While trade shows and events are excellent venues for generating interest, a rock-solid follow-up strategy is required because once the prospect leaves the showroom floor, they can quickly lose interest if they’re not properly engaged afterward.
Statistics show that most interested prospects lack the follow-up required to obtain a subsequent meeting and continue the conversation.
As a result, companies participating in these events need an effective playbook for successful trade show follow-up to realize a good return on investment.
The Problem
Finding leads has become more difficult, and keeping a prospect engaged throughout the entire sales process is likely a close second.
Many circumstances can take away a prospect’s attention, which is why a rock-solid process for maximizing every hard-earned lead sourced at an event is vital for a return on investment.
From our experience, this outdated follow-up approach is a significant cause of revenue forfeiture from trade shows.
Marketing
Prospects who receive an email saying, “Thank You for attending,” from the general marketing email with an offer to answer any questions about their products.
The problem is the email will be among hundreds of other companies in these prospects’ inboxes after the event.
While marketing should engage with the prospect, it shouldn’t be considered adequate follow-up from the marketing@ address since it comes across as generic and impersonal.
It also conveys to the prospect that a follow-up from the company isn’t a priority because it’s not from an individual.
Salesperson
Once marketing distributes the leads to the sales team for follow-up, the prospect receives a call and email stating that the prospect; “Stopped by the booth.” They would like to gain a better understanding of their needs. Answer any questions about their product.
This approach often fails because the outreach isn’t focused on a challenge that the company can help them solve. It requires the prospect to figure out how the company can help them, which in all likelihood, they won’t do.
In addition, according to the Harvard Business Review, the average call attempts by salespeople consists of 1-2 calls. The chance of making contact requires at least 6 call attempts.
Channel Partner
If the company decides to send its trade show leads directly to its Channel Partners, it could be doing more harm than good.
While indirect sales provided by channel partners greatly benefits an organization, having them perform lead qualification for trade shows is ill-advised.
Why?
There are many reasons, but here are three.
- Because, like with an internal sales team, the partner will have the same challenge with persistence (2-3 calls).
- Leads will be expecting the company to call them, not a partner.
- It can put a partner in an awkward situation if asked about competitor solutions.
Lead Response Strategy
Improving lead response starts with creating a well-thought-out post trade show or event strategy for success.
This equates to 30 days of consistent follow-up, followed by a nurturing campaign to remain on the prospects’ radar.
Responsive
To dramatically increase success rates, a post-show cadence (a series of steps to reach the prospect) should be done immediately after the trade show or event and be consistent.
Personal
Most importantly, sales outreach must be personal. Genetic follow-up is a sure way of alienating a prospect.
Gone are the days when a company can expect generic follow-up from sales or marketing to develop opportunities.
Each contact requires a salesperson to understand the prospect, so they can ascertain the value a solution provides to them, their department, and the organization as a whole. Many companies struggle with this due to the lack of internal sales resources.
Consistent
Sales Development Representatives are a proven inside team specializing in top-of-funnel activity, providing the right mix of research, on-target messaging, and sustained outbound actions to increase engagement.
The SDR aims to qualify the prospect to either send them back into a nurturing campaign or move them forward in the sales funnel.
The idea is they’re leveraging what Account Executives and Regional Sales Managers lack, time to perform prospect qualification, and set up meetings.
Lack Resources?
For companies who want to increase their trade show return on investment or decrease their customer acquisition costs but don’t have the resources or budget to make it happen, there’s a better alternative, Meet WaveOutbound™.
Wave Representatives created a subscription-based service that provides dedicated Sales Development Representatives for a fraction of the cost of hiring them in-house. Each team member is under the client’s brand and remains dedicated to the account during the subscription.
In addition, we provide our clients with expert assistance with technology stack integration, configuration, effective messaging, and playbook development.
Then, to ensure that the service stays on track, our clients receive real-time updates on the engagement’s progress via the integrated software package.
Why WaveOutbound Succeeds Where In-House Fails?
We’ve found that internal sales teams are entrenched in existing business and have little bandwidth to qualify leads from trade shows in exchange for established business opportunities.
Often inside sales teams focus on account management or channel partner enablement and lack the training and resources needed to be successful.
Most aren’t certified on software platforms required to be effective.
Increasing Engagement = Increasing Revenue.
WaveOutbound™ was purpose-built to connect with more prospects and to create significant gains in engagement, pipeline, and revenue.
Our experience and sales approach provides end-users and channel partners with the information they need to purchase our client’s products.
To find out how your organization can benefit from WaveOutbound™, contact us, and we’ll show you how we help solve these business challenges and more.
Wave Representatives, LLC™ Your Best Partner™ WaveOutbound™