Turning Leads Into Sales: Exhibit Managers Are From Mars, Salespeople From Venus

By Gary Tufel -- Tradeshow Week, 3/14/2005

When it comes to sales, exhibit managers often feel like they're responsible for something over which they have no control. If that isn't why there is perennially an adversarial relationship between showfloor booth staff and a sales force, it's certainly a symptom of a serious problem.

According to Darren Rabie, president of Focus America, 90 percent of today's tradeshow exhibitors don't have a method to evaluate their success at a show, and aren't sure what happens to the leads they turn over to their company's salespeople.

The mismanaged lead isn't anything mysterious. The problem, according to Richard Erschik, president of Leads to Sales, is time. "It takes 3.4 phone calls just to reach a prospect, and 7.6 calls to identify one with the intention to buy what they inquired about at the show," Erschik said. "For every 100 leads, that's at least 700 calls, and only 70 percent of raw leads actually get contacted."

What about e-mail? In 2003, 63 percent of it was spam, Erschik said, and odds are that the percentage has gone up considerably. Couple that with fear about e-mail viruses and another method of following up leads is rendered ineffective.

The way leads are currently handled is a "colossal waste of time," said Barry Siskind, president of Intl. Training and Management, not to mention a colossal source of resentment. The exhibit managers feel like their hard work collecting leads is unappreciated, and salespeople who can't possibly handle the number of leads given to them wonder how many of those leads are qualified and really worth the trouble.

Erschik's solution is the fax machine. He suggests his clients send a post-show fax to all leads, including a thank-you note for coming to the booth, a questionnaire and an information sheet. He claims the 20-percent response rate of a fax makes it preferable to the phone or e-mail, especially since it only takes about 10 percent of all leads-to-sales to justify ROI.

Naturally, if the exhibit staff can weed out good leads from the bad ones before they're given to the sales staff, it can make salespersons' jobs easier, build stronger relationships with them, increase ROI and satisfy management.

"Most buyers are liars and just tell exhibitors what they want to hear at the show, because they want to disengage and move on," Erschik said. "They're much more honest when they're alone back in the office filling out an information sheet."

Siskind suggests a system that includes an intermediary and business development manager to work with warm leads, convert them into hot ones, then turn them over to the salespeople, thus freeing the sales staff to concentrate first on those leads everybody deems hot.

Keith Reznick, president of Creative Training Solutions, estimated that about 80 percent of leads at business-to-business tradeshows are never followed up on, and in about half the cases when they are it takes so long that the would-be buyer has already made another purchase decision.

Exhibit managers and salespeople often differ on how to define a qualified lead. Demographic information, which tradeshow managers and exhibitors seem to love, may be interesting, but it doesn't necessarily tell salespeople if there is a sales opportunity to pursue. They'd rather know about a prospect's specific needs, problems and goals; the size of the opportunity; the timing of the prospect's decision; the project budget; whether it's approved; how much it is; and who can make a decision.

Naturally, you can't ask all that at a tradeshow, but exhibitors should find out from salespeople what their priorities are when creating lead follow-up forms.

This kind of cooperation rarely happens though, because marketing people typically are responsible for getting an exhibit built, shipped, installed and dismantled — all under what is usually an annual budget. But because salespeople are evaluated each month or quarter, there's rarely much synergy between the two groups.

"But when there is, you can move mountains," Reznick said.

When creating a lead-management system, include everyone involved, added Ann Pennino, an exhibit manager for Praxair and a Trade Show Exhibitors Assn. board member.

It seems elementary, she said, but exhibitors simply don't do it.