How to Create a Post-show Lead Nurturing System

Marlys Arnold [00:00:00]: You're listening to the Trade show insights podcast, season 12, episode 11. I'm your host and exhibit marketing strategist Marlys Arnold, bringing you tools to improve your exhibit results. On today's episode, brought to you by the Exhibit Marketers Cafe. We're talking with a special guest about how to not just follow up with your trade show leads, but actually nurture them.

Marlys Arnold [00:01:01]: If you've attended any of my exhibitor workshops or webinars, you've heard me talk about the importance of having a lead nurturing system. Today we're going to go in depth on what that means. We've got a special guest who I'm very excited to introduce to you. She actually comes from a background. She was in the marketing department during the launch of AmeriCorps and she also served as a senior operations director for a national satellite TV company. But for the last 11 years, she's been a business consultant with her own company. And that's how I know her. She's been a business mentor of mine for the past five years or so and she's an expert on many business systems and tools, but especially on how to nurture leads into clients and also nurture clients so that they stick with you over time.

Marlys Arnold [00:01:52]: So please welcome so Sandy Martini. Sandy, thanks for being with us on Trade Show Insights.

Sandy Martini [00:01:58]: Thank you so much, Marlys. It's a pleasure to be here today. I'm really looking forward to sharing some fun tips. Well, thanks.

Marlys Arnold [00:02:06]: I know you have a lot of great tips and you have some very unique perspectives on a lot of these issues too. So let's go ahead and just start with what is lead nurturing? I mean, we toss that term around a lot. But what does that exactly mean and what does that involve?

Sandy Martini [00:02:25]: Nurturing is essentially it's trying to create a win win constantly for you, for your leads, for your customers, so that the client or the customer is never wondering what's next. They're never surprised in a negative way by something. And it's working to create those steady streams of win wins. And what do I mean by that? Well, let's take a lead, for example. You have probably a name and an email address, maybe a phone number, but doubtful these days. And they have given you that information in exchange for something, a free report, a sample, goodie participation on a free webinar. So the win here is that you have a contact who is a prospective client of yours, someone who's going to give you money at some point in the hopefully near future. The win for them is that in exchange for Giving you their inbox access.

Sandy Martini [00:03:31]: Access to reach them pretty much at any time they're getting value from you. Now, let's say it's a free webinar. So we host the free webinar, we give lots of value, and then what often happens is that's it. The next time they hear from us is when we have something to sell that's not nurturing. Nurturing is great. We delivered on the webinar. Fantastic. They walked away either from the live webinar, we hope, or from the recording, thinking, wow, they really know what they're talking about and some great ideas.

Sandy Martini [00:04:05]: Nurturing is a couple days later following up and saying, hey, did you catch that webinar? If so, fabulous. I want to just go over this one point, which most people miss, and then blah, blah, blah. And if you didn't catch it, I'm talking about something I went into around minute 26. Make sure that you listen to that so that you're. You don't make them go through the whole webinar or wind or you make it at all times as easy and effortless as possible. You're giving them the personal touch. Like you would say to a friend, you would say, hey, Sandy, I checked out this webinar. I know you're not going to watch the whole thing, but catch these five minutes because I think they'll apply to you.

Sandy Martini [00:04:50]: Anything where you can make it personal. In this age of virtual everything that's nurturing, does that make sense?

Marlys Arnold [00:05:01]: Well, definitely. And I think that the key there is, too. And I know as I'm working with exhibitors, I hear this all the time, they have a tendency to think that just because somebody came to their booth and swiped their badge or registered for the drawing that they're doing or whatever, they think that, oh, this person is now ready to be a client. And that's not necessarily true. In fact, in most cases it's not. You're not getting instant sales unless you're selling like a $10 product in the booth or something. But if you're selling a $12,000 product or $75,000 product, that's going to take a process of nurturing, like you said, and you've got to lead these people along and not just be constantly hitting them with a sales pitch, one sales pitch after another. So what are some of the forms that this nurturing can take? You talked about if they attend a webinar, then touching base with them again a couple of days later.

Marlys Arnold [00:05:57]: But what are some other things, some other steps that can come in this nurturing process.

