Lead Management (Two combined articles)

Developing and Implementing a Lead Management System
by Keith Reznick

Lead management requires careful planning and execution prior to, during, and after a meeting, show or convention. Lead management cannot work unless the marketing and sales departments work together to create and implement a strategy and plan to, among other things:

  • define the criteria for a “qualified” lead,
  • capture and document relevant attendee information,
  • establish post-show follow-up expectations with attendees,
  • distribute leads and follow-up in a timely manner. and
  • monitor and track results.

If the sales organization does not commit, prior to a show, to take action on the leads after the show, both in terms of follow-up and tracking, attending the show may be more of a negative than a positive marketing/sales activity. Successful lead management occurs only when the sales and marketing departments work closely together prior to, during, and after a show to create and implement a strategy and plan that both groups commit to and act upon. The balance of this article provides step-by-step suggestions for developing and implementing a successful lead management system:

Step 1: Quantify Your Goal

To quantify your goal, calculate how many hours each person staffing your booth will work and multiply this number by the number of leads each will probably generate. (A general rule of thumb suggests that each person will generate two or three qualified leads each hour.) If you have worked the meeting or show before, check your previous results, compare them with the number you just calculated, and adjust accordingly.

Step 2: Define a Qualified Lead and Create a Lead Form

Marketing and sales often have different definitions of a qualified lead. Marketing generally describes a lead as qualified tf it fits a demographic profile, whether there is a current sales opportunity or not. Salespeople often define a qualified lead as one that fits a demographic profile and where there is (or will shortly be) a viable sales opportunity. The following are among the questions that salespeople usually ask to qualify to determine if there is a viable sales opportunity:

  • What are the goals, problems, and needs associated with the opportunity?
  • What is the size of the opportunity?
  • Is there a budget for the project, and, if so, how much?
  • What is the timing of the opportunity?
  • With whom are we competing?
  • What is this person’s role (decision maker or decision influencer)?
  • Who else is involved in this decision (buying team)?

These types of qualifying questions, in combination with other questions that might be appropriate, should be part of your lead form. A suggestion is to meet with and discuss the form with the salespeople who will get the leads after the event. Ask them which of the questions meets their definition of a qualified lead and which are the most important qualifying questions to ask? What would they like to know about new prospects? Most importantly, what would motivate them to follow up? Their input before the show will help you get their support after the show.

Step 3: Pre-Show Promotion

Use pre-show promotions to attract pre-qualified prospects (those that fit your demographic profile/target audience1) and existing customers to your booth. Ask your salespeople to provide you with a list of existing customers, prospects with whom they are in dialogue and targeted prospects. If they give you the names and these customers and prospects attend the meeting or show, there are two benefits. First, it will create sales opportunities and second, it will improve the attitudes of your booth staffers who personally derive greater value from the time they have invested in the booth.

Step 4: Train Your Booth Staff

Prior to the show, teach your booth staff how to use the lead form. Make sure they know how to ask the qualifying questions, record the required information, and process the lead form after it’s been completed. Role-play to ensure that your staff is comfortable with the process. Also, make sure they know what your plan is for post-show follow up so that they can set the appropriate expectations for how your company will follow up after the event is over.

Step 5: Measure and Motivate

Reward the people who are putting the most energy and effort into the show. A complementary letter to the staffer’s manager or a small financial reward can be very motivational. Create a contest (incentive) that everyone can win by reaching graduated productivity levels. Competition for a single prize, such as one awarded to the person with the most leads, can create friction in the booth and detract from the team spirit.

Step 6: Collect All Leads

Collect all the leads as they are generated. If people keep some leads and turn in others, you won’t be able to follow up consistently, nor calculate the true return on your investment. (A contest (incentive), as was mentioned in Step 5, insures that most, if not all leads will be turned in.) Put into place a methodology that allows people to follow up directly if they choose to do so, as long as you can track what occurs after the show (a duplicate lead form, one for you and one for the salesperson will facilitate this). Also, explain to your staff how the leads will be processed, what each prospect can expect after the meeting, and how and when you will distribute the leads after the event’s completion.

