Jim Cermak TradeShowU.biz
Episode 012 – Answering YOUR Burning Questions – Qualified Leads, Getting the Most of Your Staff, & Follow-Ups
I have been getting so many fantastic questions from Trade Show U listeners. So I picked three of the most popular burning questions and answer those in this episode. I’ll be featuring more listener questions in future episodes! Don’t worry – when you send me a question, I’ll answer it right then and there. You won’t have to be waiting for the next Q&A episode!
Question #1 – How can I determine Qualified leads vs. tire kickers?
· This is the million-dollar question! I only wish more companies asked for it!
· Determining qualified leads vs tire kickers, it’s all on you. Unfortunately, it doesn’t say “Qualified Lead” on the name badges and doesn’t tell you on a business card or when you scan a badge.
· And because qualification is different for each company, that means you have to ask questions!
o Qualifying the attendees is necessary.
§ The first step is to determine what a qualified lead looks like. Start by looking at your current clients or customers. What industry are they in? What size company? What title is the decision-maker? Whatever the criteria are for your business.
§ Determine the one or two most important criteria. Then craft questions to determine if the show attendees you will be talking to meet your criteria.
Question #2 – How do I get the most out of each person working our booth?
· This is a struggle for most companies. Just like each company has its A player, B players, and people all the way down the alphabet, you will have a variety of skill sets and motivation in your booth.
· Training is the great first step because if they are unaware of what they need to know or are supposed to do, they’re even more likely to check out. But the real keys are Goal Setting and Accountability for each person.
o With goal setting, of course, each person should know the overall goals, but performance is more likely to happen when they have an individual goal and they know how they personally will help reach their overall goals.
o Then it’s backing it up with accountability.
· I suggest going back to Episode 002 – Training your booth staff for Success for a deeper dive into this topic
Question #3 – I am frustrated by the Lack of client’s interest when following up after the show. What would you recommend?
· This is a great question, and I’m sure most if not all of us have experienced this.
· After the show you’re excited to follow up with the people you met at the show and you get “Not interested” or “Who are you?” or no response at all.
· You will never be able to avoid this 100% of the time because sometimes people just stopped by to get in your drawing or grab your giveaway.
· Here are a couple of things you can do to maximize the effectiveness of your follow up and the majority of it is determined by you in your booth:
o Make sure you are following up with a qualified lead. Talked about this earlier in the episode.
o Make sure they are the decision-maker or part of the decision-making process
o Let them know while they’re still at your booth how you will be following up with them and what you’ll be discussing. They should leave your booth expecting your follow-up!
§ “Thanks for stopping by our booth, Chris. What happens next is I’m going to give you a call next week (or someone from our team), and we’ll go over the pricing of our deluxe package which we discussed today. Does that work for you?”
§ Maybe you even set up a specific date and time. May not be easiest in a show setting.
o Then to reinforce and remind about the follow-up – send an email with the details of the follow-up. Chris – great meeting you at the XYZ Show last week in Orlando. We discussed our Deluxe package, and I promised to give you a call later this week with the pricing information you were interested in. I look forward to talking with you.
· So to summarize how to increase the effectiveness of your follow-ups so you’re not calling people who all of a sudden have no interest, do these four things:
o 1 – Make sure they are a qualified lead
o 2 – Determine their place in the decision-making process
o 3 – Confirm the follow-up before they leave the booth with specifics – people remember specifics.
o 4 – Then follow up after the show with an email reminder
o Do all these things and you will increase the odds of having successful follow-ups.
About the author, Jim
Jim Cermak has over 25 years of marketing, consulting, and training experience, and has planned and worked hundreds of Trade Shows. He gets a little overly excited about Trade Shows, and puts that passion into helping companies get better results!
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