We get it. Your team goes to events to connect with leads, not deal with clunky interfaces, spotty WiFi, and a long list of qualifying questions. All these things get in the way of engaging potential customers.
It doesn’t have to be this way.
Being in the event demand gen business, we have heard plenty of questions and concerns from sales reps, field marketers and product managers who aren’t sure how to smoothly transition from business cards and spreadsheets to badge scanners and lead capture apps. With that in mind, we’ve compiled our answers to the most common questions we hear from our customers—as well as our list of best practices for frictionless lead capture at events.
Sales representatives might believe that badge scanning is something your company has invested in for the events or marketing teams. The ability to capture accurate contact information and transfer it quickly to your MA/CRM system definitely helps meet KPIs like number of leads captured, while increasing efficiency and saving time.
However, when you use a lead capture solution that allows you to customize qualifiers right in the app, the clear winner is Sales. Let your team know they can expect to see:
When a lead capture app includes qualifying questions, it might seem like the intention is to hand the device to the lead to fill out the form themselves. And, you might want to do that sometimes! But in general, these questions are there to facilitate reps’ own note-taking.
We recommend that sales reps conduct conversations the way they normally do. At the point when they would ask for a business card, use the lead capture app to scan that card or event badge instead. If your app allows reps to capture marketing consent, they may need to hand the device to the lead for a signature. After that, the sales rep can continue the conversation, tracking responses in the app as they go, or after the lead has walked away. (See next question for more on that.)
This is probably the biggest concern we hear—no one wants technology to get in the way of engaging with potential customers! If your marketing and sales teams have worked together to identify what information is necessary for a marketing qualified lead (you have done that, right?), then your app should contain the questions your sales reps already ask. The majority of our customers use this functionality to capture what product the lead is interested in, what their purchase timeline is, and their budget.
Even so, let your team know that the qualifying questions in the app are meant to help them efficiently record information gleaned from their conversations—not as a script they must follow while they talk. Remind them:
Some lead capture apps allow companies to set some content as required. We recommend using this sparingly to prevent your team from feeling like they can’t submit the lead without answering all the qualifying questions. Whatever your strategy around required qualifiers, let your team know how qualifiers were selected and what your organization's expectations are for them. If only one question is required and the others are optional, that information can help them not feel overwhelmed.
At the cocktail hour, your sales rep connects with a lead that is by all standards “hot.” They have a great conversation and she promises to follow up to set up a demo. But as she enters the lead’s information in your app, she can’t help but think, “What if this lead goes to someone else? What if they don’t read my notes? What if they don’t call her for two weeks?”
Your lead capture app should actually prevent this from happening by including the name of the rep who scanned the lead as part of the metadata it sends over to your MA/CRM system from the event. Let your team know how the app works, so they can rest assured that their leads will come right to them, and not to anyone else.
The ability to equip everyone you send to an event with a lead capture app right on their own device means that team members such as field marketers, product managers, and customer success representatives now have the ability to capture leads. While this is great for your database, and means that details from these conversations won’t get lost, you should be aware that some team members might not be thinking about things like purchase timeline and budget when they talk to people on the show floor.
Walk your team through the app before the show and explain how the qualifiers help with your sales process. Encourage non-Sales team members, such as product managers, to partner up with a sales representative when the conversation moves from technical details into the opportunity.
Using an app—even one designed for frictionless event capture, like atEvent—instead of collecting business cards, is an adjustment. We hope these tips help your team discover how an event lead capture app can truly enhance their event-floor sales process!