You stocked your show floor with the most relevant and sought-after exhibitors, and invited what should be the cream of their customer crop to cruise the expo. And yet your exhibitors still complain that they didn’t get the amount of business they had expected. Does the problem lie with the show itself, or could your exhibitors’ post-event lead handling be behind the lagging satisfaction rates? Are business-to-business organizations hosting events for their customers making more money than they spend putting on the show?
Event automation solutions provider Certain surveyed 150 U.S.–based marketing decision-makers at B2B organizations that sponsor or host at least two events annually to find out. Here are some highlights of the survey results.
• Most marketers take at least four days post-event to follow up with leads; only 2 percent follow up immediately.
• Following up with leads is normally relegated to marketing teams, which for 68 percent of respondents means pulling in 10 or more people.
• Just preparing the leads for followup also can take multiple days for a quarter of respondents. Part of the reason it takes so long is that the process still is largely manual, with 31 percent of marketers recording event leads on pen and paper, and another 42 percent doing it via manual entry on a computer.
In fact, prep time was the biggest reason the majority of respondents cited for not following up with event leads more quickly. However, the slow lead-processing time doesn’t seem to be a worry for the almost three quarters of respondents who said they were either completely or somewhat satisfied with the amount of time it takes for lead followup. The survey results also imply that leads from some events get more attention than others, with more than 69 percent saying lead followup times vary significantly from event to event.
Visit Certain's website for the full survey results.
