When it comes to exhibiting, you could have an all-singing and dancing stand that has attendees lining up for miles, who are dying to give you their contact details.
However, if your engagement techniques, during your exhibition, are sub-par and your follow-up process is you just handing it to your account management or sales team (who weren’t even at the exhibition), are you really justifying all that money, resource and time spent exhibiting?
In this blog, we want to shine a light on the importance of your follow-up and how to turn fresh out-the-oven leads, into paying customers.
Emails, phone calls, or by pigeon – what actually works?
A recent study highlighted that 81% of exhibitors use email to follow up on their trade show leads and 68% of respondents use calling leads as a method.
However, what happens if your attendees are more responsive to another method of follow-up?
Through our years in the exhibiting industry, we advocate asking your attendees how they would like to be engaged e.g., by telephone, email, or post, and ask them when the best time is to contact them. By doing this you’re opening a narrative to knowing them better, getting permission from them for allowing you to engage on their terms.
Top tip: it’s the finer details that can sometimes mean the most, especially when it comes to following up on a lead.
A lean, mean, converting machine
We’ve mentioned the importance of having a designated Exhibition Lead Manager to chase vital leads but it’s also imperative you and your team is on top of the rules when it comes to storing personal and business data.
The management of your lead generation capture and storage during and after your event is finished is crucial, as this will determine how successful the exhibition was for your business.
When considering your event, it’s important you ensure you think about similar factors which can benefit your success rate. Some of these factors include:
- Making your stand as appealing as possible to potential leads
- Being welcoming and conveying the right emotions throughout the day
- Utilise the skills of your team to project a brand story that will stick
Top tip: Deep dive with your team to ensure you have all your engagement and follow-up strategies in place before you arrive at your exhibition and have it aligned with your normal sales process. As the old saying goes, “Fail to prepare, prepare to fail.”
Your leads are worth more than one touchpoint
We get it. Following up can feel like a little hard work and you may feel like the more you contact a lead, the further you’re driving them away.
This is incorrect.
Propeller CRM uncovered that 80% of leads need four more follow-ups after the initial meeting to close out on a sale. Another interesting finding uncovered that if you’re calling your leads and they don’t pick up, try leaving a 15-minute gap between calls.
Your leads are incredibly valuable and engaging them correctly and efficiently is the difference between exhibition success and business growth to failure and disappointment.
Top tip: Each of your leads has a value and if that value equates to five emails or calls to bring in a substantial amount of money for your business, it’s definitely worth putting the hours in to convert.
Ready to use your newfound knowledge?
Your Attendee Engagement and Follow-Up work cohesively to ensure you’re converting hot leads into real clients. If you fail to engage during your exhibition, you’ll leave without a single lead and if you don’t engage with your leads post-exhibition, it’ll usually leave a nasty taste in your mouth, and you’ll be left feeling like even going to exhibiting was a waste of your time and money.
We’re experts in helping businesses create exhibitions that leave a lasting impression on attendees but are also easy on the eye when it comes to your ROI.
If you need help with your exhibition, lean on us, and we’ll help you achieve your best exhibition yet.