This week I placed a question on LinkedIn asking for input from my colleagues. The question:
Curious as to why there seems to be very little rage that a trade show attendee is never followed up?
I would like to understand why exhibitors feel they can ignore the attendee who visited their booth and requested some form of follow up? The statistics of lack of follow up range from 70 to 80%. Surely there are companies out there who are diligent about trade show follow up. I would like to hear your stories of success. And how you bridged the sales and marketing gap.
One of the responses was from Carlos Hidalgo from Annuitas Group (http://www.annuitasgroup.com).
I think your stats are quite accurate. However the issue does not lie in lack of alignment between sales and marketing, but rather in a lack of process which causes the gap.
Most companies do not have a detailed, documented process that covers a shared definition of a lead, how leads will be scored, nurtured or routed to sales. So when a trade show occurs or any marketing program takes place, the leads often grow stale and are never given the necessary attention.
Most trade show leads would be best served to be placed into some kind of automated nurture program until such time the prospect indicates that they are ready to purchase, but again there needs to be a defined process to ensure this happens.
Until companies begin to develop the processes to address these issues the same challenges will continue to be there and the lack of alignment between sales and marketing will persist.
Thanks Carlos!! In the next post I will share some other views. Until then, please share with us what your experiences have been.
9-30-09 I received this comment today and wanted to make sure it was added to this post:
I very much agree with all of this but we’re missing something important. Who exhibits? What’s their “demographic”?
Well, all sorts of people of course but MOST exhibitors are “small business” simply as most businesses are small business.
So “Sales” and “Marketing” does not come into it for most. They are the same people.The “system”needed by everyone is Set Objectives, know your Target Market (everyone seems to fall down there) then create a “closed loop” for after the show based on:-
1. Urgency & value (coded into the leads when collected at the
Show)
2. Target Market (we may have several & some have more urgency – eg “Resellers” v “End Users”. Do we handle the chicken first or the egg? Defer to our business model.
3. Date we must get back to each “group”.So we make a grid (Excel is great) with Target Markets at the top & Urgency down the side and in each cell the date by which we will respond. When we miss any given date the alarm bells go off – hence “closed loop.
The problem is that if we don’t do this then by the time we “catch up” with all the day-to-day activities we didn’t do when the show was on and as we ran up to it, the leads are cold and we’re also on another project. Hence they don’t get followed up.
So there’s the “system” focusing on the “people”.
I THINK I originally got the “closed loop” idea from Skip Cox at the CTSM course long ago…
I’m writing a series of eBooks on these subjects & have done some interviews with exhibitors, show organizers, contractors & show visitors. It’s a growing project but if anyone is interested it’s at http://www.bestofshow.com
All the best
Colin Green, CTSM
ROI Tool Kit webinars with Skip Cox,
Exhibit Surveys.
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Your question about lack of follow-up has more to do with “people” today than process. And it’s WITHin the people that have to do the follow-up, WHEREin the answer to the poor lead follow-up problem lies.
Marketing people generate leads today and continue to simply throw them over the fence to sales people — for their disposition and follow-up. And considering the new barriers to follow-up today (making contact via phone, fax and e-mail) it should be no wonder why less than 20% of leads ever get follow-up.
Until marketing realizes and understands the problems associated with lead follow-up in the sales department, and that THEY need to be part of the solution, SALES will rule and MARKETING will drool – while searching the likes of employment websites like http://www.monster.com because their management doesn’t SEE their personal value.
After more than 2-decades of providing lead response management and follow-up services to companies – I now teach an industry proven lead response management process to individual companies, and the exhibitors of progressive trade show organizers, that assures 100% lead follow-up after an event or trade show.
Education is the key differentiating factor in business solution offerings today. And marketing has to learn that they are also being measured by RESULTS… not ACTIVITY.