Exhibitor Education + a Lead Management Plan = Success!

April 10, 2015

David Lawton

David Lawton, EVP of Sales at Convention Data Services has over 20 years of experience in the tradeshow industry with 6 of those years as an active exhibitor at numerous shows each year. His diverse background also includes experience in sales, customer support, design and product development. ConventionDataServices.com.

Your booth space is reserved. It’s in a great location on the show floor and has the potential for maximum exposure and foot traffic. Now is the time to create your lead management plan to drive traffic to your booth.

A solid plan for your next event starts well before the first badge is scanned in your booth. Capturing the lead

is only 10% of the equation. By taking advantage of educational and marketing opportunities, you are ensuring a successful event.

The business-to-business exhibition is the marketing channel of choice among brand marketers who include this channel in their marketing mix and captures over 40 percent of the companies’ total marketing dollars. (Source: CEIR Report: The Marketing Spend Decision)

1. Set Lead Goals

· Determine your targeted number of booth visitors and define your objectives. Are you going for a large and varied number of leads or a targeted type of lead?

· Determine who your “hot” prospects are and communicate to your booth staff an action plan around how to handle them when they visit your booth.

· Calculate your event ROI—make sure to revisit your calculations after the event to assist with planning your next exhibit goals.

· Challenge your sales reps to a sales competition to see who can capture the most sales leads or who can best qualify the most attendees through answering sales qualifiers, survey questions and entering notes.

The top three highest ranked exhibiting goals for exhibitors: reach/identify new customers and sales leads, build product and company awareness and meet existing customers.

(Source: CEIR Report: The Marketing Spend Decision)

2. Participate in Pre-Event Education

· One-on-one demos are a best practice for lead retrieval equipment training. Also take advantage of onsite training in your booth. These services ensure that your entire booth staff is ready to go when the show opens, allowing you to get the most from your exhibiting and lead retrieval experience.

· Official vendor webinars provide a valuable array of information and tips on pre-event marketing opportunities that will drive visitors to your booth such as attendee lists, exhibitor emails, VIP emails, sponsorships, badge inserts and booth giveaways that you can advertise to generate leads.

· Exhibitor advisory groups provide an opportunity to speak with other exhibitors, discuss best practices, learn about new innovations and share successful strategies.

3. Create Pre-Event Marketing Campaigns

· Email blasts: work with your lead retrieval provider to create customized blasts to send to prospects and registered attendees. Prominently feature an invitation to visit your booth and include giveaways or events you are sponsoring. Get your company’s name and booth on attendees “to visit” list before they get onsite.

· Exhibitor Evites: invite top prospects and existing clients to the event with free or discounted rates to the exhibit hall and track the responses and acceptances from your VIP list.

· Seek out speaking opportunities to not only educate the audience on new ideas or best practices, but to also promote your own products or services.

4. Customize and Maximize Your Lead Capture

· Create custom sales qualifiers to capture the demographics of the attendees who visit your booth.

· Set up survey questions with preloaded answers to identify specific product interest, purchasing level and post-show actions.

· Use the open notes field to log specific conversation highlights and other pertinent information for follow-up. Clear, detailed notes will arm your sales team with the information necessary to close the deal.

· Take pictures of specific products that leads are interested in and save/attach them directly to the lead.

· Each lead is unique. Assign the appropriate sales person to contact each lead to discuss specific needs.

5. Use Social Media to Advertise Your Company’s Event Participation

· Send out a press release through an industry publication or local newspaper to announce your participation in the event and any new products you are introducing at the event.

· Tweet or post photos or videos to Facebook featuring a new product you are introducing at the event. Feature your executives and booth staff so attendees can recognize them on the show floor.

· During the event create excitement about your booth and product offerings by tweeting, blogging or creating a Facebook post about real-time events happening in your booth such as celebrity or VIP visitors.

6. Follow-up!

· Begin your lead follow-up immediately on the show floor. Access your leads during the show to send out follow-up emails with appointment requests and product/service information.

· Customize and target your follow-up on qualifiers, surveys and notes collected on the show floor for each lead. Don’t just send a generic letter and catalog.

· Set up and schedule a “thank you” email blast through your lead retrieval provider. It’s important to send out an immediate first touch communication and thank you to your leads as well as a daily email to everyone who visited your booth, thanking them for their time and for their interest in your company’s products and services.

· Distribute the leads to your sales team and have them follow up with outbound phone calls ASAP.

· Access your leads reports both during the show and post-show. The reports provide demographic summaries, determine peak lead capture times and locations and will also assist with staffing needs for future events.