Step 7: Follow-Up

Distribute the leads immediately after the show. The faster you distribute the leads, the more motivated your staff will be to follow-up. The follow-up activity should be consistent with your prospects’ expectations. If you promised to send literature, send it. If you promised to call for an appointment, call. You will leave a lasting (negative) impression if you do not meet (or exceed) your prospects’ expectations.  

Step 8: Monitor and Track Results

Monitor and track the results of your follow-up efforts in specific time increments (e.g., one month, three months, six months, one year), keeping in mind the length of your selling cycle for your products, services, or solutions. Tracking the results will enable you to determine what worked (and why), what didn’t work (and why), and ultimately calculate the return on your investment.

Step 9: Calculate Return

Calculating the return actually begins with goal setting. At appropriate time intervals, compare your results with your goals. Keep what worked and change what didn’t. At predetermined intervals, track which leads turned into customers and the amount of business generated. Project total business from these accounts and others that will close or order within a certain period of time (one-year minimum). Compare these revenues with your costs to calculate your return on investment. 

Lead management doesn’t have to be a major challenge – but does require work and cooperation to be successful. To implement this system (or any other) will take time – build on your successes and learn from your mistakes. The best way to get started is to work with your sales department. Their input and support prior to the show, and involvement at and after the show, will go a long way to ensure the success of your company’s lead management system.   
About the Author
 
keithresnick
 		  

Keith Reznick is a sales trainer and president of Creative Training Solutions. He may be reached at 856-784-3466 or keith@creativetraining.com. 

Keith and partner Ed Jones recently created two important cost-effective (less than $300 each) training tools designed to help your exhibit staff provide the experiences attendees want and the results your company expects. Learn more at www.tradeshowadvantage.com.

AutAutomated Lead Follow-Up and CRM Systems
by Michael J. Hatch
 

“Research has shown that 80% of the leads 
disqualified by sales, go on to buy a competitor’s product, or service within 24 months.”
 Source: SiriusDecisions 

Year after year,  for more than the 30+ years  that I have worked with exhibitors, I have heard one or all three of  these three common follow-up laments from corporate exhibit managers.  Does this sound like you?

1. Lack of control over show leads - After shows and events, you have little or no control or influence over the
    leads you generate at your trade shows and events. You spend hours, weeks and sometimes months
    preparing for each show, in meetings,  while  coordinating with vendors and the sales and marketing
    departments, managing logistics,  executing pre-show marketing campaigns, and much more. Then once the
    show is over, you hand over 200 or 300 leads to the VP of Sales, and promptly lose all contact, control or
    influence over them.

 2. Most leads are never followed up – You know from industry surveys, and anecdotal reports from your sales
     team and marketing department that 60 to 80% of the leads you work so hard to generate, are not followed
     up. And it is demoralizing. 

3.  True ROI is near-impossible to document – At the end of the year, your supervisor calls you into the office
     to detail your new budget requests, or you sit down for an annual performance review.  Your director or VP
     asks, “What is the ROI of all these shows you/we do?”  More often than not, you have little or no way to give
     management hard data and numbers, because you have no connection with the leads, and “no control” over
     the follow-up or sales process. Consequently, your budget, future promotion, and even your job can be in
     jeopardy, because you have few if any reliable numbers. 

Why 80%?

Why are 60 to 80% of trade show leads never followed up?  Here’s the typical sales dynamic, which negates follow-up on most leads.  Each month, sales people live and die by their quota. So when trade show leads come to them, they naturally contact the hottest “A” leads first, and after those, the “B” and “C” leads, if they have time. The “C” leads are really low down on the totem pole, getting disqualified almost by default. 

“80% of leads from all sources (e.g. the internet, email campaigns direct mail, advertising,)
are not ready to buy”
Source: Sales & Marketing Management magazine  

Also, on average, only 15 to 20% of trade show leads are “A” caliber – ready to buy, with a budget, a time frame and buying authority. Then, if the marketing department is doing their job, by the first of the month a fresh batch of leads comes in, and the cycle continues – month after month, and show after show. The “A” leads (15 to 20%) always get followed up first, and the other 80% (B and C leads) get pushed aside, neglected and too often forgotten and never followed up. 

