The trade show is always a good place to bring home new and good leads. Unfortunately, many exhibitors still return to the office with unqualified leads. Leads that were never a match in the first place.
But what exactly do you need to do? We have gathered our experiences for better lead generation in this little guide.
What is a good lead for you?
Before you start planning any lead generation, it is important to find out what a good lead is for you? And especially how many leads you must take home from the fair. If you do not agree on what a good lead “looks like” for your company, it will be difficult to maintain a common effort on collecting these.
----------------------
A good lead can be:
A guest who has signed up for your e-news.
A guest who has received a product introduction and would like to receive more material.
A guest who has received a product introduction and would like to hold a meeting.
A guest who has received advice on a product they already have and would like to make another investment.
Or something completely different ...
It depends on your company, on the length of the decision-making process for the guest concerning the purchase of your products, which lead, and how many leads you should bring home.
You might also enjoy 7 tips for improving your trade show presence where can you can learn more about how to optimize your efforts the next time you attend a trade show.
Promote your participation at the trade show
Unfortunately, you cannot expect the trade show organizers to spread the word about the fair well enough. The trade show organizer also has limited, or no knowledge about your fantastic products, just as he has about your competitors.
So, you are responsible for inviting the right guests to your trade fair stand.
You know why the guest must not miss this opportunity to visit your specific stand, be introduced to your products or get advice from your skilled colleagues, so remember to tell them. The better you market your trade show participation, the better the leads you will get. You must tell your customers and especially your potential customers that you are going to be present at the fair. You must tell what makes it irresistible for them to come and visit you at your trade fair stand.
You probably know who your 'dream customer' is. Either as a target group, but often also by name. So especially invite those you know by name but remember to give them an irresistible reason to come and visit you at the fair. When your dream customers show up at your trade show stand, you must of course give them an unforgettable experience and do everything to convert them into a new customers, book a meeting or get them to sign up for your e-news. But of course, it depends on what your goals for the fair are.
When you know who visited you at the fair (out of those you have invited), you also know who did not show up. You can subsequently contact them and tell them about EVERYTHING they missed. This gives you the opportunity to book a meeting, sign them up for your e-news, or something else.
You can read about the invitation of your dream customer here:
Your stand staff can make your trade show stand a unique experience for your guests
A trade show can be seen as a play. No applause behind the scenes, we ONLY applaud the actors.
So, it is your staff at the stand who will ensure that guests receive a great experience. That is why you must give your colleagues at the stand the best conditions to perform.
Here with us, we plan and carry out training of your staff, where we focus on goals, roles, and responsibilities - and train the team so that everyone goes for the same ball with a view to better lead generation in particular.
You might also enjoy Map the customer journey in connection with the personal meeting where can you can learn more about optimizing your face-to-face interactions during your trade show presence.
We train your colleagues so they can easily:
Start a conversation with the guest (even if the guest is not inside the booth yet).
Qualify the guest immediately.
Give the right experiences to the right guests (your guests have different preferences and should therefore only be presented with what is relevant).
Get guests to subscribe to your newsletter.
Book a meeting or make an appointment for a conversation.
Hand over the guest to your colleague who has the most insight into exactly the topic that this guest has an interest in.
Staff training is the most important element of your trade fair stand, read more here:
Use an efficient lead generation system
The whole process around your lead generation must be easy and fast for both your guests and the employees. Often you can rent lead generation software from the organizers or use software from other providers, which ensures a good and fast collection and qualification. Furthermore, it is important to get permissions concerning GDPR, so that you may subsequently contact the guest.
POS material can support your lead generation
"We have handed out 500 brochures". This is often pointed out when employees return from the fair. But do they now also know to whom they have given them?
When you hand out physical POS material and simultaneously fail to request anything in return such as the e-mail address of your guests, you can subsequently only wait aggressively by the phone and hope that some of the 500 will make a phone call.
On the other hand, you agree with the guest that
If, on the other hand, you agree with the guest to send the material by e-mail and at the same time receive permission so that you can subsequently contact them, you now have the opportunity to follow up on each and every one of the 500 leads. 500 leads, which is already qualified, because the colleagues at the stand have already done so when they signed the guest up to the POS material.
500 leads. How fantastic would that just be?
Lead generation - next step
So, what do you do with those leads?
Who follows up when you are home from the trade show again? Is it sales, is it marketing? Is it the employees who have been at the fair for several days who return home to a full inbox?
A survey by the American CEIR (Center for Exhibition Industry Research) states that: “42% never receive the material they are promised at the fair, and 28% only get it after they have bought the product from (yes, guess for yourself) the competitor”.
That is why it is SO important that you decide who is responsible for following up on your leads. Efforts have been made to get them qualified and collected, so it will be a waste of energy if no one follows up on them. And it does not have to be the staff who have been present at the trade show.
You can most likely send leads home to the office every day so that they can follow up on these leads, and it is also a good idea to divide the task into smaller portions because it can be a very big mouthful not to.
A joint report should be submitted so that all the participants at the trade show can see the results of their hard work and the results should, of course, be celebrated.
Comments