Mastering the Art of Team Communication at Events

Mastering the Art of Team Communication at Events

Corporate event success relies on the use of platforms that are capable of acting as command centers with multiple solutions under the hood, and that prioritize best practices in EVENT TEAM COMMUNICATION.

Paramount to every successful event is how event teams handle COMMUNICATION.

1: A Multi-Channel Approach

At events, team members are often distributed across the show floor; sometimes because they are staffing different trade show booths, other times separated by different tasks. One team member may be networking on the show floor while the other is staffing a support desk or trade show booth.

So, how do you create a clean, organized and cohesive environment for team communications?

An event professional recently mentioned their team uses tools like Slack to communicate at their events. Slack is a great tool to keep teams together on various projects at the same time, but as a communication channel for events, Slack can really create more confusion than good. Considering the volume of channels and team members on Slack, it can be difficult to prioritize messages by importance.

Take this for example, if you’re on the show floor with a VIP and need to connect them with another team member they may already have a great relationship with, would you contact them by Slack? On Slack, they may be getting “@Sally” notifications for everything from what they want for lunch to questions about where a certain box of brochures can be found. To them, your message is just another “tap-tap-tap”.

You might take this message up a level to SMS or phone conversation to elevate the importance. Are you sure the phone number you have is correct? Why aren’t they answering, and why are you interrupting a VIP conversation with phone call or text activity?

There are a plethora of incredible communication channels available: Slack, Zoom, email, phone calls and text messages, WeChat, WhatsApp, Skype and FaceTime… Dropbox and Google Drive, where you can share important documents and more, if you can get to them quickly and efficiently… and therein lies the problem.

Which methods of communication take what priority?

How does your event team prioritize which communication channels to check first?

Communication at events isn’t something you want convoluted or vaguely defined…

And there are personal privacy issues.

Your event team may have the same goals and be employed by the same company… but that doesn’t mean they are comfortable sharing their mobile phone number with everyone on the team.

In some cases, employees have been found using team member phone numbers for prospecting more than just business. This unprofessional and unsolicited style of communication can make team members uncomfortable, further complicate communications, and undermine the undertaking of tasks at hand.

A team member reaching out by SMS to engage someone in personal conversation can easily distract them from an important conversation related to the event, which reflects on overall event success measured by things like brand exposure, relationship / partnership building, and deals won.

Finally, which team members are available to respond to urgent or important requests, and which ones are unavailable; out on a break, in a meeting, etcetera?

These aren’t questions we like to answer by trial and error, dialing multiple numbers, or sending multiple texts and emails.

Every event team needs one central hub where all team members can go for all of their communication needs.

THESE INCLUDE:

  • Individual and Group Messaging

Corporate event and trade show communications shouldn’t be lumped in with general business conversations where details can get lost amidst multiple other conversations and channels.

When planning event communications, use a platform that provides important information like, where team members are at the show, if they are available or unavailable, and enables group and individual messaging with respect for individual privacy.

  • Documentation and File Sharing

Document and file sharing should be easy to access by all team members, and available to share instantly with prospects. Lead liaison’s universal lead capture app enables users to customize responsive forms and include documentation while scanning in the lead. Automated processes email the documents directly to the prospect using the lead-owner’s personalized messaging and email signature.

  • Team Member Availability Status

Give everyone quick visibility into who is available on the floor, and who’s not. A green circle around the team member’s picture indicates they’re ready and available. A red circle = unavailable.

  • Team Lead Capture – On and Off the Show Floor

Dump the scanning equipment rentals and equip the entire team with lead capture on their own devices. True universal lead capture means being able to scan badges and business cards anywhere, any time, on any connected device with immediate access to your precious lead data.

  • Phone Conversations, SMS Messaging and more – without having to share personal information.

Give your events team the upper hand with a communications hub that exists inside their lead capture app so capturing, grading, assigning, and discussing leads can all happen in one space. This also ensures your team members stay on topic and can keep their personal information private.

  • Performance Metrics for Booths & Stations

Share performance metrics with the whole team inside the lead capture app to encourage healthy competition and victory sharing. Lead liaison’s Stations feature makes it easy to assign booth staff and check leads coming in from each station on the fly.

One Central Hub So That:

  • Team leaders can easily provide and restrict access to group conversations.
  • Team members can get a global overview of needs, leads, lead quality, and important notifications in one place.
  • Phone numbers, email addresses and more are always up to date, and can be kept private.
  • Inappropriate conversations can be flagged, reviewed and deleted by leaders or moderators.

