IAEE’s Mid-Year Meeting is fast approaching, June 1 – 3 in Washington D.C. I am moderating a panel discussion on “Experiential Marketing-Generating Loyalty and Sales from Exhibit Attendees.” The session description is as follows:
Experiential marketing weaves emotions into a connection and reaction to your brand from customers using environmental and digital media techniques. Used effectively, your exhibit can inspire loyalty and stronger brand relationships. In this session, attendees will learn how to plan, budget and apply experiential marketing techniques to existing or new exhibits. The session will cover pre-show engagement, multi-media, brand continuity and technologies that can be used to build customer affinity beyond the trade show.
My panelists are Chris Justice, CEO, Sparksight Inc. and Dean Hills, Digital Strategist, PRMconnect. We are working to craft great content for those who are in attendance.
I have asked both panelists to share with me an aspect of what they will be delivering at the Mid-Year Meeting. In this blog post, I am highlighting PRMconnect and next week it will be Sparksight. Below is what they wanted to share with you.
The Experience Continues…
It’s AFTER the trade show comes to a close that sales reps and attendees return to their office that most deals are closed. Post-show remains a very competitive time … keep in mind, leads look promising to your competitors as well and they will be putting as much manpower to them.
The leads have been labeled promising for several factors, especially because a good rapport was built during the exhibit experience. Now, it is crucial to keep the relationship growing by transitioning into an off-site experience.
Sales representatives can’t be everywhere at the same time. To keep the business moving, they may be found in a private meeting in the booth, walking the trade show floor, or halfway across the globe at their desk, not able to know when a client from their region or specialty enters the exhibit. Traditionally they would learn of their key prospect’s visit, long after the show, when paper or electronic leads would be sent to follow-up on with little more than contact information.
We have all experienced those post-show calls when our lead information has been passed to a different sales rep. and the same qualifying questions began all over again … you feel like you have to build an entire new relationship with not only the sales rep, but with the brand again. Why does the attendee have to present themselves and their needs again? Why does it feel like you have started over from scratch on both sides of the table?
Current innovations with lead management solutions are solving this problem. PRMconnect’s Leadature offers a “FlashLeads” instant notification feature that has the ability to directly connect the customers that visit on the show floor with the global sales force. Leadature has an optional module that can be easily installed that allows the entire sales force to be instantly notified once an attendee has been matched with them by Leadature’s sales force connection matrix. A sales rep knows the qualified (matched) attendee is now in the exhibit whether they are available to meet with them in the exhibit, somewhere else in the trade show hall or half-way around the world.
Once an attendee completes their Leadature experience the system instantly generates an email to the sales rep that they have been matched with that informs that rep about who attended which event and what products they were interested in. FlashLead emails can be customized to include the most important information to the sales team, including contact information, notes from the accompanying sales rep, data from their experience, and the list of literature documents they requested.
This technology tightens the brand experience between the sales rep and the attendee. Before the follow-up call, the sales rep can understand exactly what information the attendee was interested in and what type of experience they had on the show floor to determine how to customize their follow-up call or email.
Whether the attendee needs to be handed from one sales rep to another for internal organizational issues, the transition should be as smooth as possible and quick to ensure a positive brand experience during this critical touchpoint.
Thanks PRMconnect!!
P.S.
For some reason I am having a problem with the comments and will have to get my webmaster involved. So I will share the two comments, thus far on the post:
First one is from LV Press Club – The right follow up makes all the difference after a trade show. Leadature looks interesting. I wonder just how personalized it can get.
Bill Kahn, PRMconnect, responded with this comment:
Thanks for the question! Yes, PRMconnect clients can personalize Leadature to fit their needs. I encourage you to visit the Leadature web site to view its benefits or give us a call for a demo, www.prmconnect.com. Here are just a few ways Leadature is customizing the experience:
All literature (collateral or rich media) available for selection is the client’s literature.
Any device screen (mobile, laptop, touch screen, etc) from which the booth visitor selects the literature reflects the clients’ branding. Leadature’s FlashLeadsTM ensures that the attendee’s sales representative is instantly notified that the attendee has visited the exhibit. The attendee upon selection of the literature receives a personal thank you note from his or her rep. The attendee self selects information that is relevant to them.
Long after the tradeshow the representative is able to extend the attendee’s booth experience with branded communications.
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