How to Generate Real Leads from Tradeshows/Conferences

Conferences and tradeshows have a bad (ok, terrible) reputation for generating worthwhile leads. For good reason! However, it’s not the tradeshows’ fault – the responsibility for lead generation falls to the attendees, who have to carefully think through the whole lead generation process (including prior preparation and post-event follow through) on how to generate business from events. You need a process that emphasizes quality of leads over quantity of names.

The Team
– Who is the person responsible for lead generation for the specific event?
– Who is the “event sales team”? (Who are the sales reps/people doing the work?) It’s best to have a consistent team of people for the entire process: preparation, execution at the conference, and follow through.
– How is success going to be measured? This is never about the number of names logged at an event. Is it qualified pipeline generated after 1-3 months? Closed business over the next 3-6 months?

Phase 1: Preparation
(1) Get list of the attendees or their companies. Preferably at least 2-3 weeks in advance.

(2) Review and really prioritize the list. Go far quality over quantity: it’s better to target fewer, better-fit companies.

(3) Have the event sales team prospect in and make initial contact to research the targets: do they have a current competitive system? Who are the right decision makers to target? etc. They might even be able to set some appointments up at the actual event.

(4) Prepare a “Cheat Sheet” summarizing key points about the target companies at the event. This information makes it easy to start real conversations with target prospects (“I understand from John Davis that you use Siebel in your Institutional division…”).

Phase 2: The Event
(1) Have some of the event sales team staff the event to proactively find the target prospects (cheat sheet in hand of course).

(2) Log every conversation as soon as possible in salesforce.com, to ensure the details don’t get lost in the shuffle.

(3) DISQUALIFY people and avoid indiscriminately scanning every badge that comes by your booth! If you can actually determine if some people would be a waste of time as a prospect, it’s better to reduce the clutter and keep them out of the leads list! There is a cost to them: 1) it makes it harder to find and focus on the good leads, and 2) sales reps will be wasting their time calling on that lead.

Phase 3: Follow Through
(1) Have the same event sales team continue to prioritize and work the list of target prospects, which should now be that much further along the prospecting cycle after all the contact made at the event.

(2) What can you do to make the next tradeshow even more successful? What worked or didn’t?