5 reasons your trade show leads are low quality (+ how to fix it)

"After a trade show, our team comes back with tons of irrelevant leads that go nowhere." <-- I hear this a lot, especially B2B service providers.

Having planned nearly 100 trade shows in my time, here are my top tips to fix this problem once and for all.

1.  Your company message is too general

If you’re speaking to “everyone,” it’s difficult to attract and make meaningful connections with the ones who REALLY matter.

Generic, jack-of-all-trades messaging brings in leads that are all over the place, reducing the quality of your pipeline. (For help, grab my free messaging guide here - it's the same tool I use for all my marketing clients.)

2.  You don’t have a pre-show meeting strategy

Most companies just promote they’re attending, then hope to  bump into the right people.

Or, they walk the aisles and talk to everyone. Instead, book as many  meetings as possible 6-8 weeks pre-show (using LinkedIn + email).

This eliminates low quality leads.

3.  You don’t have a qualification system

Meeting with just anyone wastes time. Instead, have criteria that must be met BEFORE you meet. Send a survey, research ahead of time, or ask upfront.

If they don’t meet the criteria (company size, health area, geography, budget, etc.), you won’t meet in person.

4.  You’re not asking the right questions

Sometimes you come across someone who actually WOULD BE a quality lead, but the conversation didn’t uncover enough of the right information to get there.

Plus, the prospect may not understand the benefit of what you offer (yet).

Ask probing questions and listen.

5.  You’re not leveraging LinkedIn

Simply “being on” LinkedIn doesn’t cut it for getting leads from a trade show.

6-8 weeks prior, search for relevant connections, send friendly intro messages, and aim to book meetings. ~10% should turn into a meeting, call, or interest.

Want to solve these problems together?

If you don't have budget to hire, or bring on a fractional marketing director like me, I get it. This is common.

Which is why I co-created a course + coaching program called the Scientist To CEO™ 10-Day Marketing Challenge.

Lead generation and conferences/trade shows are a huge chunk of what we work on in this challenge.

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We're passionate about helping as many life science companies as possible, so this is our way to serve more of you.

Will you join us? DM me on LinkedIn for questions. Join the 10 day challenge for 9 bucks.