Surprising Cost of Poor Lead Follow-Up

By Lew Hoff

“80 percent of success is showing up.”

I recently attended a breakfast meeting. I sat at a table with a group of friends, “friends” as defined by Will Rogers: “A stranger is just a friend I haven’t met yet”.

Richard, my new friend to my immediate right, asked what I did for a living. When I described what “trade show lead retrieval” is, he nodded, then offered an observation.

“Ah, the mystery device”, he said. “Mystery?”, I replied. “Yes, it’s a mystery to me. Information is collected, but the mystery is, where does it go? What happens to it?”

Was he putting me on, I wondered?

“Richard, the idea is that the exhibitor that scanned your bar-coded badge will follow up with you.”

“I figured as much.”

“Don’t they?”

“Not that I recall. They must spend a lot of money in order to exhibit. I’ve always wondered why they would if they have no plans to follow up their leads.”

The last 45 years has taught me that:

(a) leads are like gold
(b) leads that are not followed up are fools’ gold and
(c) most leads are not followed up