Sandy Martini [00:06:03]: It's a great question. And here's something that almost nobody does, which is really kind of sad, but it's follow up. Just very, very simple follow up in a very proactive way. And here's what I mean by that. Let's say that you're offering promotional products and you'd love for people to invest in them. You know, you'd love for them to buy X. Well, rather than just send out blanket emails mentioning that, what if you. Actually, let's take the example.

Sandy Martini [00:06:42]: If someone comes by your booth and they leave their information, let's say in addition to them signing up for your list, you go out and you sign up for theirs to the extent they have them. So if we're talking business to business, you go out, you sign up for theirs, and all of a sudden you get an email from them talking about how they're looking forward to speaking at such and such an event next May. Well, now, how many people do you think are going to send them a package? And by this, I mean actual package in the mail that says, hey, Sandy, heard you were speaking at X event next May, and I'd love to be able to support you with that. Here are some things right off the top of my head that you might want to be considering for that type of an event. Or will you be hosting? Will you have a vendor table? If so, here's my special report on the latest in displays that work for vendor tables. Anything like that that shows you're being very proactive, you're following up, but you're doing it in such a personal way that it doesn't feel that way. It truly feels like, oh, wow, Marla thought of me. First of all.

Sandy Martini [00:08:03]: She paid enough attention to know that I'm speaking at such and such. Exactly. And she's giving me the latest tips and techniques in something that she's an expert in that I'm not and offering to support me, all of a sudden, that doesn't feel like a sales opportunity to me. The potential client that feels like I'm being supported and nurtured well, and I love that.

Marlys Arnold [00:08:31]: And that's one thing that I talk to exhibitors about all the time. Which, by the way, you may not know this statistic and some of our list listeners may not have heard it either. But industry studies in the trade show world for years have shown that 80% of trade show leads are never followed up. Which is so sad because that's ultimately the whole point of going. But the problem is, I think, like you Said is somebody is looking at the exhibitors coming back and thinking, well, I don't have anything to promote right now, so I'll just put this on hold, and eventually, when I'm selling something or I'll contact this person. Whereas I love how you said, go follow them and see what they're doing and what they're involved in, and then find ways to relate to them on their level and being personal. Another tip that I share with exhibitors is, as you're talking to somebody in the booth, make a note whether it's on a business card they give you or if you've got a printout of the badge scan, you know, make a note, something about them on a personal level, so that when you follow up, you can have that personal touch. Because the more people feel connected to you, the more likely they're going to buy down the road.

Sandy Martini [00:09:44]: Absolutely. There was a quote, and I totally don't remember who said it. I'm going to butcher most of the quote. But it's about how people do business with people not with businesses. And while I am as much a order online, you know, have everything shipped to my house as anybody else these days because of the convenience, I absolutely love when somebody does something to me for me, you know, when they're thinking of me. So one of the things that I like to do, even apart from actually sending something to sell, to offer, is if I'm reading a magazine, I will rip out an article that I think somebody in my world might appreciate, and I'll toss it in an envelope and just say, you know, hey, Marla, read this. Thought of you and Joy, and off it goes. And people love that type of attention because everything is so online, virtual, mass focused, that we don't get mail anymore.

Sandy Martini [00:10:53]: That's not bills or selling. So something like that. I do birthday cards, holiday cards, and when I say holiday cards, unless, you know, someone is very into, say, Christmas or Hanukkah, I typically like to send Thanksgiving cards and New Year's cards. Mm. And I stay out of the December rush.

Marlys Arnold [00:11:22]: Well, it kind of tends to get lost in all that anyway.

Sandy Martini [00:11:25]: Exactly. You get completely lost in it. And Thanksgiving and New Year's both stand out because there's not that mass. First of all, it's not the craziness of the holidays. And then it's also not that mass rush where every day you're getting three catalogs and three cards. Right.

Marlys Arnold [00:11:44]: Well, and I've even done very unusual holidays that I've sent client gifts, like one year for Chinese, New Year I got custom fortune cookies made and I shipped out little Chinese to go boxes filled with custom fortune cookies for my clients. And this year I did a Groundhog Day survival kit.

