Steve Miller, author of ‘HOW TO GET the MOST OUT of TRADE SHOWS’ offers this simple but effective system to optimize the effectiveness of your follow up from the leads you receive at your trade show booth.
First the information you promised to send to each an every visitor to your trade show booth should have been sent within 48 hours of your return from the trade show. Unless you’ve already set an appointment with those visitors right on thetrade show booth floor you need to call them and establish enough of a rapport to do so. Within five working days after the show closes, Miller suggests ‘your packet of information should be in the hands of the prospects’. I would add, in this day and time, emailing the same information may be equally timely … and faster.
The phone call you place can be even more relevant because you can emphasize you promised to send the material and you are merely doing what you promised while at the trade show booth, and simultaneously ask if they have any questions about what has been sent. Here’s where your sales skills and training come into play; if they have not had an opportunity to view the material you sent (and promised them while they were at your trade show display) ask if you can set a definite time to call back to discuss any questions they may have and how you might be able to work with them going forward.
The object of the 5/10/20/40 Follow Up Plan is that each interval – in successive phone calls at five days, ten days, 20 days and 40 days you have made sufficient inroads to know first whether the prospect/suspect warrants further pursuit or not. You’ll know precisely where you stand with this particular individual/company and if he or she is the person who can make the decision to purchase your product or service or not. The beauty of this plan is you’ll know in a rather short span of time exactly where you stand with this sale and whether it requires further pursuit. From the very day any and all visitors come to your trade show exhibit ; you’ll know the hierarchy of sales decision-making for that particular company. If, in the midst of the 5/10/20/40 Follow Up Plan, you determine you are not talking to the right individual then this series of calls is the perfect opportunity to get the name of the correct individual. A blinding glimpse of the obvious? Maybe; but consider this, the rapport you build with that particular individual may lead to a whole series of referrals, networking possibilities or the actual sale by your systematic compilation of information regarding the organization’s wants, need and desires. After all, these particular prospects and suspects may feel a certain sense of obligation to you for the amount of time you have spent in seeking to help them.
The 5/10/20/40 Follow Up Plan will work for you when it’s effectively tied to your preshow planning and dogged pursuit. You will have turned a three to five day trade show display event into a successful three to five month marketing campaign with more positive results by cultivating new contacts and closing more sales.
The phone call you place can be even more relevant because you can emphasize you promised to send the material and you are merely doing what you promised while at the trade show booth, and simultaneously ask if they have any questions about what has been sent. Here’s where your sales skills and training come into play; if they have not had an opportunity to view the material you sent (and promised them while they were at your trade show display) ask if you can set a definite time to call back to discuss any questions they may have and how you might be able to work with them going forward.
The 5/10/20/40 Follow Up Plan will work for you when it’s effectively tied to your preshow planning and dogged pursuit. You will have turned a three to five day trade show display event into a successful three to five month marketing campaign with more positive results by cultivating new contacts and closing more sales.
Jim Deady is the president of Showstopper Exhibits, LLC in Richmond, VA. You can view his site: www.showstopperexhibits.com. Contact him @ jim@deady.com or call him @ (888) 440-0377.
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