Joe's Corner 7- Trade Show follow-up

Written on the 12th of August 2010 by Joe Borg

Following up

Hi Exhibitors, we’re back to discuss the most important element in being successful at trade shows.

In my last article I finished by saying that 83% of exhibitors do not follow up. One thing that is very certain is that if you do not follow up on your leads in an effective way, you may as well have stayed home and saved your money.

Getting ready to do the follow up:

• Record your plan of action, by noting phone numbers, email addresses, web address, any promises you have made at the show.
• Your follow up must not take more than a few days. If this cannot be helped, then send a quick email saying you’ll be in touch soon. Give an agreed date and time for your call.
• Make sure you record the type of business; location; and size of business you are gong to be dealing with. Researching through their website will give a lot of leverage when dealing with your new lead

Make a plan as to how you want to proceed with your calls i.e.

• Make enough time for the phone call.
• Make sure you have noted the reason for your call; this should not be a sales call, but rather to set up a face to face meeting
• Write down what you want to say, so you stay focused on the conversation
• Keep the conversation to a minimum, but always with the focus on another meeting
• Always have a plan on how to bypass the gatekeeper by saying that your call is expected
• You must have always an answer to the question “ Why should we use your product”

You are now ready to set yourself for the phone call, but before you do:

• Have a look at your desk, if it’s all clattered like mine, make space
• Prepare a blank sheet of paper with the leads details attached to it, this way you always know which lead you are speaking with
• If you are in front of your computer turn it off, so you don’t get distracted by incoming emails

You are now as ready as you will ever be to make those important follow ups.

Some other important factors to apply in and during your conversation are:

• Consider standing up, you will feel more positive doing so
• Expect a positive conclusion, you know your product can be of a benefit to your lead, and your lead is expecting just that
• Make sure you listen to everything your lead is saying. Pay your full attention
• Make sure you don’t get into too much detail
• Stay focused on the reason of this call

In conclusion keep this short list of easy procedures when following up:

• Contact as soon as possible after the event
• Use more than one way to contact your leads
• Always add your leads to your database
• Send them further information pertaining to the product or service you are offering. Widen the knowledge base of your lead
• Call more than once, not to make a sale but more importantly to enhance your relationship

There is one little story I would like to finish with.

“ A multi million dollar company with a considerable sales force all them following their leads, and making their sale quotas asked young Tim who just been appointed to the sales team to pick up all the leads that were discarded by the other sales people. Within 6 weeks Tim started bring in $1.3 million dollars per month to the company”

Big leads, small leads, hot leads, or warm leads, are all value leads. Use them to their full potential

Good luck

Next week’s article on Measuring your Return on the Investment, will conclude this series of articles.