For those who want the condensed version of the #expochat summary click here
For those who want the full version of the discussion you can download the pdf here: ExpoChat-22312
Expochat topic for Wednesday, February 22nd, 3PM ET
It was pretty clear during the last chat what this week’s topic would be. Lead Follow-up. Stephanie and I decided it was a high priority and something we should attack right away. However, if we are going to do this we need your help. We need exhibitors on the chat. As show organizers we can talk until we are blue in the face trying to figure out a solution to what we think is the problem. We need exhibitors on this chat to tell us what the problem really is.
Show organizers…reach out to your exhibitors and invite them to participate next week…then remind them the morning of the chat.
Suppliers…reach out to exhibitors you work with an invite them to join us…then remind them the morning of the chat
Exhibitors…reach out to someone on your sales team and invite them to the chat…invite someone you know who is also an exhibitor who might have some ideas to fix things. Then remind them the morning of the chat.
Then we will turn the discussion to creative ways shows and exhibitors can work together to solve the problem.
This chat is not a bitch session. We already know there is a problem and we do not need to spend any time discussing that part of the issue. We will be moving right into…where does the breakdown occur and how can we solve the problem.
As Stephanie said, we’ve been doing things the same way for years and clearly that is not working. It’s time we came up with a new way of doing things or we’ll be talking about this same problem 25 years from now.
If we have a productive chat next week…and I’m sure we will because everyone on #expochat is just brilliant and creative…we’ll be putting together a white paper so we can spread our #expochat solutions all through the exhibit industry.
Chat Questions (Thank you Scott Lee for your input on ?’s from exhibitor POV!)
Q1: Exhibitors – What is your definition of a lead vs. inquiry? Show organizers – do you see them as being different?
Q2: What information should be collected during registration that would aid in lead qualification
Q3A: For exhibitors – how do you follow up on leads? Is it co policy and/or supported by the co?
Q3B: If you don’t follow up, why not? Resources? Poor planning? Time?
Q4: For organizers – does your exhibitor education program include tips for following up on leads? How?
Q5: For organizers – Besides a post-event survey, what other follow-up programs do you use to measure the exhibits’ results?
Q6: For all – What’s the best tip you can give to help follow up on leads?
Q7: What are the next steps to improving lead follow-up?
Join us on February 22nd and make trade show history!