Lead qualification is important in optimizing the marketing process, and in maximizing efficiency of the sales pipeline. Everyone has recognized the need for getting the right kind of leads, rather than a large volume of leads that would be ultimately worthless because the majority of them wouldn’t convert.
But the lead qualification process for events can still use streamlining to get qualified, hot leads. Just following the first principles of lead qualification would dramatically improve the quality of leads.
Since we’re talking about first principles here, let’s consider the Pareto Principle. The Pareto Principle says that 80% of your results come from only 20% of your efforts. So let’s look at that 20% of your Lead Qualification efforts at events, that’s going to deliver 80% of your results.
Let’s start with the three stages of event communications:
Before the Event:
Qualify your attendees:
This ties back to your buyer personas. (Check out these resources about it.).
Having the right messaging goes a long way into ensuring that the right kind of people. This is how Dell-EMC did it for their recently concluded Dell EMC World 2017.
Source: www.dellemcworld.com
Their main website shows clear copy – “It’s all about the numbers”. They sell Enterprise Tech Software, and the businesses that are going to need their services are usually numbers driven, looking to optimize their internal process. This immediately qualifies those kind of people, and drives them to the event. The right copy has boosted conversion rates in the range of 38% – 115%, so the bottom line is to deliver copy that is tailored to the kind of leads you want to attract.
During the event:
This stage needs pre-planning, so it’s time to whip out the personas again. Take your customer wish-list from your Marketing Analysts and cross-reference them with the list of attendees that you will find on the event website. Now you know the leads to look for.
Also, when you are approached by a prospect, here’s a quick list to inform your lead qualification process:
- Is this a lead, or an enquiry? Or do they just like my shiny booth?
- Does this company really need my service?
- Can this executive make the purchasing decision?
Lead Qualification can quickly become a complicated machine, but the core principles are this, and this works as a mental checklist, to qualify them in your head even before they hit your leads database.
Also, this is the stage where you collect data for your post-event activities, which would further strengthen your relationship with leads, and hopefully bump them up from a warm to a hot lead.
This is easier said than done, and that’s where Jifflenow comes in!
Post-event:
You now have all your leads, and the bulk of your work is done. This is the part where time is of the essence. Applying the 20% principle here, all you need to do is to get these warm leads as fast as you can into your sales pipeline, and assign the ones not ready into a Lead-Nurturing or Drip Marketing campaign. We realize that this is common advice, but the key here is just this – ACT FAST.
We specifically wanted to focus on getting the basics of lead qualification at events right, and we’ve hope we’ve covered enough ground to positively influence your next event.
If you are looking for a way to have more meaningful meetings at your next event, we have just the thing for you!
