SAO Marketing SIG: Trade Show Lead Follow-Up

By Kate McPherron, technology evangelist

How do you make the most of the leads you worked so hard to generate? At the November 2007 SAO Marketing SIG meeting, expert speakers discussed the actionable steps to take in order to determine which leads to focus on, maximize return on the best leads, and take proper care of the less-than-hot leads.

Moderator: Arne Kainu, president and CEO, Centerstance

Speakers: Susan Linman, president, Dunthorpe Marketing Group, Inc.

Cheryl Kelly, regional director marketing, Microsoft Corp.

Tom O'Keefe, VP of sales, EthicsPoint, Inc.

Question: How do you "score" leads?

Tom O’Keefe:
Like everyone, we focus first on the exciting leads. But that led us to have to decide what a lead was. Our idea of scoring looks more like lead characteristics: budget, timeline, intention, etc. Now, as leads come forward, we triage with more discernment, and that will begin to look more like lead scoring. Up to now, it's important that every lead gets contact. As we get more leads we may need to define those who'll convert from the others.

Susan Linman:
If the organization is not robust enough to do qualifying and scoring of all leads, find another way to do it. Outsource, if you have to. Don't abandon that goal just because the organization is not set up to do it.

Cheryl Kelly:
We don't score leads, but we do capture information and follow up on all leads. We found that if we score in advance it was a self-fulfilling prophecy: they'd only follow up on the “A” leads, even though we have the bandwidth to do them all.

Arne Kainu:
We get picked on for cherrypicking!

TO:
It's important to have an auto-response set up in the lead response process, customized based on what you know about the lead. It was transformative for me to see how well that auto-response did, that people actually replied and thanked me for writing to them so quickly. This diagram of our lead ecosystem (Figure 1) is as simple as we could make it - we track where the lead comes from, its characteristics, and all the actions: the autoresponse, sales call, etc. Management assures that leads are contacted.

What's key is how we nurture the self-selected leads, but not "hot" leads, e.g., people who come to the trade show booth and had interest, but have no buy plan. Our process is to do an autoresponse, then call twice. If there's no response after the second call, we close the lead. We really haven't done well with keeping these self-selected leads nurtured.

AK:
It's typical that we focus closest to the money.

TO:
There are two things to consider: first, the definition of a lead, so that we can determine if a list is good. There has to be agreement between marketing and sales on what makes a good lead. Second is defining the characteristics of lead conversions. The CRM system pushes us into that. It's important to track back to slow-going buyers. You need to track them back to the initial marketing source, like a show.

CK:
Raw event leads are really prospects. They have to go through other actions to become opportunities, which then go to a salesperson or partner. We go back and measure the ROI in the ideal world. In the real world, sometimes, by the time we do that we might have lost the back-end connection to the event.

SL:
It’s painful to hear about leads becoming inactive. That’s why it is important to nurture leads for long term sales opportunities.

TO:
Little things that go wrong can get in the way. Like leads that need several months to close, coming in near the end of the quarter, and a CRM system that logs them as ready to close in a week, because that's the end of the next quarter. Then, sales ends up taking too much time tweaking the CRM system, not selling.

CK:
We look at when the opportunity was generated, as well as the close date. The opportunity doesn't go away because of a close date.

Q: How do you manage the channel?

CK:
Because of our huge lead volume, we struggle with follow-up on all of the leads we get. We try, but there are situations where we have to do triage. There are so many events across the country, that sometimes even we don't have the resources to call everyone. We rely on partners to follow up on leads. Partners will present with us at an event, and we profile the specific leads that should go to the partner. Although we own it, we let them treat those leads as if they own them. It engenders trust.

Q: How do you ensure that partners follow up?

CK:
We have an agreement that if they don't follow up, we take the lead back and do the initial touch ourselves. If the lead converts, it goes back to the partner. But if they fail at their end, it changes their status as a partner at future events. The sales teams prioritize partners, and we have Gold, Silver, etc. levels, but we also consider geographic location and vertical industry expertise when we prioritize partners for an event.