Sandy Martini [00:12:07]: So I sent.

Marlys Arnold [00:12:08]: I love that hot cocoa mix and lip balm. So it's like no matter what the groundhog says, here's what you can have to help you get through the winter or something like that. So like you said, finding ways to stand out. And I had one of my clients that email me afterwards and she goes, I absolutely loved your groundhog kit.

Sandy Martini [00:12:29]: It's perfect. And just like that client who reached out to you, it's memorable. Yes. So when she's thinking of someone, who am I going to work with? You're the person that's going to pop into her head. And if not just that, chances are she's going to share this with other colleagues. You won't believe what I got in the mail because it is so unique and rare. That's excellent. Yeah.

Marlys Arnold [00:12:58]: And I guarantee you it's the only Groundhog Day gift she ever got.

Sandy Martini [00:13:02]: Exactly. Anything you can do like that, to stand out and stand apart and make it part of the nurturing, yes, it is personal, but it's also to make it fun and light hearted. So what can you do to just to bring a smile to someone's day because you don't know what's going on on the other side. So what can you do to make them smile? And Groundhog kit, day kit, Absolutely perfect. It's winter, it's miserable. That's going to make anybody smile. No, I absolutely love that. Thanks.

Sandy Martini [00:13:44]: And it's all about asking in addition to keeping them engaged, like you did with the Groundhog Day kit. How do you keep people engaged without feeling overwhelmed or pressured?

Marlys Arnold [00:14:02]: And that was the next thing I was going to ask because you have a logical sequence to the nurturing that it builds. So can you talk a little bit about that?

Sandy Martini [00:14:14]: Absolutely. It's so basic that it's silly in a way. Essentially, let's say that you went to my website and for people on the call, I'll give you a site to a free report that I have. It's extremeclientcare.com so let's say you go to that website and when you go there, you sign up for the free report. It's the only thing you can do there. Then you get the free report and what happens next is you get a series of emails a few days apart that continues to educate you without overwhelming. And the way it's done without the overwhelming is the emails are short snippets. So little examples, little stories, little shares.

Sandy Martini [00:15:13]: I was reading an article in one of the psychological magazines, I forget which one at the moment, one for a psychiatrist and it talked about how we humans these days, basically it used to be that you could hold our attention for 17 to 20 minutes and it's now more like Twitter size. It's now more like anything over 30 seconds to a minute and people's minds are trying to go to the next thing because we've become so trained by social media. So unless you're focused on something. So in these follow up emails I try and keep the snippets very, very short and entertaining to grab your focus. Everything is about what is the next logical step. That is the whole key when it comes to nurturing and following through. So if you were to buy something, tell me something that you sell on a regular basis.

Marlys Arnold [00:16:22]: Molla, Primarily I sell my consulting.

Sandy Martini [00:16:30]: Okay, so I purchased your consulting services. You're going to help me design, set up, arrange the perfect trade show booth then. So while we're going through this, you're going to have, let's say, a questionnaire, whether it's on the phone or whether it's on a Word document that I fill out. Then the next step, you're going to learn about what my goal is for this trade show as well as what's realistic based on what the trade show is itself. And you're going to walk me through a series of steps and each thing is you're going to ask yourself, okay, what would Sandy be wanting to know or wondering next? What's the next logical step? The next logical step. Now the trade show has come and gone, now what's the next logical step? You're going to tell me that 80% of leads aren't followed up on and you're going to say, you know, Sandy, 80% of leads aren't followed up with. I have a program, a system, a package, a something, a referral that can help you with that. Are you interested? And of course I'm going to be like, yeah.

Sandy Martini [00:17:49]: Because 80% typically aren't, despite the best intentions. So it's constantly asking, what's the next logical thing from your client or prospective client's mind. Sometimes it's going to be to offer a sale, sometimes it's going to be simply to offer education. But it's always about putting yourself in their shoes and saying what's logical, what's the next thing? Like you mentioned at the beginning, it's not logical. From a prospective Client's shoes to go to a trade show booth and sign up for a $12,000 package. That's not the normal, natural next step. The normal, natural next step is finding out a little bit about each other. Decide if we want a date before we get married.