These solutions for event and team building success are all part of the Lead liaison platform, and they’re changing the way events are done for the better. Contact us today for more information!


Lead liaison is a multifunctional event platform that provides: Universal Lead Capture, User Customizable Gamification, Marketing Automation, CRM, Lead Management, Sales Enablement, Leader Boards, Point Rewards & e-Gift Cards, Waypoints for Sessions & Scavenger Hunts, Player Profiles, and more with over 3,000 integrations for all common CRM and Marketing Automation platforms.

To see how Lead liaison’s growing library of digital activations (games), universal lead capture, and reward-based solutions can help your company generate more leads at your trade shows, contact us today!

Dear Show Organizers… Here’s What Exhibitors Need

Dear Show Organizers… Here’s What Exhibitors Want Need

We speak with exhibitors daily and learn about their challenges and why some hesitate to invest in events. With virtual events having low satisfaction ratings and live event attendance being uncertain… exhibitors are carefully evaluating each event to decide:

  1. Which events they will or will not participate in (Top performers only, new markets, etc)
  2. In what way do they want to participate (Exhibit, Speaker, Attendee, other)
  3. How much they want to invest (Booth, staff, tech, marketing, sponsorships, private meetings, etc)
  4. With events now being virtual, live and hybrid, what should they change, improve, automate, streamline and make more efficient to set up their team to handle any type of event and get highest ROI

Exhibitors want SERVICE

Each exhibitor from every industry has their own story/experience to share. Some stories are amazing, about organizers who really understand the exhibitor and set them up for success. Other stories are about their frustrations of not being treated as the customer or getting the ROI they expected. Many will be making their decisions based on their relationships with each event organizer and how much they care to hear about their challenges and offer solutions that set them up for success.

Solution: Deliver concierge style service 

Exhibitors want EXPOSURE

Every exhibitor we speak to is asking organizers to make connecting to their target audience easier. They want their brand to be seen, their prospects to find them, and their new products or services to be showcased. Event organizers who build some basic brand exposure opportunities into their event will provide added value to exhibitors on the fence.

Solution: Offer unique engagement experiences that drive attendees to take action

Exhibitors want to STREAMLINE

With every event offering a different lead capture solution, how much time and energy does the exhibit manager spend on training their team for every single event to ensure no lead is missed and everything flows nicely into their sales process? How many leads are not captured because they have one scanner to share among their team? How many leads don’t receive follow up until days after the event or not at all? How does a company close deals if the next step of the sales & marketing process is not integrated into their lead capture workflow? The challenge is real!

Solution: Do not restrict their ability to capture leads. Now more than ever, exhibitors are seeking a Universal Lead Capture (ULC) provider so their sales team can use the same lead capture system with automated follow up and sales analytics everywhere they go. Event organizers who offer an option for exhibitors to plug into their Registration API will see exhibitor ROI soar and attrition decrease. Organizers who use unfriendly platforms that restrict API access for scanning badges will find push back from exhibitors who will find those events less valuable or friendly to their company.

Exhibitors want ENGAGEMENT

Ask any exhibitor…if you put them in front of a prospect…they will take care of the rest. That is why gamification has become so popular. Exhibitors who use an exciting activation or game in their booth are seeing up to 3x to 5x more leads captured than booths who do not. Plus, it is a known fact that attendees who engage in a memorable experience are 22% to 35% more likely to remember the brand and engage in a next step. Ask any marketing person, this is a dream for any brand and a goldmine for salespeople seeking to build new relationships.

 Exhibitors who know this are asking organizers for ways to promote their games and incorporate them into the event experience. Show organizers need to be prepared.  Exhibitors are on the hunt for engagement solutions and want to incorporate them into the event.

Solution: Organizers have an opportunity to make their event more exciting and engaging!  We suggest offering gamified lead capture as a premium option, or inviting exhibitors to “bring their own game” and plug it into your treasure hunt or other event engagement experience!

 

Exhibitors want ROI

If you were to speak to the CEO of any exhibiting company, they would tell you that ROI is their primary reason for exhibiting. Exhibiting at any event must contribute to the growth of their organization and move the needle forward. Exhibitors measure ROI in different ways depending on their goals. If brand exposure is the goal, they might track email and banner ad views, click thru’s, open rates, game plays, etc. to measure ROI. If lead capture is the goal they would track leads captured, quantity vs quality of leads, and sales generated to measure ROI. The more organizers understand the goals of the exhibitors, the better chance they have at meeting their expectations.