Q: What do you require back from partners?

CK:
The partners must report back. They either enter through our CRM system, or send us spreadsheets that we can upload. They'll get a call if we don't get that report!

SL:
From the partner standpoint, consider that their resources might be limited, so a challenge on their side can be having the bandwidth to do the job.

Q: Do you go to partners to nurture leads or just to qualify them?

CK:
I wish they'd nurture the leads! Our challenge is to get the first pass. We give our partners the tools to nurture, so they're only constrained by their resources. Of course, they can easily be overwhelmed by the wide range of resource – where do they start?

Q: How do you hold partners accountable?

CK:
We use the reporting mechanism.

TO:
That requires an audit, or you can run reports on the CRM system to see trends. You need the CRM system to see, track and find the gaps you need to fill. It takes a lot of work from sales management to audit that.

Q: What's the benefit of nurturing your partners?

CK:
We reward partners at different levels, depending on whether it's a Microsoft-led event or if the event was led by a partner. If it's our event, we own and track the leads, even if the partner handles them. If it's a partner-led event, we don't touch the leads, even if we co-funded the event. They get them all.

TO:
You give leads to partners to extend your reach, to be more responsive to more customers in a timely manner, and thus, to preserve the brand. A company like Microsoft has so many leads it has to engage partners in order to preserve their brand reputation.

Q: What are some strategies for maturation and nurturing of leads?

SL:
You have to send letters, send email, invite them to parties and events, basically, keep the lead warm until they're ready. You can see (Figure 2) that after the "hot" leads convert early, there's a drop off in the 3rd and 4th month. But then there's a spike again in the 6th and 7th month. This probably has to do with budgets: many people start looking about 6 months before they have the budget.

The companies doing it well have an ongoing machine. Not everyone who comes in is worthy of nurturing. Probably 30-40% have the worth to become a long-term lead.

TO:
Yes, it's important to look at the cost of nurturing the leads: is there value downstream for those leads? You need to have the numbers around it.

SL:
The business case for nurturing leads is that it's usually cheaper to nurture than to generate a new lead.

Q: We've talked about the science – could you comment on the "art" of nurturing leads?

SL:
In Figure 3, you can see illustrated the idea that you use existing programs to nurture leads. Use trade shows to nurture them: invite them to the show, to the party, the talk. Bounce around what programs you use. Not everyone takes the same path. You can use the sales perspective and lead timing to see where there are holes in the marketing calendar and create events to fill those holes.

TO:
The science is automation, the 30-60-90-day touch that you set up to run. The art is the choices you make, the content you deliver.

Q: Do you treat trade show leads differently than other leads?

SL:
No. You treat them the same way. However, trade shows give you some other options. For instance, if you go to a special industry trade show that's very well targeted for you, the universe of all the attendees at the show may be a good list for you. Buy the entire registered attendee list and treat each of those names as a lead in the sales engine, whether they came to your booth or not.

TO/CK:
Yes, buy the list!

TO:
We even go so far as to use the Internet access on the show floor to access our CRM system. We'll enter the name of the person we begin to talk with into our CRM system and see if they're already in our sales process – if they are, it changes how you approach them.

And then you can go back to the hotel and follow up that very night. Plus, it's useful to know that you had a face-to-face with a customer; it distinguishes them from other leads you met at the show.

Q: How do you calculate the ROI for marketing programs, especially for leads touched by many programs?

CK:
We have a lot of philosophical discussions about that. Do you take the first or the last activity? Well, because there's a chance that we use the "smart code" that tracks users through different activities, we end up using the last one.

TO:
That's a question we ask all the time. We use campaigns, and also have the lead source. But then, how do you weight each one? Did the outbound sales call do more than the email? It's hard to get the truth.

