Firstly, before you put down your hard earned thousands of dollars to spend three days standing in a booth, or schmoozing with alcoholics, make sure the event is in line with your business and its strategic initiatives.
Once the Trade Show or Event has been deemed worthy of your money and time, make sure you have a game plan to work this Special Event to its fullest.
We have already determined that the show will have floor walkers of all types, as well as other vendors, all of whom can funnel into your nifty strategy of maximizing all possible leads to be sourced.
This topic of generating leads at a Special Event can actually write a book long post pointing out the do’s and don’ts and all that jargon. So we are going to stick to the bullet point system.
The Strategic Objectives are simple:
Don’t talk to anyone ANYONE for more than ten minutes. If you have other people working the event, make sure they are aware of this, and on the same page of all your Special Event Goals of Generating Leads.
Collect Everyone’s Information, and categorize it on the spot with a simple tag or note. As a rule, a little give away works well. But, if you could jot down a few words to remind you of the exchange, write it down right away. Even if a Janitor comes up to you and wants to chat about your being at the show…collect his/her info and be sure to enter any relevant details. One never knows who the next millionaire will be, and even janitors know people.
If you can go beyond the collecting their info, perhaps Booking an Appointment is appropriate. If they seem keen to learn more, book a time to chat further later on that day (during the evening portion of the event), the next day, or the following week. Book it on the spot. Open the calendar and get immediate confirmation.
If you can seal the deal, seal it! Get the sale. But this is a golden horseshoe on the foot of a blue whale unicorn. It happens very rarely. You see, although we all want our bottom line to increase, and sales is in the way to make that happen, it cannot be the sole focus of the event, because you will be disappointed.
Have a relentless Follow Up strategy. Enter all the data into your CRM or whatever tool you use, and make a point of touching Everyone EVERYONE. You should have a few tiers of potential clients: Deadbeats, Potentials, Hot Leads. Create a Drip Campaign for the Potentials and Hot Leads. Ping them twice a year with relevant resourceful information. If you don’t have any compelling reason to reach out, keep your email to yourself, hire our team and we can do all this for you: from the trade show selection, the strategy, the engagement, the follow up and so on…to booking the appointment for you to meet with a warm body looking to do business with you and your product and/or services