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Partner Voices

Women at the Helm: Lisa Messina, Chief Sales Officer, Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority

Less than six months ago, Lisa Messina joined the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) as the first-ever chief sales officer after leading the sales team at Caesars Entertainment. A 12-year Las Vegas resident, Messina is a graduate of Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration and serves on MPI International’s board of directors. TSNN had a chance to catch up with this dynamic leader and talk to her about her vision for the new role, current shifts in the trade show industry, creating more diversity and equity within the organization, and advice to future female leaders. Lisa Messina, Chief Sales Officer, LVCVA With Las Vegas becoming The Greatest Arena on EarthTM, what are some of the things you’re most excited about in your role? Our team was at The Big Game’s handoff ceremony earlier this month, and I couldn’t help but think, “We’re going to crush it next year!” These high-profile events and venues not only drive excitement, but also provide unmatched opportunities for event planners. Allegiant Stadium hosts events from 10 to 65,000 people and offers on-field experiences. Formula 1 Grand Prix will take place in Las Vegas in November, after the year-one F1 race, the four-story paddock building will be available for buyouts and will also offer daily ride-along experiences that will be available for groups. And, of course, the MSG Sphere officially announced that it will open in September, ahead of schedule, with a U2 residency. It’s going to be the most technologically advanced venue as far as lighting, sound, feel, and even scent, and it will be available for buyouts and next-level sponsorships inside and outside. There’s no ceiling to what you can do when you’re doing events in Las Vegas. Allegiant Stadium As the trade show and convention business returns to the pre-pandemic levels, what shifts are you noticing and how do you think they will impact the industry going forward? Our trade show organizers are very focused on driving customer experience. Most of our organizers are reporting stronger exhibitor numbers and increased numbers of new exhibitors, with trade shows proving to be almost or above 2019 levels. Now our organizers are really doubling down on driving attendance and focusing on the data to provide that individualized, customized experience to help attendees meet their goals and get the best value. Some companies continue to be cautiously optimistic with their organizational spend when it comes to sending attendees, but I think it will continue to improve. As the U.S. Travel Association makes more progress on the U.S. visa situation, we also expect a growing influx of international attendees. What are some innovative ways the LVCVA helps trade show and convention organizers deliver the most value for their events? We focus on customer experience in the same way that trade show organizers are thinking about it. We got rave reviews with the West Hall Expansion of the Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC), so over the next two years, we will be renovating the North and the Central halls, which will include not just the same look and feel, but also the digital experiences that can be leveraged for branding and sponsorship opportunities. Vegas Loop, the underground transportation system designed by The Boring Company, is also a way we have enhanced the customer experience. Vegas Loop at the LVCC has transported more than 900,000 convention attendees across the campus since its 2021 launch. Last summer, Resorts World and The Boring Company opened the first resort stop at the Resorts World Las Vegas , with plans to expand throughout the resort corridor, including downtown Las Vegas, Allegiant Stadium and Harry Reid International Airport. The LVCVA also purchased the Las Vegas Monorail in 2020, the 3.9-mile-long elevated transportation system that connects eight resorts directly to the convention center campus. This is the only rail system in the world that integrates fares directly into show badges and registration. For trade show organizers, these transportation options mean saving time, money and effort when it comes to moving groups from the hotels to LVCC and around the city. Also, the more we can focus on building the infrastructure around the convention center, the more it supports the customer experience and ultimately supports our trade show organizers. Scheduled to debut in Q4, Fontainebleau Las Vegas will offer 3,700 hotel rooms and 550,000 square feet of meeting and convention space next to LVCC. What are some of the plans for advancing DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) within your organization? We’re currently partnering with instead of working with a leading consulting firm, to lay the foundation and create a solid DEI plan and be the leader when it comes to DEI initiatives. The heart of that journey with the consulting firm is also talking to our customers about their strategic approaches to DEI and driving innovation in this space. What are your favorite ways to recharge? My husband and I have an RV and we’re outdoorsy people. So, while we have over 150,000 world-class hotel rooms and renowned restaurants right outside our doorstep, one of my favorite things to do is get out to Red Rock Canyon, the Valley of Fire, and Lake Mead. Five of the top national parks are within a three-hour drive from Las Vegas, so there’s a lot you can do. We love balancing the energy of Las Vegas with nature, and we’re noticing that a lot of attendees add activities off the Strip when they come here. Valley of Fire What advice would you give to women following leadership paths in destination marketing? I think it’s about being laser-focused on what you want to accomplish; building a team around you that lifts you and helps you achieve your goals; and being humble and realizing that you do it as a group. No one gets this done alone. Thankfully, there are a lot of women in leadership in this organization, in our customers’ organizations, and in this city that we can be really proud of. We’re a formidable force that is making things happen. This interview has been edited and condensed. This article is exclusively sponsored by the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority. For more information, visit HERE.