Solution: If show organizers want to improve their attrition year over year, they need to help exhibitors see the value and results your event delivers. Example: Instead of a paper scavenger hunt that cannot be truly measured, use a digital solution (Such as Waypoints or Hybrid Gamification) that can provide detailed analytics to both the show organizer and the exhibitor with a list of leads that supplement the lead capture their sales team is using in the booth.

 

In a nutshell, as we return to live events we cannot go back to the way things were. Events are forever changed, technology just took a huge leap forward, and hybrid is here to stay. The best thing organizers can do is to listen to exhibitors as they explain their challenges, enable them to be successful, and be open minded to doing things differently.

 

 A Message for Exhibitors!

Please keep in mind that event organizers need your help too. Their biggest challenges right now are re-negotiating contracts, managing logistics, and trying to organize speaker agendas and finalize floorplans when exhibitors and speakers are waiting until the last minute to confirm. Organizers have a lot on their plate trying to fill the exhibit hall, promote the event, make people feel safe, and bridge the gap between live and virtual. Now more than ever they are stressed to bring their event back to life on tight deadlines while trying to give you the service you need to ensure you return next year. Please work with them, confirm as early as you can, be patient if they can’t get back to you right away, offer suggestions and partner with them to put on a great show. The challenge of getting our industry up and running again is real and the best thing we can do is to help each other succeed.


Lead liaison is a multifunctional event platform that provides: Universal Lead Capture, User Customizable Gamification, Marketing Automation, CRM, Lead Management, Sales Enablement, Leader Boards, Point Rewards & e-Gift Cards, Waypoints for Sessions & Scavenger Hunts, Player Profiles, and more with over 3,000 integrations for all common CRM and Marketing Automation platforms.

To see how Lead liaison’s growing library of digital activations (games), universal lead capture, and reward-based solutions can help your company generate more leads at your trade shows, contact us today!

Setting Goals & Motivating Your Team

Setting Goals & Motivating Your Team

Lead capture is one of if not the most important aspects of events and tradeshows, and it could be argued that it is in fact the main point for driving revenue. Why else are you there, if not to create brand awareness, share your products, educate people about your offerings, and gather leads that lead to new relationships and revenue? The most successful trade show exhibitors create successful and memorable experiences that attract, engage, and ultimately convert leads from prospects into customers and hardcore brand loyalists.

How can you affect audiences positively and leave an unforgettable impression? Start  by setting realistic goals and communicate them to your team. Make sure everyone is on the same page. Managers often overlook team motivation, or they might not realize that their team lacks some motivation since they’re so focused on other things such as setting up the booth to their standards, checking up on the hardware, the kiosks, their lead capture software, making sure that everything works, stressing about time, and the list goes on. Establishing and maintaining goals for the team can easily be overlooked. In this article we will highlight the importance of 2 things:

1- Setting Goals

Setting goals and objectives is vital to track and measure the success of your company, event, booth, team, etc. you name it… And a lot of managers either set up goals that are perceived by team members as unachievable, or that don’t fit best with the situation.

When setting goals, be SMART: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Timely. To elaborate: Be specific so that there is no confusion. As mentioned before, you have to be able to measure specific goals to identify strengths and weaknesses. You also have to be reasonable in goal setting, placing goals within reach so your team can achieve them without them being too easy. Keep the competition spirit up, and make goals relevant to your company’s goals. Be crystal clear about deadlines to which the goals should be met.

2- Motivating Your Team

When it comes to motivation, there are 2 points we want to address. Going back to the second paragraph, I mentioned something important “positively affecting your audiences.” How do you expect to leave a good impression on audiences if your team is unmotivated, or not on their best behavior? How will you convert audiences to prospects, and prospects into leads and loyal customers? Team motivation is very important to the process, especially when it comes to dealing face to face meetings with potential customers, because in their eyes the team member that they’re talking to is the representation of your company. Ultimately, team motivation directly reflects on the brand that you’ve spent so much time and money over the years building.

Before your events, spend some time setting goals and developing a plan to motivate your team. Take the time necessary to motivate your team, talk to them, and ensure that they’re on full alert, equipped with all the knowledge they need to communicate your brand values and solutions to audiences at trade shows. Offer incentives and challenges to keep them motivated to win… which takes us to our second point:

Create corporate loyalty reward programs for team members to spark up a sense of achievement and competition between the team. Lead liaison has a rewards center with a broad selection of e-gift cards, in which Team members receive their own personalized profiles with progress reports indicating milestones they have achieved. This allows them to track their own progress and keep an eye on the big prize to fuel up their performance.

