Best Practices
An Exhibitor Manager’s Guide to Getting the Most out of Leads
17 Jul 2019 | Heather Pryor | 4 minutes
Getting the most out of your leads can be a vague statement, what does it really mean?
Some exhibitors may be looking to form strategic partnerships while others may be looking to simply sell a product. Helping your exhibitors get the most out of their leads requires a detailed description of who they are going after and what they expect to gain from their target market.
We’ve created this guide to help you and your exhibitors glean the best data from your event attendees.
Know Who’s Who When They Stop By
Each exhibitor is going to have a set of target companies that they’re going after. The first thing you’ll want to do to help your exhibitors is set up their lead devices to recognize representatives of target companies when they stop by. RainFocus calls this feature the target leads feature. Each time one of these targeted clients stop by booth staff will be alerted. With RainFocus year over year reporting tool booth staff will be able to spot returning attendees and continue building positive relationships with them. Make attendees feel recognized by giving them a different pitch than the last time they visited your booth.
Have Questions Prepared
The next thing you should do is make sure that your exhibitors have custom questions set up on their lead devices. With RainFocus Exhibitor Portal, you can create tasks for your exhibitors such as submitting questions to appear on their lead devices. Set your exhibitors up for success by guiding them to ask the questions that will best benefit their company. Some lead device questions may include, How interested are you in our product on a scale from 1-10 or something as simple as What is your email address? It is also important that booth staff ask the right questions to interest passersby and form relationships with potential customers. Help exhibitors determine beforehand what those questions might be. Every company will have its unique draw in.
Integrate and Generate Data
One of the biggest problems associated with lead devices is the risk of losing data throughout the event. RainFocus allows exhibitors to integrate their lead devices with their CRM (Salesforce, Hubspot, etc.) so that data doesn’t get lost during the craziness of the event. This integration allows exhibitors to search through, sort and edit leads. Because our software is so easy to integrate, exhibitors can mark hot leads with tags in Salesforce right after they leave the booth.
Being Presentable
To get leads you have to draw leads in. Part of being presentable is giving attendees a reason to take a second glance at your booth. Advise your exhibitors to dress nicely. How your exhibitors dress will determine what passersby think of their company. Ask them to consider what level of professionalism they want to portray. Maybe they want to show that they are laid back and not so uptight, or maybe they want to show that they mean business. Watch your body language. Exhibitors should be mindful of the message they are physically portraying to target attendees. It is absolutely key that exhibitors refrain from using their phones while at the booth.
Three Be Tactful With Responses
Each RainFocus lead device can be named and used to categorize leads. Naming devices helps event staff remember exactly who talked to who during the event. When someone makes a connection with an attendee, ensure that they are the one to contact that attendee. Friendships now make for partnerships later.
Instant Reports = Instant Results
Don’t let leads sit. Whether they are responding to leads the next day or the next week, exhibitors need access to their leads immediately following the event. Quick automated reporting is useful for more than just following up. Automated reports allow companies to access data at the home office even when the event is happening away from home. While the event is going on, employees at the home office can be sorting and contacting leads as they appear.