CHICAGO — Today’s show organizers are faced with a challenge: Exhibitors are demanding more from events to prove their ROI, whether that’s return on their investment, involvement, objectives or experiences.
And while event producers continue focusing on bringing a high-quality audience to their shows, that alone isn’t enough. Without strong lead follow-up processes that actually make a difference to exhibitors and sponsors, those high-quality buyers and attendees aren’t able to be tapped into to drive ROI.
But who is responsible for ensuring follow up is easy, smooth and effective? Ultimately, the responsibility falls on both the show organizers and the participating companies, but each has a critical role to play in this evolving landscape.
The Gaps that Remain
According to various reports, research finds that up to 80% of leads from trade shows are never followed up with — signaling a massive miss in terms of ROI, driving pipeline and generating business at live events. But what’s causing this gap between leads collected and post-show contact?
In a recent webinar hosted by Explori and in partnership with Trade Show Executive, Sarah Gannon, Director of Corporate Events at MathWorks, shared a need to align marketing and sales more intentionally within exhibiting and sponsoring companies.
“We have to partner with our sales teams to make sure that those hot leads that were identified are followed up with,” Gannon said. “Many of the times, those folks don’t even get followed up with, so take ownership over your events and make sure you’re putting in the legwork or assigning it specifically. I know we’re all so busy and that’s a really hard step, but it’s so important, especially when it comes to those whale deals that we could potentially be moving the needle on if we just had that immediate follow up and follow through.”
Related. Joint Webinar from Explori and TSE Dives into Evolving Event Formats and ROI Measurement
And sometimes the challenges arise even before exhibiting companies get to the point of following up; sometimes the issue is with the qualifying process itself.
“In my observation, one of the biggest challenges that trips exhibitors up in qualifying is that they’ll rate an attendee higher based on enthusiasm, rather than facts. Just because someone’s excited to talk with you doesn’t mean they’re a hot lead. Exhibitors need clearly defined categories for leads and a simple process for booth staffers to follow consistently for qualifying and note-taking,” said Robyn Davis, CPTD, CEM, Owner of Exhibitors WINH, LLC. “For follow up, the biggest challenge is typically bandwidth. Exhibitors are running from one show to the next and trying to manage all of their other on-going responsibilities at the same time. As a result, they often delegate follow up and their team members follow their regular outreach processes instead of a trade- show-specific sequence.”
Frustrating Friction Around Systems
Besides a misalignment between internal departments, lead follow-up can be inhibited by systems that don’t integrate well together.
“I’d say system integration is probably key, and that goes on both the event organizers as well as the companies exhibiting. Event organizers that don’t give you the API to their lead retrieval system so you can customize it are a challenge,” said Dean Armintrout, Senior Director of Global Experiential Marketing at Zendesk, in a recent webinar. “If you can use a third party independently to customize your experience and directly integrate into your CRM systems, then that’s a much easier path and faster path for corporations exhibiting at events on the internal side.”
How Event Organizers Can Help
When it comes to the role show organizers play in helping participating companies strengthen their lead follow-up plans, two big efforts stand out for their effectiveness: providing the right tools to score and connect with leads and providing exhibitor education.
One organizer that is helping exhibitors to get a better handle on lead scoring is RX through its Exhibitor Dashboard. Using a lead-management tool that collects and segments all the leads gathered at an event, exhibitors can rate, categorize and download leads into their own CRM and management tools.
Related. How RX (Im)Proves ROI
Tools like MCI’s Plus Lead app also help to simplify lead cultivation, provide lead scoring based on explicit interests and implied behaviors, and prioritize follow ups.
Related. Exploring the Exhibitor Experience Around Lead Follow Up with Robyn Davis of Exhibitors WINH
While there is a plethora of other tools that also provide these services, it’s not always clear what’s available to exhibitors on a show-by-show basis; that’s where exhibitor education comes in.
“First, empower exhibitors to make smart choices,” Davis said. “Be transparent about what’s available and what isn’t, including why it isn’t. That way, exhibitors can adjust their plans accordingly. Some organizers have started setting up digital badges for their official suppliers; that can help exhibitors feel more confident in any services they are considering.
“Next, seek out the benchmarking data your organization can share. Not every organizer can share everything, but surely there’s some data you can provide. Even if it’s just the media approved attendance data or your own observations, that can give exhibitors a better sense of where they stand. Finally, just as organizers create logos, templates and social sharing graphics for use before the show, they could also be doing the same after and, for that matter, year-round. I don’t see this often, but I do think it could be beneficial for everyone. When we start thinking about audience interaction as something we’re doing together (organizers, exhibitors, etc.), we can create a bigger impact.”
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