In that way you’ll make them feel like they have a bigger part in the success of your company, which they do! This also fosters a fun, competitive environment, a way for your team members to prove themselves, compete, and gain rewards which they achieve by their dedication and hard work. In the end, Loyalty & Reward programs are a win-win situation for you and your team. They will be motivated to work harder achieving the goals, engage new prospects, build relationships and leave a good impression on your audiences! Basically, everybody wins.

In conclusion

If you want to build a successful brand loyalty, gather good leads, and build a strong relationship with your audiences, start first with your team! Set SMART goals and communicate them to your team. Make sure they’re on board with all the necessary information needed. Motivate them by awarding them when they achieve goals, and give them the choice of rewards to boost performances.

To learn more about Lead liaison’s corporate loyalty reward programs, contact us today!


Lead liaison is a multifunctional event platform that provides: Universal Lead Capture, User Customizable Gamification, Marketing Automation, CRM, Lead Management, Sales Enablement, Leader Boards, Point Rewards & e-Gift Cards, Waypoints for Sessions & Scavenger Hunts, Player Profiles, and more with over 3,000 integrations for all common CRM and Marketing Automation platforms.

To see how Lead liaison’s growing library of digital activations (games), universal lead capture, and reward-based solutions can help your company generate more leads at your trade shows, contact us today!

Determining ROI on events: Why are you operating blind?

Determining ROI on events: Why are you operating blind?

One of the biggest challenges event managers seem to have is determining the return on investment for the events they participate in. The reason for that is because they are consistently lacking one piece of crucial information. In fact, it is a piece of information that is readily available to them if they would just ask this simple question of their CEO, CFO, CMO, or owner of the company. It’s a magical question that opens up all sorts of possibilities and releases your creative energy once you have the answer. It causes all aspects of your business, and the company’s short and long-term goals to become crystal clear. So, what is this question?

 

What is the value of a new customer or client to the company? 

I am continually amazed at how many event managers from both small to medium-sized businesses, all the way up to fortune 100 companies have no idea what the value of one new customer is to their company. Now, one of the most common reasons I have discovered for this lack of information on the part of event managers is that no one ever told them the importance of the question, you can’t ask a question you don’t know you should ask.

A lot of companies view events as just another line item on their overall marketing budget, and as long as marketing is producing results, then hi-five! But, that doesn’t mean event managers and their teams don’t benefit from knowing what a customer or client is actually worth to the company. Just as the Sales team needs to know what the value of one new customer is in order to determine salaries, commissions, and bonuses, the event team needs to know this information if they want to put together an effective strategy, and/or evaluate new technologies and tools that can help them achieve their goals.

In so many cases, event teams are left to rely on the show organizer to provide them with their leads, and then it’s up to them to try and qualify them or send them onto sales to qualify and pursue. This makes it even more difficult to determine whether what you are doing at these shows is effective. But, when you know exactly what a new customer is worth, you then begin to look at your budgets differently and can make a case to those within the company who have the final say on approving your budget that investing in a more effective lead capture system will be worth it because you can justify the return on investment. Imagine no longer needing to rely on the show organizer to provide you with a lead list that is also being distributed to your competitors as well. But, because you know the value of a new customer, your ability to move your events team forward with an effective strategy for growing the company will give you the upper hand. 

As live events come back, and with the increased implementation of hybrid events, knowing exactly what you’re aiming at will make all the difference in the world when it comes to planning which events will be the most profitable for you, and creating a strategy to CRUSH IT at those events. 

We sincerely hope that this will inspire you to dig a little deeper into what each new customer actually means to your company, rather large or small, and will help you become more empowered to make impactful decisions for your team and the company as a whole.

For information about Lead liaison for your next event or marketing campaign, or to get started with Lead liaison: CLICK HERE.


Lead liaison is a multifunctional event platform that provides: Universal Lead Capture, User Customizable Gamification, Marketing Automation, CRM, Lead Management, Sales Enablement, Leader Boards, Point Rewards & e-Gift Cards, Waypoints for Sessions & Scavenger Hunts, Player Profiles, and more with over 3,000 integrations for all common CRM and Marketing Automation platforms.

To see how Lead liaison’s growing library of digital activations (games), universal lead capture, and reward-based solutions can help your company generate more leads at your trade shows, contact us today!

