After the show is over, how do I followup?

Fast. There are companies and salespeople who email quotes, confirmations and copies of orders directly from their exhibit booth to the office of the prospect or customer. That’s real fast.

As competition gets fiercer, speed becomes a lethal weapon. Better put the lack of speed can be fatal in the selling process. How fast you respond to your trade show or business fair leads will be the measure of your success. If you’re not following up within 3 days your competitor has beat you to the punch (and sale).

If you got 200 leads from the show, here are some ideas on how to convert them into sales. Many of the methods and techniques listed here are things you should have done weeks before the trade show took place.

If you find yourself in the large group of people who didn’t make follow up plans before the show, make followup an integral part of preshow planning the next time you exhibit. Not only will preplanned followup increase your results, it will help you improve the way you generate leads on the trade show floor.

If you have difficulty following up, the answers to these questions will tell you why:

• Do you have a game plan that was finished before the trade show started?
• Do you have blank business cards? Turn your business card leads over if there’s nothing written on them, your ability to followup effectively is diminished.
• Do you have a lead sheet or questionnaire that was filled out at the show?
• Do you have a script ready for your followup contact with prospects?

Here’s how to succeed at trade show or business fair followup:

• Define your follow up program before the show. make sure the information you’re gathering matches the information needed for effective followup.
• Meet immediately after the show and review every lead.
• Organize leads by type of followup, and heat (interest level) of prospect.
• Draft a nice short, creative, nonvomit followup letter.
• Email or call every contact within 3 days.
• Have separate contact sheets for each prospect.
• Have a scripted first contact that is creative, and ties back to the information given or gained from the show.

Try these opening lines if you write an email:

• The Business Fair presented me an opportunity to meet you. I’d like to get to know you better…
• We can help! (bold 24point type) From the information you provided us in the questionnaire, we can…

Write an email that gets attention and creates response.

Try these opening lines on the phone:

• Jim, I had an idea about your business after we spoke, but couldn’t find you again at the Fair. What have you thought about… (or how is your company currently using…)
• Bill, I couldn’t wait until the Carolina Business Fair was over to get back to you. I’ve been thinking about…
• I wanted to get together with you a few minutes to show you some things about () that I didn’t get a chance to address at the Business Fair. I could do it in under 5 minutes. When is good for you?

Create your own lines. Find one or two that work and use them on everyone.

Your entire objective is to get to the next step in your selling cycle. Most of the time it’s an appointment. Whatever it is, focus on completing that step only. Salespeople tend to overshoot the situation and sell too much, too quickly. This makes the prospect nervous and defensive.

Monitor and measure your results. Evaluate your weekly results for two months. This will help you determine the cost per sale and whether or not you will be going back to exhibit next year.

# of live prospects captured at the event.

# of appointments seen this week.

# of new appointments on book (for next week).

# of pending sales approximate value.

# of actual signed contracts amount.

After the business fair or trade show is over, it’s a horse race to the sale. How well you train, how well you’re bred, and who’s riding you, will determine the winner of the race.

If you haven’t done your followup within three days of the show, your competition has.

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