Marlys Arnold [00:18:42]: Well, true. And like you said, it's a process, but not everybody follows the same process. So I like how you talk about what you call the escalator. Can you explain what the escalator philosophy or concept is?

Sandy Martini [00:18:58]: Absolutely. The escalator. We've all heard of marketing funnels and a marketing funnel. Just to recap really quickly, the thought process is a whole bunch of people go in at the top and they get your free giveaway. Or they sign up at your booth. Yeah. Or sign up at your booth and they get whatever free goodies you're offering. And then maybe they buy something inexpensive, and then maybe something a little more.

Sandy Martini [00:19:29]: And the goal is that your big ticket items are going to be at the bottom. And typically, much fewer people order those. So a whole bunch at the top and it whittles down. I've never liked that. I always. I don't know why. I always think of it as like a meat grinder. You know, you pour a whole bunch in and just a little bit comes out.

Marlys Arnold [00:19:54]: That's a traffic analogy.

Sandy Martini [00:19:59]: I was sitting at the kitchen table one morning while my husband was making us breakfast, and I was doodling, as I do, and I was thinking, there's got to be a better way. And I thought about it and I thought, well, you know, that first step, whether it's the trade show booth, the website giveaway, the social media link, that first step is like the door of your house. That's the door to your business. And people come in the door. And I thought of it as a lot of people come in and then what? Well, you want to take them from room to room. You want to show them different things. Some people like room one, some people prefer room two, some people prefer room three, and they tend to hang out where they want to be. Then I expanded over time, and I thought, you know what? It's not really the door to your house.

Sandy Martini [00:20:56]: Your business is really like a shopping mall. People can come in different ways. Someone might come in from your trade show booth, someone might come in from your website, someone might come in another way. And depending how they come in and what they do, depends on what you offer them next. So if someone talks to you, scans their badge, and buys the $10 goodie that you got at the booth, great you know right away that if they're really interested in something, they will take out their credit card as opposed to the person who comes and puts in for the drawing and doesn't want anything else. Okay, that person is at a different level with respect to your business. Right. So the first person, you can send them more items, lower costs for different holidays.

Sandy Martini [00:21:52]: You could sign up for their list, find out if they're speaking somewhere, see what other trade shows they're going to see, what you can introduce them to. Whereas the first guy is going to need a little bit more education, a little bit more nurturing love. And you can create nurturing sequences if you use email, and I hope you do, if you use email to track, you can use these different sequences for where different people are in your business. And it's very simple to just create different pathways. And so when somebody gets to a certain pathway, their behavior affects what happens next. So let's pretend that I have a book on step by step sales page creator. Well, if you bought that book, then it's a natural that you might want my headline product. If you did not buy the book, then I'm going to want to talk to you more about how important a sales page is and how creating the best product in the world isn't going to sell it, how it needs more than that.

Sandy Martini [00:23:10]: So it depends how people come into your business. You meet them, where they're at, you kind of take them by the hand virtually and lead them to the next natural step for them. And whenever possible, in any way possible, take it offline. So I always try to take things offline and mail things to people. So, like right now I'm in the middle of a giveaway, just something I'm participating in. And to justify asking for mailing addresses, the first 25 people are getting hard copies of the product. So this way I'm getting a slew not just of name and email, but of actual mailing addresses. Because everybody wants to get something hard copy in the mail.

Sandy Martini [00:24:00]: Well, again.

Marlys Arnold [00:24:03]: That goes back to standing out too, because I mean, we get, you know, how many hundreds, if not thousands of emails a day and how many physical packages do you get in the mail? So.

Sandy Martini [00:24:13]: Exactly. And as part of this giveaway, I've committed to sending and I kept it easy because who knows what the next month will bring. So I kept it simple by saying, you're going to get a series of goodies over the next 60 days. I don't say how many, I don't say when. And it gives me a lot of freedom to send anything that I want to send. And if I go through the list and say, oh look, these people were prior clients of mine, they're going to get a little higher quality gift than everybody else who is somebody that I've never heard of who just signed up on a giveaway. Right.

