A/V Firm Sees Future in Leads

By Gary Tufel -- Tradeshow Week, 5/17/2004

A lunchtime conversation a year ago led an audiovisual company in an unexpected direction. After 15 years of offering audiovisual services to tradeshow exhibitors, United Audio Visuals went into the lead management business.

Brendon Koshoshek, vice president of sales and marketing for the Muskego, Wis.-based firm, cautioned that UAV is still an A/V company, but now it's one that offers clients full media production and lead-management systems.

"However, the lead management portion of our company is growing at a rapid rate," he said.

UAV's road to lead management started about five years ago when it branched out into media production. That gave Koshoshek and others the confidence to try something new. Like many companies after Sept. 11, UAV found it needed to diversify just to keep revenue flowing.

Its INTERact system stemmed from a monthly brainstorming lunch during which Koshoshek and a colleague discussed some information they'd gotten from the Center for Exhibit Industry Research. They knew companies went to tradeshows for leads but weren't necessarily aware that 75 percent of exhibitors measure success by number of leads generated, that it costs 62 percent less to close a lead generated at a tradeshow than one originated in the field, or that 80 percent of all show leads are never followed up.

"This last statistic blew me away," said Koshoshek. It gave him an idea: "Why not just auto-e-mail-reply to exhibit leads?"

"Exhibitors spend thousands of dollars to exhibit, but only a fraction of that on their leads," Koshoshek said.

UAV had produced in-booth kiosks for exhibit houses and their clients that offered product information. So they already had technology that allowed attendees to input their own information and answer a few questions.

UAV spoke to exhibit designers and producers, including longtime client Derse Exhibits, to get their input on the INTERact idea. (The idea for a print-on-demand feature came from one of the houses.)

Some of INTERact's clients were exhibitors who were already using UAV for A/V. "We've been in the tradeshow business a long time, and our clients knew us and our reputation, so we encountered no resistance or perception problems as an A/V company with a lead management product," Koshoshek said. "It's been the same with newer clients."

Derse account executives Lisa Herrendeen and Ellen Keith said that clients can use INTERact in a few different ways, depending on their needs. Herrendeen's client, Experian, signed up for INTERact because it wanted to maximize its tradeshow returns using something easier and more interactive than a mere badge swipe. Experian was not one of UAV's existing A/V customers, so UAV and Derse pitched INTERact to Experian. "Based on INTERact, we acquired both entities, A/V and lead management," Koshoshek said.

He said INTERact accounted for 13 percent of UAV's first-quarter revenue and is expected to exceed A/V revenue by mid-2005, when associated equipment rental and labor is factored in.

Karen Erkelens, a partner with Velocity Meetings & Conventions, called INTERact more of an add-on to the A/V services it was already providing clients, and said it was less lead management and more a glorified automated follow-up."I'm sure it's a great product, albeit expensive, since each exhibitor has to purchase a customized version," she said.

Brian Strickland, national sales manager for ExpoExchange, said that despite the entry of a new competitor to the marketplace, he's excited to see others realize the value of lead retrieval. "Our goal as an industry should be to provide the most value at the highest standard, regardless of who delivers the product," Strickland said. "Whether UAV is an A/V company or registration company should have no bearing on the product it brings to the showfloor. In fact, it may give it a different perspective that others do not see."

Koshoshek drew a distinction between lead retrieval and what UAV does: "Lead retrieval means acquiring a lead, getting a name, and perhaps some basic information on the lead's needs and interests." But, he said, lead management goes further. "Lead management is responding with post-show follow-up, source-coding the lead and following its progressive maturity over a defined period, allowing exhibitors to use return on investment information, provide automated response and distribution."