A few years ago, we attended a tradeshow for event and tradeshow planners.  The exhibitors consisted of companies that sell to the "tradeshow" industry:  exhibit houses, promotional gift providers, lead capture providers, travel and lodging consultants, etc.  If you were an event planner, you could get just about everything you needed at this show. Everything that is, except for one very important item:  Post Show Lead Follow-up.

This is not to say that there weren't companies offering what they called "post show lead follow-up"  There were.  However, for these exhibitors, "post show lead follow up" was defined simply as offering solutions for storing and segmenting prospect data captured on the show floor.  They assumed that the user already had a process for following up on tradeshow leads.  These exhibitors were offering tools for a process that most companies just don't have.  And to top it off, you can be certain that just like every other tradeshow in every other industry, 65-70% of those exhibitors' leads will never receive proper sales follow up.  As a matter of fact, only 30% of the exhibiting companies from that show contacted us afterwards.
Tradeshow follow up can be a great place to pilot a corporate wide lead management program.  Below is a 7-step process that you can implement to improve ROI for your next tradeshow:

• Step #1:  Develop a profile of the "Target Prospect"
• Step #2:  Develop a lead database that matches the "Target Prospect" profile
• Step #3:  Contact the prospect within 2 business days from the tradeshow's end date
• Step #4:  Fulfill any requested information within 48 hours of completing Step #3
• Step #5:  Follow up on fulfilled information within 5-7 business days of it being sent; qualify the prospect
• Step #6:  Distribute only "sales ready" leads to the sales force; schedule others for Lead Nurturing
• Step #7:  Contact the prospect once more to confirm sales has followed up

Applying these 7 steps in a focused, systematic manner will significantly increase tradeshow return on investment.
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