Trade Shows Ttrue Value: Follow up Leads

By Rhonda Abrams

Gannett News Service

Phew -- I'm exhausted! I just returned from the biggest trade show of the year at which my company exhibits. It was a great show, but we now have very tired feet and a huge collection of business cards from people we met.

Now the work really starts.

It's tempting, after the preparation to get ready for a trade show and the hours on the trade show floor, to come back to the office and just collapse. But the real value of being at a trade show -- why it's worth your money -- comes when you follow up on the leads and contacts you make.

According to trade show industry resources, up to 80 percent of trade show leads aren't followed up. That's a huge waste.

Fortunately, my business is very well organized when it comes to trade shows. After all, we wrote a book on the topic! As a result, we've developed a follow-up system for making sure we get the most out of our trade show dollars:

Organize leads while still at the trade show. Most people return from a trade show with a stack of business cards. At best, they've written something on the reverse side of the card to remind them why a contact is important. At worst, business cards are stuck in different pockets or purses, often getting lost, and you have no idea who Chris Woods from ABC Industry is or why you have his or her card.

Start tracking contacts and leads as you get them. For every trade show, we bring a separate-bound notebook, stapler, and pens. We staple cards into the book as we meet contacts, making notes about who they are and why we should follow up. We never let that notebook out of our sight; it's like gold. You can also create "lead cards" or keep a computer in your booth.

Start the follow-up process as soon as you get back to the office. Yes, you have a stack of phone calls to return, e-mail to answer, and you're exhausted. But don't lose the momentum you've created. Many attendees come back from trade shows re-energized about their own businesses, so it can be a good time to move fast. If you wait more than 48 hours to start following up on trade show leads, there's a good chance you'll never do it.

Have a follow-up "summit" in your office to review leads. Bring all those who will have follow-up responsibility together to discuss the leads, make follow-up assignments and set deadlines. Turn those business cards into an action plan.

Make the first follow-up. The easiest way is to send each lead an e-mail. Thank them for visiting your booth, remind them who you are and what your company does, and tell them they'll be hearing from you again soon. Personalize your message and don't be too vague in your subject line, so they don't think your message is spam.

Do what you've promised -- immediately. If you've had good interactions with strong leads and promised to do something for them when you get back in the office (for instance, send a catalog or sample, or get them some prices or a proposal), do that right away. These are very strong leads and you must move fast.

Add all your new leads and contacts to your company's mailing list and contact management system. The people who aren't in the market for your product or service immediately are still involved in your industry, so they're most likely to know others who may be interested in your products or services.

Follow up again. Of course, many of your contacts will also have been away from their office and will need some time to catch up, so you'll probably have to follow up more than once. Don't be discouraged.

Trade shows are one of the most effective and efficient ways for entrepreneurs to build their businesses. But they take work, before, during and -- especially -- after the show. You've got to turn that pile of business cards into gold.

Rhonda Abrams is the president of The Planning Shop, publisher of books for entrepreneurs. Its latest is "Finding an Angel Investor In A Day." Register for her free business tips at www.PlanningShop.com

At a conference in Dallas not long ago, a graphic designer from Kentucky and I sat down at a table where people were exchanging business cards. I looked at his logo, and he studied the name on my card.

"I know that logo. We've been in touch in the past," I said.

"That's right. I know your name," he said.

Although we weren't able to pinpoint when or why we'd exchanged mail previously, we guessed it had been at least five years back. Neither one of us has an extraordinary memory. Rather, he had created a distinctive visual identity for his design services, and I had devoted effort to linking my name with creative marketing. For at least five years his look and my reputation had lurked in the other's memory banks, while thousands or hundreds of thousands of other business identities had come and gone without leaving a significant trace. Why? Memorability. It illustrates a key element of successful branding.

WHAT IS BRANDING?

Branding is the process of creating distinctive and durable perceptions in the minds of consumers. A brand is a persistent, unique business identity intertwined with associations of personality, quality, origin, liking and more.

enterprises can use branding techniques with great rewards. When a home-based craftsperson ties a nicely designed tag on all her products telling the story of who she is and where her creations come from, she's branding her work. When the local market bundles groceries in bags bearing its logo instead of generic "Thank you!" or plain bags, it's branding.

While we associate brands with national names like Crest, Huggies or Healthy Choice, branding doesn't necessarily require the budgetary resources of Procter & Gamble. Branding doesn't even require a product or a tangible delivery mechanism. When humorist Dave Barry declares in almost every column, "I am not making this up," and refers to "alert reader" so-and-so having sent in some news clipping, he is branding.