Losing (YOUR) sales to the competition

Trade show leads typically generate more business in the 12 to 24 month period after a show, than they do in the first 12 months afterward. This happens because attendees meet new suppliers and see new products at this year’s show.  Then, they put budget requests in for them at the end of the year. So, next year when they come back to the show they are informed, funded, and and have the authority to buy.

Companies that fall into this continuous cycle lose two to three times of their potential sales revenue if  they don’t follow up and stay in contact with all their trade show and event leads until they mature. Indeed, let me re-emphasize the alarming quotation from the Sirius Decisions research organization at the top of this page: “80% of the leads ignored or disqualified by sales, go on to buy a competitor’s product, or service within 24 months.” 

So, here is what the traditional cycle looks like: :

Most trade show leads follow this track:

1.    Lead Capture via a card, badge scanning device, or collection of business cards

2.   You hand over leads to the VP or Director of Sales (via a flash drive, web link, or through a lead retrieval  provider)

3.   Leads get entered into your organization’s database, or CRM.

4.   What happens after the hottest “A” leads are followed up?  There is no system to follow up, nurture, and cultivate the other 80% of trade show leads (B & Cs), which won’t buy for a year, two, or sometimes
longer?.

A Better Solution: Marketing Automation

You can use cloud-based Marketing Automation (MA) systems.  This solution  automatically follows up, nurtures, and develops 100% of all you’re A, B, and C leads until they qualify themselves as ready to buy. Here is how it works.

You capture trade show leads at the show like usual, but then you do two things simultaneously.

http://hatchmarketingllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Sales-and-Marketing-with-Marketing-Automation1-1024x341.jpg

Each prospect (including your current customers ) can receive email or direct mail on a periodic pre- scheduled basis (i.e., once a month), with a link to a special landing page on your website that offers something of value to your potential and present clients. For example: 

  • Tips and techniques to help prospects to do their job better
  • A case study highlighting how your product did a better job for a client
  • Discounts or coupons for a seasonal special
  • An invitation to a webinar, or infomercial 

As prospects click on links in these emails, here is some of what a marketing automation system does beyond a basic email marketing program like Constant Contactor Vertical Response:

  • Documents the pages visitors view and the length of their views, thereby quantifying a prospect’s interest.
  • Tracks exactly who opens your email (not just how many).
Examples of these metrics include:

 
  • They clicked through to your site five times this quarter.
  • They requested two subject-specific white papers.
  • They spent five+ minutes three times on a specific product page.
  • They or a colleagues click on your pricing page 

A marketing automation system will automatically alert your Sales VP, Director. or Manager, and the appropriate account executive and/or customer service representative when their activity on your website hits a tipping point and indicates they are ready to buy.


The Bottom Line (Your ROI Reports) 

So, while your sales team concentrates on closing the usual 15-20% of “A” leads, your marketing automation program automatically nurtures and cultivates the relationship with the other 80% (B & C leads) until they graduate to “A” leads and qualify themselves – effectively giving you (and your sales VP) two  to three times more “A” leads for the same marketing spend. Plus,  it documents all this activity and can be integrated with your CRM to give your VP (and you) real-time ROI reports  – any time you, your VP. or CEO wants to see them.  

And that my friend is an unbeatable combination.

Copyright © HATCH Marketing & Consulting LLC, 2011

Demonstration Offer

If you would like to see a personalized demonstration of a live Marketing Automation program and how it is integrated with a website and CRM, contact Michael Hatch to schedule demonstration: 240-603-6044, or Mike@HatchMarketingLLC.com 

 
About the Author
 
 		  

Michael Hatch is President of HATCH Marketing & Consulting, LLC (HMC); a business management, sales, and marketing consultant; a professional speaker, trainer, and writer; a successful serial entrepreneur; and acknowledged trade show marketing expert. Mike is an award-winning designer and has owned two successful exhibit design and graphics production companies that executed over a dozen new product launches nationwide and served over 10,000 companies, associations, and government agencies during a 17- year span. He has also produced and marketed over 200 successful trade shows, education conferences, and training programs during his career.

 

 

 

 

 

     

 

 

 
 
download the hurt locker movie watch stream movies