Marlys Arnold [00:24:57]: And because you haven't promised to blanket anything to anybody, you can do that, you can individualize.

Sandy Martini [00:25:03]: Exactly. And as these people sign up for my list, my assistant is going up and signing up for theirs so that I can try and personalize some of the gifts while still keeping the cost reasonable. So it all comes back to that personalization. And what's the natural next step for this client? Potential client lead, fill in the noun there. But what's the natural next logical step? And you've got to do it sitting in their shoes, not yours.

Marlys Arnold [00:25:41]: Well, and I love that you practice what you preach too, because your. I think it's phenomenal. I want you to share what is. And if you don't know exactly, that's okay. But I know you have a phenomenal client retention rate too.

Sandy Martini [00:25:55]: Oh my goodness, yes. For our, we have a month to month membership continuity program called get it Done Right. And we have the average client life in that program is 6.7 years, whereas most month to month continuity programs are more like 90 to 120 days. And this is 6.7 years. Overall, the business has a 94% client retention rate of over three years. That's incredible.

Marlys Arnold [00:26:36]: And it's much due to your client nurturing and the way you take care of people and show that you care about your people.

Sandy Martini [00:26:46]: Yes. And I will be totally transparent here and also say that when we mess up and we have, when we mess up, we own up. You know, we own that mess and then we do whatever we need to do to fix it. So whenever something is missed or doesn't happen or doesn't happen the way a client either expected or hoped, first thing we do is everything in our power to make it right, you know, and say, you know, yes, we screwed this one up. And I never realized early on how far that would go. It's not about being perfect, it's about being human and keeping everything on that human level so being as personal as possible in all cases. And because we are human, when we mess up, say, yep, you're right, we did that. Thanks for catching it.

Sandy Martini [00:27:51]: Let me fix it.

Marlys Arnold [00:27:52]: Well, and it goes back to what you said earlier about being relatable. I mean, people, I think there's so much. What do I want to say perception, manipulation, going on with social media now, where everybody just puts out how fabulous their life is and all that kind of stuff, that when you do actually admit, hey, we really screwed up but we want to still take care of you, then that really shows that, hey, I can relate to this person, I can relate to this business, because they're not perfect and they do care about making things right and doing the right thing.

Sandy Martini [00:28:31]: Exactly. That's exactly it. So it's taking care of people the way you would want to be taken care of. And when something happens, as it invariably will at some point in the relationship, owning up and doing whatever you can to make them happy and acknowledging that sometimes you can't, and that's okay too. So if somebody can't be made happy, okay, we tried. This is what we wanted to do. If it doesn't work, that's okay. Because in a true client care fashion, it's got to be a win win consistently, month in, month out.

Sandy Martini [00:29:13]: And the day that it stops being that win win is the day that, okay, maybe it's time to move on in one way or the other.

Marlys Arnold [00:29:21]: Well, and I have on that. I have an example of something that happened to me recently as a customer. It was with someone that I've had a business relationship for, I don't know, two or three years, have bought from periodically over time. And there was an opportunity that they put out where you had a discount code and you could get a discount for the next two days on this product. And I was trying to use my discount code and something was wrong in PayPal and it just kept sending me back around telling me to fill in my phone number. Every time I filled in my phone number, hit submit, it blanked it out again. So I sent a message to the standard email and I got a response back. And I thought it was rather ironic it came from the client, happiness Director.

Sandy Martini [00:30:06]: Or some such title.

Marlys Arnold [00:30:09]: But basically she was just like, well, we haven't had anybody else have this problem. Just clear your cache and try again. Well, I tried everything. I tried a different browser. I tried this. I couldn't get it to work at all. I sent her another email and I said, I just can't get this to work. She didn't respond back at all after that.

Marlys Arnold [00:30:25]: So therefore, I didn't use my coupon, I didn't buy the product, and I.

Sandy Martini [00:30:28]: Thought, wow, some client avenue. Exactly. I wanted to become your paying client, and you won't let me.

Marlys Arnold [00:30:38]: Yeah, I thought, well, if nothing else, just send me a PayPal invoice and let me pay it outside of your system. So something's obviously wrong here, but somehow it was my fault and so she wasn't going to help me fix it.

