Current State of Exhibitor Lead Follow-Up
We have released Part 1 of our Industry Report on the Current State of Exhibitor Lead Follow-Up for our colleagues in the conference, trade show & event industry.
As an organizer of trade shows and events your job is to run the show or event, attract the targeted audience and provide exhibitors the opportunity to achieve their respective business objectives. Frankly, most organizers do this with great expertise and success year after year.
It’s then up to the exhibitors to engage with attendees to generate sales leads, further customer relationships and create brand awareness.
So how are exhibitor’s doing? Unfortunately, not good enough!
In the B2B world, lead generation, qualification, nurturing and conversion is a BIG subject, and the contribution of leads from trade shows and events is only one source. Yet, if done right could be the most cost effective lead source. Just think what exhibitors will say and do if they can’t wait to exhibit again at your show or event.
You should help exhibitors improve their lead system, and this subject is broken down into two white papers industry reports so that your marketing and sales staff might reach out and provide this content to your exhibitors to assist them in improving lead generation results. In essence, view it as your method to improve customer relationships!
KEY FINDINGS
The largest line item in the marketing budget ranging between 20-40% and averaging 22%.
The average B2B company exhibits at 10 shows per year.
65% of Exhibitors Do Not establish a pre-show goal for the quantity of leads they want to generate.
Nearly 60% of exhibitors do not have a formal lead ranking process.
Only 67% of exhibitors train staffers on how to qualify leads.
Nearly 60% of exhibitors do not know what percent of leads obtained at trade shows convert to sales.
60% of firms wait six or more days before the initial follow-up is done.
What does this mean for organizers? Two things:
There is great room for improvement in the lead follow-up process for most exhibitors.
You can help, and if you do not only will exhibitors return each year, but also might increase their show square footage.
The next industry report white paper on this topic is titled, The 5 Steps to High Yield Trade Show Lead Follow-Up and Qualification. Our intent is to provide helpful information that you should pass along to your exhibitors assisting them to improve results and their justification to return to your show or event. Look for it in the next several weeks.
