subject: Conference Success Strategies How To Profit From Your Investment What To Do With The Leads Ge [print this page] Successfully collecting leads from your seminar is one thing. Capitalizing on them is another. The management of those leads is another thing. In the current economic downturn, it's even more important than ever that those leads generate business.
Believe it or not, it has been estimated by marketing experts that 80% of the efforts to generate leads are wasted. Sales departments tend to ignore them. It makes no sense to put forth the money and efforts to generate these leads if you don't follow up on them.
The source of leads in a seminar may be the attendees themselves. However, your company should be using this opportunity to generate even more leads with displays, contests, registrations, invitations, etc.
Qualifying Leads
Understanding that not all the leads you collect will have the potential for becoming prospects. Some of them can't be contacted; others may have already purchased the product you're selling. In some cases, financial capacity is lacking.
When you are determining whether your lead is worth developing, you are said to be "qualifying" that lead. If your questionnaire has been effectively designed, you can do some of this qualifying at the time you collect them. Determining that the person can't be contacted may take an initial effort to do so.
However, you can ask whether this potential customer has already purchased your product on your questionnaire. In evaluating financial capacity, you may be able to use publicly available information about a company to know that they can't afford to purchase the product.
Strategies for Developing Leads
Be prompt in sending requested information. Any delay reduces response. Have your response mechanism in place and make sure it's managed effectively so the materials get out quickly.
Enter all inquiries in a database so they can be cultivated, nurtured, and qualified. From this database can come many kinds of promotion that will lead to sales.
Qualify your leads. This needs to be done before they are distributed to those people who will be following them such as sales people, dealers, or even distributors.
Don't let leads sit and wait until you have an accumulation. As soon as a lead is qualified, it should go to the sales contacts immediately.
If you have leads that are not yet qualified, develop a plan for cultivating and nurturing them.
Before you even start, put a measurement and tracking program in place so you can see what is working and what is not. Can your lead generation be tweaked? What about your cultivation of leadsis that working? Also, what kind of sales follow-up programs do you have in place?
It's important that lead qualifying and development plans be in place before the leads are collected if your sales and lead follow-up programs are to be successful and yield business.