SL: We've seen companies track their leads in several ways in order to get a complete measure of the results. For example one company tracks all leads by their original source at various intervals – 6 months, 1 year, 2 years. They also track the number of subsequent touches which influence the actual sales process. By tracking both the initial program that generated the lead and the number of touches it took to convert and close the sale, they are able to get complete ROI picture.

AK:
Align executive management and sales and marketing. Whatever measure you use, know that it's a key indicator and you need to know whether it's tracking up or down. This is much more important than the specific model.

Last thoughts

Cold leads:
Following up for the first time after 11 -12 months? One speaker said: be contrite, have the head of marketing or sales write or call. The others felt, don't apologize; just call for a different reason or with a different offer. This goes back to being a cold call.

Trade shows:
You may be able to recast shows that don't do a good job generating leads as brand-building opportunities, and then they have value.

Speaker and moderator biographies
Moderator: Arne Kainu, president and CEO, Centerstance
Before founding Centerstance, Arne was a vice president with SBI and Company with responsibility for solution definition, client service, business development and engagement management. Prior to assuming this role at SBI, he was the vice president and general manager of the Northwest practice for Emerald Solutions, a former Internet professional services firm which was acquired by SBI and Company. Arne assists clients with complex solution planning, implementation and systems integration projects. He has over 17 years experience serving customers in a variety of industries including: manufacturing, utilities, transportation, financial services, telecommunications, retail and consumer products. Arne began his career as a senior consultant with Andersen Consulting and later served with Claremont Technology Group as a senior manager in the Utilities Practice.

Arne holds degrees in industrial engineering and business administration from Oregon State University. He is certified in production and inventory management (CPIM) by the American Productivity and Inventory Control Society (APICS).

Speakers:
Susan Linman, president, Dunthorpe Marketing Group, Inc.
Susan Linman's diverse career led to a senior marketing management position at Sequent Computer Systems (now IBM). After 12 years with Sequent, she was responsible for all marketing programs in North America, including trade shows, seminars, hospitality, C-level marketing programs, direct mail, telemarketing, technical marketing, partner programs and field marketing. Susan decided to put this experience to work for herself, and in 1996 founded Dunthorpe Marketing Group, a marketing agency specializing in lead generation. During the past eleven years at the helm, Susan has managed accounts for diverse clients such as Sage Software, RightNow Technologies, Convio Corporation, Microsoft, CareerBuilder.com, BMC Software and others. With so many years of experience on the client side, Susan has successfully created the kind of agency she would have wanted to work with. This key philosophy has served as the company's cornerstone and is paramount to the way Dunthorpe Marketing Group provides extraordinary service to its clients.

Cheryl Kelly, regional director marketing (small/midsize solutions and partners), Microsoft Corporation
Cheryl Kelly is western regional marketing director for Microsoft. She is responsible for small/midsize solutions and partners. Prior to Microsoft, Cheryl spent five years at Sun Microsystems as a director in the iForce business. The iForce Networks bring together partners in the iForce dommunity along with technology, marketing, and sales resources to enable delivery of market specific, customer centric solutions with Sun. Prior to Sun, Cheryl spent four years as director, global channels at Silicon Graphics (SGI). Cheryl has extensive experience with lead follow up initiatives especially in relation to complex partner networks.

Tom O'Keefe, vice president of sales, EthicsPoint, Inc.
Tom is a proven sales leader in the technology and ASP service markets. With over 15 years of experience exploiting new markets and branding new technology initiatives, Tom provides EthicsPoint with clear market insights, technical knowledge, and dynamic sales management expertise. Prior to joining EthicsPoint, Tom held numerous sales and management positions at ADP, Nextel, Communications NW, and Learning.com. He has served on various community boards and associations, and is a past member of the Board of Trustees for the Oregon College of Art & Craft.

About the author
Kate McPherron, a technology evangelist, has helped technology and industrial firms manage and market their products and services for 20 years. She can be reached at klm54@cornell.edu.