank you emails right from the show, to demonstrate your speed of service.

Motivate Your Field Sales With Complete Leads

However, fast lead fulfillment will be wasted if you just toss the leads over the transom.  You’re not just providing a name and address; you’re sharing a story.  Give the details that help sales people to be motivated and equipped to follow up.

Let your sales people know which show you took the lead at, when and where the show was, and what your company was showing.  Also provide the lead quality level, which products they showed interest in, and how interested they were.  Include any comments attendees made, about their pains, their needs, their preferences, and their buying plans.  Let your sales people know what promises the booth staffer made (literature to send, discounts offered, a meeting request) – and if you’ve already fulfilled the promises, or if it’s up to the sales person.

Why the extra effort?  To show respect to the trade show lead – you’ll honor your promises to them, and they won’t have to repeat themselves again.  Plus, after meeting around 20 other exhibitors at the show, they may not even remember what they said to you.  Most of all, the complete story will entice your field sales to make repeated follow up calls – much more than just a name and phone number will.

2.  The Marathon of Trade Show Lead Follow-Up

Now that your prospect has received their fulfillment packets, and the sales people have the leads, it’s time to pace yourself for the ensuing marathon.

Keep In Touch With Prospects…And Their Assigned Sales People

Lead follow-up depends on organization and a good team.  Try these 3 ideas:

1. Schedule sales follow up based on lead quality. At the show, rank your leads according to A/B/C quality, and then after the show you can stagger your personal follow up by the level of lead quality.  Your sales people should first follow up on “A” leads right after the show, and keep trying to reach them until they’ve been able to set a date for a follow-up meeting, presentation, or price quote.  When the initial blitz of “A” leads is done, then follow up on “B” leads, although not as frequently.  And when you’ve called all the “B” leads and set them in motion, then it’s time to call on the “C” leads.
2. But not all follow up happens with a sales person on the phone.  Integrate your trade show leads into your ongoing marketing communications campaigns, be it newsletters, seminars, open houses, direct mail drops, and more.  Better yet, add them to a drip campaign that sends customized messages based on what you learned about them at the show, such as their industry, company size, or specific needs.
3. Schedule dates on your calendar to regularly check in with field sales on the progress of leads.  Have they been developing deeper relationships with the prospects you met at the show?  Ask them which leads they had meetings with, sent proposals and price quotes, or made sales to.  And if they bought, what did they buy, and how much did they spend?  With complete data like this, you can then calculate your trade show ROI (Return on Investment).  Want those meetings to mean more?  Invite the highest-level person you can to attend these meetings, someone who understands the potential value of trade shows – if the leads are followed up.  If you are really fortunate, you’ll have a sales manager who is tracking this every day, ensuring that the sales force is in regular personal contact with your trade show leads.

Trade show lead follow-up is more difficult than preparing for a trade show, because there is no deadline like the show date to keep everyone focused.  But if you approach follow-up with the mindset that it’s both a short and long-distance race, you’ll have a better chance of winning more business from your trade show leads.

Having a follow through plan for your events is key to making that event a success.  Business cards and electronic scanners make information gathering easier than it’s ever been before.  Many attendees still opt to hand out business cards.  Why not capitalize on this as an exhibitor, knowing that your competitors are apparently not following up either?

Lead tracking and lead follow up are essential when it comes to a successful trade show and therefore successful lead tracking – all begins with a good plan and can be much easier to maintain with online event management.    It’s critical to have a follow-up plan laid out before each show, to direct at-show and immediately following the trade show.

Even if you took care during the show to qualify leads as “A” leads (hot – ready to buy), “B” leads (expresses a future buying interest) and “C” leads (poor prospects, like students or spouses), a little post-show re qualification could be well worth your while.  Tracking is easy with online trade show management, we have a team of experts on board that can walk you through the setup and help answer your questions when it comes to trade show program.

Lack of Follow Up……

Don’t let your marketing plan fall short when it comes to follow up of trade show leads.  Appealing to trade show audiences and interacting with the trade show attendees is how the doors open for your lead generation.  Competition on the trade show floor has increased and trade show attendees have become more focused when they hit the exhibit hall.

Getting to know your prospects and the concerns they have within the market place will help in your follow up process.  Creating a set of basic questions to put in front of your prospects can help you gain the knowledge of their needs, allowing for a better follow up system after the trade show ends.

Plan for follow up and create a time line before the show even begins, prepare a few hand written thank you notes at the end of the day with a personalized message to your prospects, covering a few pointers on how your product and services can best benefit them.  Many attendee’s will be overwhelmed by the amount of email in their inbox up on the return from the trade show, your personalized note can grab their attention and keep your companies message in front of them, it’s a tangible item, your message and your brand – right there in front of them.

The longer you allow your leads to sit in the follow up cracks, the more likely your competition is to sweep them out.