Why Sales Hates Tradeshow Leads

"Hates" is a harsh word but trust me as a one-time straight commission broker for Shearson Lehman in the Eighties, phone work can be mind numbing. See if the two examples below ring true to you.

First Scenario

This is Chris’ eighth call to Pat over a three week period:

Chris the Sales Person: Hi Pat, this is Chris at Ajax. I am so glad we connected. I want to thank you for giving us your time in the booth at the IBX 2011 Show. How can I help you?

Pat the Attendee: Gosh Chris, I was in so many booths at the show and can you remind me what your company does?

Chris the Sales Person We make the o-ring seals for the NDN series of compressors.

Pat the Attendee: Right, well Chris, we don’t use compressors but I want to thank you for the two multi-colored highlighters. They were a big hit and I gave the other to Gary in Engineering. Take care; hope to see you next year!

Second Scenario

Chris the Sales Person: Bob this is Chris at Ajax. I got a note to call you ASAP. How can I help you?

Bob the Attendee (a little confused): I spent 25 – 30 minutes in your booth with your engineering manager discussing what he thought were the best solutions for the problems I have been having with my NDN series compressors. Didn’t he send his notes?

Chris the Sales Person: No but maybe I can help. How many compressors do you use at your facility? Is your customer base local, regional or national?

Bob the Attendee (a bit peeved): Actually Chris, I have 157 NDN compressors around the world in 27 facilities. Your team needs to communicate better but I think you answered the important question. Good Luck Chris.

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“B2B marketers who emphasize lead volume over lead quality reduce sales efficiency, increase campaign costs, and fuel the gap between sales and marketing.”
Laura Ramos, Forrester Research

If you go to 25 tradeshows a year and you scan on average 125 badges per show, you are delivering 3125 unique names to the sales organization. Of that 3125, there is a good chance that the majority came in the booth (possibly shanghaied from the aisle) and handed your latest’s promotional item during a badge scan (no doubt the person who shanghaied the most got an American Express $50 gift certificate). Unfortunately, the sales team has to follow up on 2,000 badge scans (you can’t really call them leads) that are dead ends. Considering it takes on average 5 calls to reach a person at their desk, this equates to 10,000 wasted phone calls. Is it any wonder sales has little respect for tradeshow leads?

What really hurts is the “Bob’s” of the world that got away.

We are experiencing a paradigm shift in tradeshow and event industry. The LeadWare™ software platform offers the comprehensive functionality needed to reverse the negative effects of the conventional wisdom for data collection at tradeshows.

I am reaching out to you because you represent the strategic thinkers in your company and understand that alignment to a new and valid paradigm is important to achieving your tradeshow and event strategic objectives.

Capture Technologies is a software development company in its tenth year. We have supported the largest IT hardware provider in the world and the largest agricultural company in the world for many years with LeadWare™. Other LeadWare™ clients include: Canon, Fujitsu, Maritz Travel, HSM Group, Lincoln Financial Group and McGraw-Hill; we support events worldwide for the majority of the Fortune 50 and the thousands of companies using our software each year. We have saved two of the above companies over $300,000 in two years just in tradeshow lead retrieval costs alone.

The Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of LeadWare™ is admirably low. Even for the smallest company, the TCO of our software services cost less than what they normally budget for inferior tradeshow provided lead retrieval. LeadWare™ can reduce pressure on your tradeshow budget and have a significant positive effect on your tradeshow investment return.

Our process driven web platform will allow your company to dramatically improve tradeshow performance. Contact me or have one of your team call me. I know we can help you improve your tradeshow ROI.