Joalien Johnson

The ABC's of Lead Retrieval and Follow-Up

Recently, I wrote an article on lead retrieval and follow-up, which covered what exhibitors are doing – or not doing – in the lead gathering process. After talking to so many industry insiders on the subject, I also gained quite a bit of insight from each about the right steps that exhibitors should take to help them get better results from their leads from the start. Below is just a sampling of what I learned from several sources:

• Candy Adams, a consultant also known as the Booth Mom, said there are three ways that exhibiting companies put themselves at a disadvantage before a show: not marketing to people they really wanted to market to before a show, not planning the entire lead process at one time, and not training staff on the value of leads.

• Barry Siskind, author of “Powerful Exhibit Marketing” and president of Intl. Training and Management said he recommends exhibitors ask themselves six questions to help determine the value of a lead. He made up a nifty acronym (A.C.T.I.O.N.) of the most important questions. It goes something like this: Authority – Does this person have the level of authority to make a decision?; Capability – Does this person have the capability of helping you achieve your objectives?; Time – How long will it take from when you meet this person to when they decide to do business with you, and does their buying cycle fit your sales cycle?; Identity – Who is this person and how will I be tracking their information?; Obstacles – Is there some reason why this person cannot or will not do business with me?; Need – Is there a need for my product or service?

• John Hasbrouck, CEO of NewLeads, said that for tradeshow leads to be successful, four requirements should be met: the exhibiting company should have a customized lead capturing system, staff members should have business intelligence, there should be a paperless environmentally friendly way to connect with customers after a show, and leads should be distributed and processed by a team that’s devoted to taking on follow-ups.

Some other key pieces of advice that were repeated over and over include avoid the fish-bowl approach for lead gathering, it’s not how many leads you get – its how many valuable leads you get, remember that leads are a huge component of your value at a show and don’t neglect following-up. And with that, I bid you happy lead gathering.

Posted by Joalien Johnson on June 17, 2009 | Comments (2)