TRADE
SHOW HINTS & TIPS
OPTIMIZING TIME WITH YOUR PROSPECTS - CAPTURING LEAD INFORMATION
Preparing the Lead Card, AKA the Customer or Prospect Survey
Is there a "most important moment" at trade shows - a time when a mistake will hurt the most?
Obviously if you do not even exhibit, you will not meet anyone. And if your booth is not designed properly, very few will stop.
But the "rubbber meets the road" moment is the time spent with attendees, because how you handle that determines how effective your follow up can be.
If you do not collect meaningful information about your booth visitors, thinking "if they're interested, they'll get back to us" - you will probably wait a long lonely time for results and hence conclude "trade shows just don't work".
Scoring Your Leads - Better Than Trying to Rely on Memory
As part of your preparation, you should come up with a rating scale to score your leads, and every one in the booth should know and use it consistantly.
Often this is done with a scale of 1 to 5 or, more typically, letter grades and is written, with perhaps a few jotted notes, on the back of business cards.
An "A" is a Hot Lead - they fit the profile of a good prospect; the project is planned; they're actively researching options (and hence at trade show); the time frame is near.
A "B" is a Warm Lead - fitting the profile but with a more intermediate time frame. A "C" is a longer term lead: interest is expressed but there is no definitive timeframe or it's much further out. A "D" is a non-lead.
While this provides a quick way to sort through business cards for the hottest leads, there are two downsides. One is that the process almost always becomes subjective on the floor of the show. The other is that typically only the A leads get used for quick sales, and the other 80% of leads are ignored because not enough information is available to develop them over time.
The Lead Card
A better alternative than simply rating business cards is to develop and use lead cards, sometimes called prospect survey or customer qualification forms.
Lead cards allow you to capture information to drive the qualification process for short term sales, and the longer term nurturing process of marketing.
Now, not only will you convert the hottest leads from your trade shows into sales. You will have enough information on the B and C leads, so that over time you can convert them into sales as well.
Implementing a Lead Tracking Form or System
The first step in designing your Lead Card or Prospect Survey Form is to go back to your objective for the show to determine what is the prospect profile which will match it best. Then define what are the characteristics that set them apart, and the questions which will show if they have been met.
Lead qualification characteristics may include:
* Size of company
* Title of contact
* Users of competitors system or product
* Issues or unmet needs with current implementation or model
* Timeframe for need
* Perception of your company or product/service
* Relationship with competitor
* Do they have decision making or influencing role
* Is a budget set and for how much
The simplest way to implement a Lead Card or Form is simply to create a standardized list of questions on sheets of paper (or a custom pad prepared for the purpose).
Arrange the questions in order, so the first few tell you if the organization itself does not present a good opportunity - in which case you can stop. Otherwise, continue with questions to learn more about the role the contact would have in a sale, and the timeframe and degree of interest.
Set the sheet up so most answers require only a check in a box. Your goal in designing the form is to make sure it gathers enough information to help you qualify your leads, but is clear enough to use on the trade show floor.
Leave space for answers to open ended questions, later in the process, but only if you have enough staff in the booth to handle the time involved.
Will your prospects be impatient about talking to people with clipboards in their hand? Not if they too are looking for a good match, not just a sales pitch.
Computerized Lead Systems
How about those computerized lead retrieval systems? If you can customize the questions you ask, it is comparable. If you cannot, they're probably not worth it. If you do a lot of shows, you may want to purchase your own.
By the way, you always want to gather business cards if you can, even with a computerized system. Not only does that protect you in the case of a system failure, they tend to have more accurate information.
Using the Lead Information
Make sure the information you spent all this time, energy and money on, is captured, kept and used. Follow up on the hot leads and nurture the others.
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