Trade Shows Part 7 – It’s All in The Follow Through

Just like a tennis or a golf swing, you only hit your target with a great follow through. I’m writing this about a month after that disgraceful convention of lazy sales people , and I’ve been tracking the follow-up by same. Let’s see how they did.

One week out

I had a form email from a company thanking me for visiting their booth (I hadn’t) and inviting me to contact them in France. I’ll get right on that.

Two weeks out

Another form email from a rep I actually did meet with but who couldn’t be bothered to look at the notes he made on the back of my business card and reference our conversation. He didn’t send the materials we had discussed. He also didn’t bother hiding his very, very large distribution list. I felt so special.

My first stalker! A rep from a company in the same city where I’m based. First she calls my desk phone (I was meeting with someone so didn’t pick up); ten seconds later, my cell rings (still in a meeting). Half an hour later, she lights up both lines again, still not leaving a message.  She was nothing if not determined. But didn’t seem to understand that in not leaving me a message, all she was doing was interrupting me with no response on my part except maybe to change my phone number. I did eventually answer her call and have a discussion.

Then I called someone. A company I had worked with in the past and with whom my current company has some business and, most importantly, where there is significant opportunity to expand that business. Left a voice mail. Two weeks later, no reply. Why would anyone bother going to a trade show if they don’t want more business from existing customers?

Three weeks out

Here it is. The avalanche!. The vendors must have just received the attendee list from the show organizers. Just like Christmas only more data! My mailbox filled up in one morning. Mostly with generic messages thanking me for visiting their booth. One vendor had the bright idea of sending materials for me to read. About 15MB of materials for me to read. This had two effects. First, it filled my mailbox and made it impossible for me to send anything until I cleared out the crap. Second, it made me add them to my junk list.

Four weeks out

Three phone calls. I took two of them. Neither was from anyone who had been at the event. One was from a call centre with so much background noise I couldn’t hear the caller; the other was from a summer student who had been given the fun job of following up the show leads. Remember, these are not $69.00 solutions I can have for three easy payments. These are six-figure deals with very long tails on them.

How sad.  In so many of these companies this dreadful performance by the sales team will drive down the ROI of the event, making it unlikely the Hand Wringers will let them go back next year. And guess who will be at marketing’s door whining that the event isn’t on next year’s calendar?  These marketing departments, however, are also culpable. Why would they spend $50K or more on an event and walk away from the follow through?

BizMarketer is written by Elizabeth Williams
I help companies have better conversations
Drop me a line at ewilliams@candlerchase.com
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