Qualifying Leads - After the show?

Date: 
Tuesday, November 11, 2008 - 11:45am

I recently received a follow up email from a business expo that I attended two weeks ago:

Dear Jason Kallio,
Thank you for attending the (business expo name). We are interested in helping you improve your company's IT services. In order to best serve you, please respond, indicating to us which service is of particular importance to you--network support or website development. For a more detailed description of these services, feel free to visit our website at (company's website). Thanks again, and we look forward to receiving your reply!

First, I want to congratulate this company for sending the follow up email in just over two weeks. It was received on a Monday which I will say was a calculated choice instead of me getting it on a Friday.

The next thing that struck me: You are trying to qualify me in an email after the show. Why didn't you qualify me at the show when you got my card? If you had, then you would have sent me a more specific follow up email. You would be a step further in your sales process.

Ok, they didn't qualify me. What could they have done better after the show to get me to act? For starters, write a more compelling email and personalize it. The person's signature wasn't even at the end of the email. There is no way I'm going to remember their name if they follow up with a phone call.

Speed of execution is the key to a successful trade show strategy. Their booth staff was not trained properly on how to qualify attendees. Properly trained, they would have found out that I'm not even a prospect.

What could they have done to improve their strategy? Could they have qualified attendees before the show even started?

 

Jason this is so typical of

Jason this is so typical of trade show exhibitors. They could have qualified better at the show for sure, but the response should happen within a couple of days form the show. The e-mail is lacking and almost sounds like they don't want you to call because they might have to sell. The e-mail although late, could have said that they were going to follow up with a call and at a specific time and if you had a moment, to view the site it would prepare you and save time during the conversation. I learned that follow up should happen right after the show preferably the next day with a letter and a phone call. Maybe they are a client for your services!
Feed Icon
XML Icon
Google
Yahoo!
MSN
AOL