Cashing in on Conferences: 
Lead follow up is the key

by M. H. "Mac" McIntosh

You invested a lot of time, energy and resources participating in your industry conference.  And that’s not counting your sore feet, the lack of sleep and the time away from your family.

It was all worth it, you say.  Think of all you learned while attending the educational sessions, the relationships you developed or shored up with clients, prospects and industry movers and shakers. And the stack of leads from your exhibit and the business cards that you collected during your time at the show.

Unfortunately, now the real work begins.

No, I’m not talking about the extra time you’ll put in catching up on the work awaiting your return to the office.  I’m talking about following up with all those leads and business cards you collected—a critical first step in turning those prospects into qualified sales-ready opportunities for more business.

So where do you start?

Ideally you started even before you headed off to the conference.  How so?  By bringing along preaddressed overnight mailers you can use to send the leads back to the office each night for immediate data entry and response.

If you didn’t prepare in advance, now’s the time to get going.  Leads are like seedlings; the sales opportunities they represent for you will wither and die if you don’t give them the proper care.

The first step is to get all those leads and business cards into your CRM system as quickly as possible.

Yes, data entry is tedious.  But it’s also a necessary step in being able to manage and communicate with your prospects and help them move forward in their decisions to put your company to work. 

I personally eliminated some of my data entry burden by investing in a CardScan^® business card scanner.  Its fast capture of business card information is far easier and more accurate than my manual data entry.  And the latest version of its software allows me to do drag-and-drop data entry from e-mails, Web pages and electronic documents too. If you don’t already have a CardScan, I recommend you visit www.cardscan.com and look into purchasing one of the various models designed to move business card data directly into Outlook or your CRM system.

If you don’t have time to do the data entry yourself, find someone else to do it as soon as possible.  If all your employees are too busy with other responsibilities, pick up the phone and call your local temporary service.  They usually have a number of people with verified data entry skills ready to be at your office in an hour.

The next step is to get information on the way to the prospect. 

The good news is that most of the business cards you collected have people’s correct personal e-mail addresses on them.  And hopefully, you asked and got your booth visitors to give you their e-mail addresses as well.

So go ahead and send each of your prospects a "Nice to meet you…" or "Thanks for dropping by…" e-mail with links to relevant information pages on your Web site or the materials you promised to send as attachments to your e-mails.

Remember, this is your second chance to make a great impression.  (Your first was in person at the conference.)  Prospects will be impressed if you’re the first (and surprisingly, sometimes the only one) to follow up quickly after the conference.

Now that the e-mails are on the way, crank up your laser printer.  Get similar "Nice to meet you…" and "Thanks…" letters and materials out by mail to those prospects who didn’t share their e-mail addresses. 

And if I were you, I’d also send printed letters and materials to the prospects you e-mailed earlier.  Why?  Because e-mail experts admit that nearly 70 percent of e-mail is now being blocked by the ISP, at the server or by the junk filter at the desktop—and the senders never know it.  And this percentage refers to opt-in e-mail!  Considering all you invested to get those leads, redundant mailing is cheap insurance that your prospects actually receive your information.

Next, put on your headset and start dialing the phone.

Allow your prospects a couple of business days to dig their way out from under the work that built up while they were attending the conference, but schedule calls to each in your CRM system. 

I recommend that you schedule these calls for midmorning—giving you time to finish wading through all the e-mail that arrived overnight—when both you and the prospect are still fresh.  Also, try making the calls in sets of ten, waiting to do other things until you have attempted to reach all ten.  This will help you get the calls completed before other distractions demand your time and attention.

I dislike cold-calling as much as anyone, but the good news is this isn’t cold-calling.  These are people who expressed an interest in your products or services by stopping by your booth in the exhibit hall or whom you met in person at various times over the course of the conference.  

Here’s what to say.

To avoid sounding like just another salesperson on the phone, as well as to put the prospect at ease when you call, I recommend you open each call by saying something like this:   

"Hi (prospect’s name), this is (your first and last name) from (your company name).  We met (or ‘You stopped by our booth’) at (conference name) in (city name) last week.  I’m interested to hear your thoughts about the conference, but first, is this a good time to speak?"

This approach will set your call apart from the majority of the other calls your prospects receive, which usually start with a dumb question like "Did you get the information I sent you?"  Why is this a dumb question?  Because usually the answer is "No," which is difficult to move past.  Be sure to avoid the overused "How are you today?"  (Want to have some fun?  The next time a telemarketer asks, "How are you today?" answer "Terrible" and see what the reaction is.)  

By saying "I’m interested to hear your thoughts about the conference," you’ve established a reason for the call that feels comfortable for the prospect.  Asking "Is this a good time to speak?" sets a warm and professional tone.  Besides, if it isn’t a good time for the prospect, he or she won’t be receptive anyway.  If the time isn’t convenient, ask what time would be better.

Next, if it is a good time to speak, start the conversation by asking questions like "What are your thoughts about your time at (conference name)?  Did you find it to be worthwhile?" or "Of all the booths you could have visited during the conference, why did you stop by ours?"

The answers you hear will allow you to learn more about the prospects’ businesses, situations, interests and needs.  The objective is to learn if the prospects are sales ready.  

Whether prospects are sales ready or not, tell them what you think the next step should be and ask them if they agree. 

If you want the business marriage to happen, you’ve got to date them a while.

Research shows that three out of four sales come from the leads who are not ready to buy right away.  Only one in four buys within six months.  Half can take a year or more.  So you’ve got to find a way to "date" them until they are ready and receptive to your business proposal.

If the initial steps in the sales process—prospecting and qualifying—can be effectively accomplished by using less costly one-to-many marketing contacts, you’ll save some money and have more time to invest with sales-ready prospects or on activities that will generate a better ROI.

Think about it.  What’s your or your salespeople’s time worth per hour?  Which prospects are worth investing that amount of money in?  Probably only the sales-ready ones.  Alternatively, you can invest $15 to $20 per call to have a telemarketer or inside salesperson reach out and touch prospects by phone.  Which prospects warrant that investment instead? 

And what does it cost to send a letter or a postcard to a prospect?  Picking a high number of $2 each, you can invest $24 to touch longer-term prospects twelve times a year, staying in sight and in mind until they are ready to take the next step in their consideration/buying process.

Here’s what to send.

Give some thought to the major three or four reasons why someone would decide to buy from your company.  What would cause them to need your products or services?  And why would they select your company instead of the competition?  Then create a series of mailings or e-mails, with each addressing one of these points.  Then repeat.  The reasons prospects would need your products or services and hire your company probably don’t change all that often, if at all.  So your success will come from communicating with the right prospects at the right time with the right offer—not from saying something completely different every time you contact them. 

Be sure each mailing (or call, for that matter) includes a suite of offers or calls to action that are designed to encourage the prospects to take the next step in their consideration/buying process.

Educational offers—how-to guides, checklists, case studies, white papers, and Web or live seminars on the same subjects—usually work best.

Remember, when it comes to turning leads into sales, it’s all in the follow-up.