Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Qualifying leads at Trade Shows – a true story


Before Social Media, SEO, or Hubspot, companies had to engage with prospects in a very strange way - they actually had to talk with them, often in person.  And, of course, just as there is now a right and wrong way to qualify leads, there was back then as well. 
The following is an example of the wrong way :
I was doing booth “duty” at a large trade show in New York, for a company that sold sophisticated software to large corporations.  Our targeted audiences were people who worked in large organizations and consultants who could help us get into those corporations.
All attendees were given badges that contained their contact info in electronic form so that exhibitors could easily capture that info by scanning those badges with an electronic “wand”.
While standing in our booth I noticed one of our young, eager marketeers latching on to anyone who came near her.  She would cheerfully introduce herself, smile, and ask if she could scan their badge.  Unfortunately, no one turned her down. 
The situation got out of hand when I saw her approach a 14-year-old wearing a Yankee cap, backwards.  As she smiled and got her wand ready, I began to feel an urge to scream out “Cease and desist!” but realized that my yelping wouldn’t do much for our corporate image.  Instead, I calmed down and approached the perpetrator.  The following conversation took place:
Me: “Hi Carol, can I have a word with you?”
Carol: “Can it wait? There are a ton of people out here.”
Me: “No it can’t, I need to talk with you now.”
 (We walk away from the crowd to the back of our booth)
Me: “Carol, why are you scanning children’s badges?”
Carol: “I was told to scan the badges of as many people as possible, since we need to capture as many leads as we can for the sales force, it’s our job.”
Me: “How much software do you think that kid with the baseball cap can afford to buy?”
Carol: “Well, he’ll get entered into our database and we can categorize him appropriately.”
Me: “Why bother to enter him at all?  So he can be a record that will take up space which we’ll have to maintain for years?  Do you want to be the sales rep that calls our Yankees fan next week?  Should we waste time sending him emails and letters over the next five years?”
Carol: “But in a few years, he might be old enough to be a prospect.”
Me: “Ok, so if he is a prospect in 9 years when he gets out of college, then let’s capture him then.  Between now and then, who knows what will happen?”
Carol: “But I’m supposed to get leads from this show, that’s my job.”
(At this point, it was getting close to 5 PM.  The trade show had hired a catering service which was in the process of setting up booths to sell food and beverages)
Me: “Carol, come with me for a minute.”
(We walk over to one of the booths.)

Me: “Carol, you see these meatballs?  They come from a cow.  Let’s say the cow was named Elsie.  Let’s say there was a badge next to the meatballs for Elsie.  Should we scan that badge too?”
Carol shoots me a dirty look.
Me: “Look,  I know we need leads, but there has to be some level of intelligence in determining what badges we scan and what badges we don’t.  And I am here to tell you, that our Yankee friend is about as likely to buy software as Elsie is.  Should we scan Elsie into our database so we ‘categorize her appropriately’ as well?  So why bother to do it with Master Backwards Yankees Cap!”
Carol: “I see.”
Me: “Thank you, sorry for going crazy here, but I needed to prove my point.”
Carol: “How come the VP of Marketing never explained it to me this way?”
Me: “Actually, I am glad he wasn’t at this show.”
Carol: “Why?”
Me: “Because he would have scanned Elsie’s badge.”