Quickly Qualify Leads - Why Pre-Show Training is Essential Part 2

Why Pre-Show Training is Essential – Part 2

In last week’s blog post, we started discussing the importance of pre-show training for your booth staff (read what you missed in last week’s blog post about adapting conversations according to each visitor’s specific situation). This week, we’ll continue our discussion with another benefit.

A properly trained booth staffer can also…

QUICKLY QUALIFY LEADS FOR EFFICIENT FOLLOW UP

Expectations should have a prominent place in any training session. In this case, I am not only referring to your expectations regarding your team’s behavior in the booth, but it is also important to note the types of visitors you expect your staff to meet. Last week, we discussed how understanding this variation would help your staff connect with visitors, but this week, we expand upon that to discuss how your team’s understanding will help them move through the sales process and enable your sales team at home to stand out from the competition during follow up efforts.

First, you’ll want to sort through the list of companies scheduled to exhibit and those who may send representatives to attend (if you don’t already have this information, you can obtain it from the show management). When you consider your target audience, available offerings, and event goals, this group of professionals should be relatively easy to separate into categories. Then, you can prioritize these categories according to your personalized “hot to not” scale. Creating a short hand language and teaching it to your team will help your staff record pertinent information quickly and legibly so it can be conveyed to your sales team for follow up.

Trade shows tend to produce a flurry of activity so between the business cards, badge scanners, and lead sheets, the specific details you worked so hard to obtain may get lost if your team isn’t prepared to effectively and efficiently qualify those who visit your booth. Click here to request an e-mail based mini-series that can help you with the concept of “quality leads” and the steps discussed above.

This stage of your pre-show training provides a great opening for you to remind your team specifically who they should be looking for (especially any key clients and prospects – these are your “must see” attendees) as well as anyone they should politely avoid (like disgruntled past-employees and competitors who may be looking to stir up trouble – these are your “don’t see” attendees).

Key Training Items: expected visitors (by company, size, and type), defined target audience, priority ratings and “short hand” for qualifying notes, “must see” and “don’t see” attendees

I hope this information has been helpful to you so far, but don’t forget to check back in next week when we discuss one more benefit of pre-show training (and which items you need to include to obtain that benefit at your next event)!

Robyn Davis - Owner, When I Need Help (WINH)

Robyn helps exhibitors improve their results at conventions and trade shows by providing on-site sales and marketing support, pre-/post-event consulting services, and convenient products. Contact Robyn to discuss your situation today!

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