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Writer's pictureKatharina Krus

Trade Fair Lead Management: Digital Customer Acquisition Already Starts at the Trade Fair

Digital lead management starts at the trade fair - Trade Fair Lead Management

Who hasn't experienced this? At trade shows and events, one appointment follows the next. You hurriedly take notes, eagerly collect business cards - and hope to be able to enter useful trade fair leads into the CRM system from the jumble of notes days later in the office. And then, at some point, to forward them to sales partners.


Everyone knows that this process is not only error-prone, but also time-consuming. It usually takes days, sometimes weeks, before the interesting leads are forwarded. And statistics prove it: Every day a lead "lingers," the chances of closing dwindle drastically. In this article, you'll learn how to change that with lead management.


Tip:

There are two areas in lead management that are still largely analog: lead capture at events. And the passing on of the leads.

Trade show lead management: With leadtributor's new trade show app, the entire process, from capture at the event to processing by the sales partner, is done digitally, so that trade show leads automatically end up in the CRM system.

In a recent study "Information and procurement behavior of decision-makers" 2015, AUMA (Ausstellungs- und Messe-Ausschuss der Deutschen Wirtschaft e.V.) repeatedly asked trade visitors the question about their satisfaction with the trade fair follow-up. 15% of visitors complain that they never heard from the exhibitor again after the trade fair. Of those who did receive feedback, only 60% were satisfied. Plenty of room for improvement!



Speed is the deciding factor

But even when sales representatives or channel partners get in touch, far too much time passes. At least that's how prospective customers perceive it. The reason:

Thanks to the Internet, customers are increasingly accustomed to fast purchasing and decision-making processes. This is especially true when the first contact with the manufacturer happens online.

SalesStaff analyzed the relationship between response time to a lead and likelihood of connecting with a decision maker at the prospective buyer. The speed with which a lead goes cold was shocking, as the graph shows. It relates to B2B business: those who only contacted the lead after 48 hours were 50% less likely to talk to a decision-maker than a sales representative who contacted them after just 30 minutes.


Similar results can be applied to the traditionally slower decision-making processes in B2B and indirect sales. The consequence: The expensive and complex lead generation measures are for nothing if the sales department does not become active immediately.



"Nurturing" leads already at events and trade fairs - optimal lead management

From that we conclude:


If the first contact occurs at an event - i.e. analog - the sales employee must be put in a position to feed leads into the CRM system as quickly as possible.


Business cards would have to be automatically scanned and entered into the CRM system. Preferably garnished with conversation notes and annotations. From there, they can be genurtured in real time.


No sooner has the prospective customer left the trade fair stand or event than a marketing automation solution can take hold:


 

The trade show lead automatically receives an email thanking them for visiting the booth or attending an event.


In addition, the trade fair lead also immediately receives the desired information material (white papers, data sheets, etc.).


The same applies to sales partners: They need to be enabled to enter leads into their system already at the trade show booth or at the event. For example, with SaaS solutions such as leadtributor: The SaaS now also has a trade show feature that allows sales partners to load business cards and lead data into their personal leadtributor workspace directly at the manufacturer's booth and process them further.


All they need is an iPad. Business cards are simply scanned using OCR technology and filed directly into the leadtributor personal partner workspace. In real time and at the touch of a button.

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