Quality, not Quantity
Published on Wednesday, 09 May 2012 20:41
If you have ever helped run an exhibition stand, then you’ll probably be familiar with the scenario where stand staff try as hard as possible to gather as many business cards or contact details as possible.
After all, it sounds so much better to say that you have 500 contact details compared to just 300. It's 'evidence' that the exhibition was a success...
Well, actually, it isn’t because it’s not just about the metrics.
The focus should be on the QUALITY, not the QUANTITY of contacts made.
The Measured Follow Up
Here’s a hot tip we often pass on to clients:
Once the exhibition has finished, the leads will need to be followed up. However, too many marketing departments complain that leads just remain a spreadsheet listing, without further contact.
This is because with so many 'leads' the sales team doesn’t know where to start, which means potentially good opportunities are missed. If they could identify the most important leads to focus on, the whole sales and marketing effort would be more rewarding.
Leads Need Profiling
Instead of concentrating on gathering as many business cards or contact details as possible, focus on spending more time with the visitor and give all contacts a “lead score”. This score will determine how important the lead is to the sales team. A high score will call for sales follow up. A low score may make that unnecessary at this stage, leaving marketing to nurture the contact through the likes of email marketing and social media.
How you score the lead can be determined by your sales & marketing teams in advance of the exhibition, or through external input. There is no right or wrong way of doing this. You just need to be consistent.
It’s Quality That Counts
In summary, when it comes to obtaining contact details at exhibitions, quality is far more important than quantity. So add some fresh thinking to your exhibitions and think about attracting the right quality visitors to your stand.