Techniques of branding include association of a company with logos, distinctive colors, slogans, musical sounds or songs, unusual qualities, mascots, packaging, a memorable name, behavioral hallmarks and much more. Here I'm going to concentrate on why well-executed efforts to create a brand -- instead of merely doing good work or producing good products -- pay off.

THE BENEFITS OF BRANDING

1. Memorability. A brand serves as a convenient container for a reputation and good will. It's hard for customers to go back to "that whatsitsname store" or to refer business to "the plumber from the Yellow Pages." In addition to an effective company name, it helps when people have material reminders reinforcing the identity of companies they will want to do repeat business with: refrigerator magnets, tote bags, datebooks, coasters, key rings, first aid kits, etc.

Memorability can come from using and sticking with an unusual color combination (FedEx's purple and orange), distinctive behavior (the gas station whose attendants literally run to clean your windshield, the cleaning service that leaves a vase of yellow flowers in each house they clean), or with an individual, even a style of clothing (Senator Paul Simon's bow ties, writer Tom Wolfe's white suits). Develop your own identifiers and nail them to your company name in the minds of your public.

2. Loyalty. When people have a positive experience with a memorable brand, they're more likely to buy that product or service again than competing brands. People who closely bond with a brand identity are not only more likely to repurchase what they bought, but also to buy related items of the same brand, to recommend the brand to others and to resist the lure of a competitor's price cut. The brand identity helps to create and to anchor such loyalty.

Consider the legions of car owners who travelled up to 2,000 miles at their own expense to attend the 1994 Saturn celebration at the company's plant in Spring Hill, Tennessee. That's loyalty. And supposedly, more people have the motorcycle brand "Harley-Davidson" tattooed on their body than any other brand name. That's out-of-this-world loyalty.

3. Familiarity. Branding has a big effect on non-customers too. Psychologists' discovery that familiarity induces liking means that people who have never done business with you but have encountered your company identity sufficient times often become willing to recommend you even when they have no personal knowledge of your products or services. Seeing your ads on local buses, having your pen on their desk, reading about you in the Hometown News, they spread the word for you when a friend or colleague asks if they know a ____ and that's what you do.

4. Premium image, premium price. Branding can lift what you sell out of the realm of a commodity, so that instead of dealing with price-shoppers you have buyers eager to pay more for your goods than for those of competitors. To understand how powerful branding can be, think of some people's willingness to buy the currently "in" brand of bottled water, versus toting along an unlabeled bottle of the same stuff filled from the office water cooler.

This applies in the realm of services too: lawyers who achieve a high profile from having won well-publicized cases or from serving as a "talking head" on television can charge more than equally qualified colleagues. Branding promises that the buyer has a bigger, more significant experience with your product or service. The distinctive value inherent in a brand can even have so much allure that it leads people to dismiss evidence they would normally use to make buying decisions. I once saw one middle-aged Cambridge, Massachusetts, intellectual argue to several colleagues that Dunkin' Donuts' coffee actually tastes better than Starbucks'. So contradictory was this claim to the two companies' relative appeal for this demographic group that the colleagues refused to put the matter to a taste test.

5. Extensions. With a well-established brand, you can spread the respect you've earned to a related new product, service or location and more easily win acceptance of the newcomer. For instance, when a winery with a good reputation starts up regional winery tours, then adds foreign ones, each business introduction benefits from the positive perceptions already in place.

6. Greater company equity. Making your company into a brand usually means that you can get more money for the company when you decide to sell it. A Coca-Cola executive one said that if all the company's facilities and inventory vanished all around the world, he could walk into any bank and take out a loan based only on the right to the name and the Coca-Cola formula.

7. Lower marketing expenses. Although you must invest money to create a brand, once it's created you can maintain it without having to tell the whole story about the brand every time you market it. For instance, a jingle people in your area have heard a zillion times continues to promote the company when it's played without any words.

Atlantic City entrepreneur Murray Raphel tells the story of his clothing store once running a newspaper ad but omitting the store's name and address. People still came in asking for the items listed as on sale in the ad. They knew it was Raphel's store because the ads appeared every week in a distinctive typeface in a certain position in the paper. You don't usually want to do this deliberately, but such is the power of branding!

8. For consumers, less risk. When someone feels under pressure to make a wise decision, he or she tends to choose the brand-name supplier over the no-name one. As the saying goes, "You'll never be fired for buying IBM." For you this means that by building a brand, you fatten your bottom line.

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