Why a Universal Lead Retrieval Solution Beats Renting
All event marketing professionals are eventually challenged with the question of renting or owning lead retrieval solutions. It’s a significant decision, worthy of careful consideration. Ultimately, you have two choices:
Rent lead devices from the show floor
Select a universal solution that can be utilized across all your events
The primary benefit of renting from the show floor is convenience. You can order in advance, pick it up during setup, and return it after the show. Beyond that immediate convenience, renting can be problematic. It’s unlikely you will get consistent devices from show to show, which can make capturing, qualifying, reporting, and routing your leads time-consuming and inconsistent.
A comprehensive universal solution that provides qualification survey capabilities and is CRM-compatible is often the best choice. Consider these suggestions when evaluating universal lead retrieval offerings:
An easily- downloadable app that can be effectively utilized across all of your events. It should be easy to set up and configure and you can use your own hardware. A universal solution provides the data for all of your events in one place and can be used in many ways to measure and report on your events comparatively or singularly.
Supports the majority of trade show badge types
1D/2D barcodes, QR codes, NFC and RF technology
Not all shows use badges so be sure your solution includes a method to capture business cards.
Qualification surveys to meet your business goals and objectives
One survey for all events – tailored to meet your business needs. Select a solution with a customizable lead qualification survey to provide the data you need no matter what show you are attending.
Sophisticated systems guide users through a series of questions, plus they employ branching logic so that the questions in the series change based on the users’ previous answers.
They should be designed to accommodate the most widely used response types: text, single select, multiple select and voice recorded comments.
Sharing lead info. with booth staff
For example, if you have multiple sales reps in your booth and they are utilizing devices in different areas of the booth, they need to be aware of leads already scanned from other parts of the booth, in real time.
Direct integration into your CRM/MAT system
Salesforce, Eloqua, or Marketo, are some examples
This is integral to fast sales follow-up.
Automatically push your leads to CRMs for all shows, providing reliable data that you can use to accurately measure ROI.
Lead scoring tools
Some lead systems take users beyond the collection of data and into the scoring of leads. Lead scoring capabilities can help identify prospects who are ready to buy.
Cloud data storage
Cloud data storage makes it possible to back up and store your lead data should your device fail or you drop and break it, your data is still safe.
Supports multiple platforms (devices).
Multiple devices including tablets, minis, phablets and phones…rented or owned
Internet-independent
Internet access in convention centers can be expensive and intermittent, so your lead retrieval solution should function with or without the internet. The most advanced systems will auto-update or synchronize as soon as a hotspot is detected, removing the need for an additional step to activate the data download or upload.