I had four things on my to-do list today:

1. Eat cheese
2. Smell cheese
3. Do some cheesy networking
4. Follow up on cheesy leads

Our home-base of Milwaukee, Wisconsin is hosting the International Cheese Technology Expo just up the road from our office this week. Our strategist has written about prepping for tradeshows the inbound way, but how are you planning to conduct lead follow up post-show? Or, better yet, during the show? With inbound, the final to-do item on my list isn't disa-brie-able at all (see what I did there?).  Don’t make these critical errors when following up on qualified leads. 

Mistake #1: Following Up Too Late

Whether you’re part of a team managing a booth at Cheese Tech Expo or an attendee interacting with potential leads, following up is essential to the successful close of these leads. But there is a very short window in which it makes sense to do your follow-up. They will either forget that they talked to you, or move on to solve another problem, if you wait too long. After all, they've given you parmesan (oh yeah, they keep getting better) to follow-up with them - why wait? Here’s what I recommend:

• Follow them on social media like Twitter immediately (same day, preferably within the first four hours of meeting them).
• Send a follow-up email immediately (preferably the same day, but at the very least, within the first two days after the show ends).
• If they gave you their phone number, call them (any time in  the first four days after the trade show has ended).

Mistake #2: Assuming Everyone Wants a Demo

Just because a qualified lead (in your mind) stopped by your booth to talk, it doesn’t mean they’re ready to see a demonstration of your product at first sign of follow-up. They may still be at the very top of the buyer’s journey, in research mode - not yet ready to consider your solution or make a decision on a provider. Make sure you’re doing grate consultative work, asking the right questions both at the booth and in your follow-up call, to help you determine this:

• When did you start researching potential solutions?
• What have you been learning so far about solutions to your problem, X?
• What is it costing you right now to not have a solution in place?
• Do other people in the company feel the pain of not having a solution, or is your team the main one affected right now?

Mistake #3: No Plan in Place for Continuing Communication with Qualified Leads

If you’re walking away from a trade show like Cheese Tech Expo with some great leads but no plan in place to follow-up, you’re likely to fail at closing them. They're nachos yet! You need a communication plan for follow-up. Typically, it’ll look something like this:

• Immediately follow the lead on Twitter
• Email them within 2-3 days of the initial contact.
• Include a picture of your trade show booth (with your team in it, or with lots of visitors!) to help remind them.
• Include a reference to what you discussed at the trade show and offer a published piece that might help with research.
• Follow up with a phone call in 2 days - how did they like the piece? Do they have any questions? Schedule a discovery call.
• Email them confirming the next scheduled call. Offer a recent related blog post.
• At the discovery call, ask many, many questions.

You get the picture. Planning out your tactics for closing the lead make it a much more likely possibility. I wrote a blog post recently about nurturing leads and how a lead-nurturing strategy works. I hope you’ll check it out for more specifics. In addition, I've written about how a manufacturing company can use our proven empowered sales methodology to close quality leads that have been nurtured - very related to this topic.

Mistake #4: Not Offering Additional Educational Information

The last thing you want to do is continually email or call a lead but have nothing to offer them to further their research. If you’re offering a demonstration of your product, that’s great - but what if they’re just not ready to make a decision yet? You’ll end up with a quality lead and nothing to contact them about for the next six months to keep them warm. Consider working together with your marketing team to create relevant content for those quality leads that you can offer them, both at Cheese Tech Expo and beyond, such as:

• Relevant blog posts
• A related ebook
• A problem-solving spreadsheet

If you’re experiencing pain points related to aligning your sales and marketing efforts when it comes to trade shows, content marketing, or anything else, we’d love to help. Download this free ebook on how to make your outbound marketing efforts more efficient through inbound methods.

If you’re ready to make a change yesterday, contact us for a free assessment today!