5 ways to increase lead capture adoption at events

5 ways to increase lead capture adoption at events

With in-person and hybrid events coming back in full force, it’s time to think in-person lead capture again. For many exhibitors, this usually involves scanning a name badge or business card through an app or scanner. These apps are great for quickly getting contact data from your event and into your marketing automation or CRM system of choice.

But in order to get contact data from a scan, booth staff have to actually use them.

Many organizations struggle to get staff to adopt new lead capture methods. After all, taking someone’s business card and scribbling a few notes worked before, why shouldn’t it work now?

Event marketers know exactly why that doesn’t work. People fall through the cracks and don’t receive follow up, and you have a delay in processing your data. 

How event marketers can help increase staff adoption:

1: Set Expectations

This may seem obvious, but you’d be surprised how many event coordinators pay good money for lead capture without setting expectations. Who should booth staff be scanning? Here are a few different responses we’ve gotten from our partners:

  • Scan everyone who comes to the booth, no matter what.
  • Only scan potential customers (exclude vendors, sales people, etc).
  • Only scan qualified potential customers.
  • Only scan potential customers with a sales opportunity.

Different people will have different opinions. Many marketers usually favor gathering as many leads as possible and qualifying later. Sales teams, on the other hand, are mostly interested in hot leads, seeing potentially unqualified leads as time wasters. Make sure everyone knows what you need from them.

2: Keep it Simple

We all know it’s important that follow up is targeted for the attendee. You can’t just send a giant email blast with generic content and expect people to engage. You can’t either send personalized content if you don’t know anything about the person.

Having said that, we’ve seen a tendency to ask a lot of survey questions. 

A while back, we had a partner who was switching from paper lead capture forms to digital lead capture. They copied the paper form which included 20 survey questions. All of them were marked required and many had follow-up questions. They left their event with only three new leads from the app.

What happened? The sales staff got frustrated. They felt like they were stuck doing data entry while lines built up at their booth. To quote one of the reps, “I look like I’m just playing on my phone or texting friends; it’s embarrassing.” 

They ended up switching back to the paper forms where they felt more comfortable. The result was that it took several weeks before all of the leads were entered into their CRM.

While it’s tempting to gather as much data as humanly possible, remember your staff are in a busy, highly interactive environment. Make the lead capture process as quick as possible by using the minimum number of survey questions you can.

3: Avoid Manual Entry

Event marketers trying to save on expenses might decide they don’t need to pay for badge scanning. After all, Developer kits usually cost several hundred dollars, and renting devices could break the bank once they add all of their users. Their staff can just type in the contact info, right?

That decision is more costly than you might realize. Just like in my example above, when staff only have manual entry as an option, you can expect them to avoid submitting data on the sales floor. They simply don’t have time to do it when face-to-face with prospects. Instead, they’re likely to collect business cards and upload them later in their hotel room.

However, if users can conveniently scan a badge or business card, lead capture takes mere seconds. Consider that next time you’re thinking of saving a buck on lead capture.

4: Stick to Multi-Select Fields

You’re probably noticing a theme here…

The key to adoption is making it as easy as possible.

The more typing there is, the more time lead capture takes, and the less your staff will want to use your capture form. 

When dealing with surveys, multi-select fields take very little time. Imagine how much longer it would take to type “Lead Management Automation” than to just tick a box.

5: Use a Universal Lead Capture System

Inconsistent experiences are one of the biggest complaints both marketers and booth staff.

Every event and every provider has their own scanners and apps. Some let you add custom survey questions, some don’t. Some only provide badge scanning, others can also do business cards. And, unfortunately, not all are very intuitive.

People are much less likely to invest their time in learning to use an app if they know they’ll probably never use it again. However, if you use a Universal Lead Capture (ULC) system like Lead liaison, users will have the same experience at every event. Most importantly, you have control over what the form looks like as well as the questions asked.

To get the most out of your next event, contact Lead liaison today for more ideas on how ULC can make life easier for your staff.


Lead liaison is a multifunctional event platform that provides: Universal Lead Capture, User Customizable Gamification, Marketing Automation, CRM, Lead Management, Sales Enablement, Leader Boards, Point Rewards & e-Gift Cards, Waypoints for Sessions & Scavenger Hunts, Player Profiles, and more with over 3,000 integrations for all common CRM and Marketing Automation platforms.

To see how Lead liaison’s growing library of digital activations (games), universal lead capture, and reward-based solutions can help your company generate more leads at your trade shows, contact us today!