You’ve probably heard that the average person swallows eight spiders per year in their sleep. What you may not know about that “fact” is that it is completely false; made up in a 1993 PC Professional article about how people will believe anything that comes across the internet.

You may also have heard the statistic that 80 percent of the leads generated at trade shows never receive any substantial follow-up. Well, it appears that this one is off the mark as well. According to an Exhibitor Online article, four out of 10 companies have reversed that stat and are reaching out to 80 percent of their leads.

This makes sense, since 93 percent of companies say the top exhibiting objective is lead generation, according to the Center for Exhibition Industry Research (CEIR). But are they managing those leads to the best of their abilities?

Collecting leads and following-up after the event is one of the most essential ways to prove trade show ROI and measure success. Yet, many companies are still using paper forms and sending generic, post-event email blasts. Even worse, trade show staff often engages with prospects and then doesn’t take detailed notes about the conversation. So a salesperson unwittingly walks into an ambush of inflated promises and unfulfilled expectations.

It’s not 2014 anymore, which means if you are still using antiquated paper forms, it’s time to automate your organization’s lead management. Moving from paper forms to some type of lead management software has been shown to help companies improve the number of qualified leads they pass to the sales team and increase revenue by 10 percent or more.

Lead management software automates the process of capturing, tracking, and qualifying leads, while helping to ensure that they can be easily passed to the sales team.

Let’s take a look at some habits of successful lead management and how software can further advance those efforts. The software example we’re using for this article is our new lead management partner, VivoLead. The VivoLead system consists of a mobile app to make client registration simple and easy and an integrated web interface where all trade show leads are automatically synchronized.

Lead Follow Up

The early bird gets the worm and the first responder gets the sale.

Between 35 and 50 percent of sales ultimately go to the vendor that responds first, according to a report from InsideSales.com. Since the vast majority of leads gathered at trade shows are contacted within five days of the show, your best bet is to reach out to your leads before the other guy. This means you need to respond within the first 24 hours after the show.

This is where the power of automation realty shines. VivoLead enables you to respond to prospects immediately. Once a potential customer’s information is entered in the system, you can instantly reply to them and include attached digital materials, like product catalogs, product videos, and webpages. This way, when you return from a trade show, you will have already reached out to the vast majority of your leads.

Hope you’re hungry, early bird.

Add a Personal Touch to Your Communications

Think about the immense number of people you interact with at a trade show. Now, put yourself in your visitor’s shoes. They are doing the same thing, mingling with hundreds of vendors in a very short amount of time. You can hope that your contact was so meaningful that it made a lasting impression on your prospect, but the truth is that you are going to have to stoke that memory.

We’ve already noted the importance of quickly reaching out to your leads, but it is just as important to make those contacts meaningful. Because, just as your prospect spoke with several other potential vendors, those same vendors are going to inundate the prospect with generic email blasts and sales pitches.

So, make yours count. With VivoLead, you can send an email immediately when the contact is still fresh in your mind, so it is easier to personalize the content to directly reference any pain points the prospect mentioned. The more detailed the better. Make note of any questions that were asked and include answers to those specific questions. Be sure to tailor the message with a price quote for their exact request – do not send an entire citation of all of your products and services. Every specific reference you can make that will trigger memories of your interaction will give you an advantage over your competitors.

Help Out the Sales Team

The staff at a trade show is on the front lines. They know when a prospect is serious and when someone is just stopping by to enter the iPad raffle. Only one in every four individuals you interact with at a trade show will turn out to be a qualified lead. Yet nearly 70 percent of trade-show staff turn in every single lead to sales without any vetting.

Vet those leads. It is a little extra time on your end versus a TON of wasted time on their end.

So, instead of dumping every single acquired lead into the laps of the sales team, work with the team to establish the criteria most important to them, then develop a system to highlight those prospects in your lead management software.

For example, VivoLead allows you to export all customer registrations as an Excel file, which is the most accepted format for any CRM (customer relationship management) solution. The exported information makes it extremely easy to prioritize the leads you’ve identified as most beneficial to your sales team. This way the sales force can still see every lead, if they want, but the ones most likely to convert are clearly identified and prioritized.

This also means that you can import all your customer details from the last trade show directly into a CRM solution without having to retype anything. In addition, with the built-in security cloud function, all registration information is automatically backed up.

Keep the Conversation Going

Not every lead, even the most qualified, is going to convert immediately. Some may take a great deal of time. But there is no point in getting frustrated or giving up; in fact, it may pay not to.

Forrester Research Inc. reviewed companies that maintain contact with leads, even those that are unresponsive, and found they make 50 percent more sales at a cost that’s 33 percent less than companies where the leads are not nurtured. Yet, 86 percent of companies give up on unresponsive leads, most after only trying to reach out two or three times.

With VivoLead, you can utilize the information exported to create a drip campaign that will allow a relationship to organically grow over time. Drip campaigns are automated emails that are based on specific timelines or user actions. They enable you to stay in touch with someone centered around very specific triggers, like when you add a new prospect from a trade show or how often a specific visitor frequents your website.

However, even though a drip email is sent from a list of predetermined and prewritten messages, personal information can still be added to distinguish the content. And that information can come directly from the material you gather and add at the trade shows.

Drip campaigns helps you ensure that valuable information is consistently being sent to prospects at the most appropriate time.

So, When is it Time to Give Up on a Lead?

Well, unless someone specifically informs you that he or she wants to be left alone (that’s what “unsubscribe” buttons are for), there is no reason to lose contact with a prospect.

The vast majority of companies stop trying to contact a lead after two or three unresponsive attempts, and most others stop after five. Yet, there are countless reasons why a prospect may go dark.

Now, research has shown that just over half of the sales (54 percent) made from a trade show lead occur after three or fewer calls. But that leaves about half (46 percent) that require more than three calls. So, while the sales staff can certainty temper expectations for a prospect once that magical three-call barrier has been crossed, in this day and age it is silly to ever drop a prospect.

As noted above, creating a drip campaign will maintain your presence in an unobtrusive manner and even gradually develop a relationship with these prospects.

Using lead management software can ensure that your prospects are properly handled and help turn more of those leads into clients.

Are you maximizing your lead management? Don’t fall behind and allow your competition to jump on those valuable prospects first. Call The Trade Group at 800-343-2005 to discover how we can attract visitors to your exhibit and help you manage those leads once they appear. And to learn more about the VivoLead solution, click here.

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