Sandy Martini [00:30:53]: I think that's known as the sales prevention department.

Marlys Arnold [00:30:56]: Yeah, there you go.

Sandy Martini [00:30:57]: There you go. Exactly.

Marlys Arnold [00:30:58]: So that's a really good example of how thinking from the client perspective, like you were saying, and making sure that you're taking care of the client and doing what's in their best interest, that goes so much farther than just ignoring it and pretending that the problem wasn't there in the first place.

Sandy Martini [00:31:17]: Yes. When we talk about client nurturing, lead nurturing, whichever, all of it, it's all got to be with you stepping outside of your role as business owner and stepping into their role as lead client, et cetera, and saying, okay, what makes the most sense for them at this stage of our relationship? And then when you get that answer, going back, stepping back into your business role and saying, does that also make sense for the business?

Marlys Arnold [00:31:51]: And how can I deliver that?

Sandy Martini [00:31:52]: And most of the time it will. I'm sorry, what was that?

Marlys Arnold [00:31:57]: And how to deliver on that?

Sandy Martini [00:31:59]: Exactly. Yes. And how to deliver on it in a way that makes sense for you both. Yes, that's exactly it.

Marlys Arnold [00:32:08]: I think that's a great point. Unless you have something additional you want to add. I think that's a great point to wrap it up so that we don't go too far and exhaust everybody's attention span like you were talking about earlier.

Sandy Martini [00:32:21]: No, I think that's perfect. Thank you.

Marlys Arnold [00:32:25]: Well, thank you so much, Sandy. As I've known for years, you have a lot of great insights. And so I appreciate you sharing that today with all of our trade show exhibitor and show organizer listeners and just proving the fact that nurturing is key to a good post trade show relationship. Whether that's a lead, a client, a show organizer, working with their exhibitor and attendee clients, there are so many ways that you can experience that relationship by nurturing.

Sandy Martini [00:32:59]: So thanks again, Sandy. You are very welcome. And let me just say that when it comes to nurturing, one of the best ways that you can take care of people is, especially former clients, is to let them know what's new in the industry. So that if you have someone that you've designed an amazing trade show booth for and it's a year later, 18 months later, and you see that they're going to go speak somewhere else and they're going to have a booth somewhere else, reach out to them and let them know that you know how fabulous is they've got a solid foundation and these are all the things that have changed in what's working today. So you're helping them and you're following up in a way that could also gain you additional sales while being in service of your client. And I guess that's the the real thing. Always be in service of.

Marlys Arnold [00:33:52]: Good point, good point. Sandy, one last time, what is that website again where they can go get that free report from you?

Sandy Martini [00:34:00]: It is www.extremeclientcare.com all right, I welcome you. I invite you to go get the free report and you can see just follow along and see how I do some of the nurturing for someone who's not an existing client and ask yourself how can you replicate this for your business?

Marlys Arnold [00:34:22]: Great.

Sandy Martini [00:34:23]: Well, thank you again.

Marlys Arnold [00:34:24]: I appreciate you being a guest. And to everybody listening, go out and show some extreme client care and do some good nurturing. Thanks everybody.

Sandy Martini [00:34:34]: Thank you. Thanks for listening everyone.

Marlys Arnold [00:34:42]: Want more tips and tools for your exhibit marketing? Check out the free resources available from the Exhibit Marketers Cafe. Simply go to tradeshowinsights.com and click on Free Resources to discover toolkits, webinars and more, including a link to sign up for the Trade Show Tips online monthly ezine. Trade Show Insights is protected by the Creative Commons Copyright License. You may feel free to share this recording with colleagues or embed it on your own blog, as long as it's shared in its entirety and is not used for commercial purposes. To learn more, please see the link in the sidebar of the show notes at tradeshowinsights.com well, that's it for this episode of Trade Show Insights. Be sure to check out our Show Notes and archives at tradeshowinsights.com. You can also connect with me using the social media links or the contact page on the site. I'm Marlys Arnold. Thanks for listening and be sure to join us next time for more tools to improve your exhibit results.