Trade shows can be a gold mine for sales teams looking to generate new business. In many industries, large shows were simply can’t-miss events. However, with trade shows being tabled for the foreseeable future, sales managers are struggling to replace this vital lead source. If you miss the steady flow of leads your team typically generated from trade shows, you can use these tactics to drum up prospects until the time when shows open back up.
Host Webinars
Webinars are a tried-and-true method of generating leads. In fact, for some companies, they are one of the most reliable sources of new contacts. The key to making webinars work is to provide timely, relevant, and useful information by someone who has genuine expertise on a topic.
Don’t use the webinar to sell anything. Simply share information. You capture leads prior to the webinar when participants register and then you can soft-sell your products at the end of the webinar, but that should be it. The focus of the talk should be relevant, usable information.
Up Your Team’s Email Marketing Game
If your company has a marketing team, work with that team lead to develop an effective email marketing campaign that will generate leads. If you don’t have a marketing team for support, you’ll have to do some legwork. Discover what types of subject lines, offers, and CTAs have resonated with prospects in the past. Use that information to create new emails to promote specific products, services, sales, or offers.
Leverage Paid Social Media Ads
Social media advertising isn’t just for B2C companies. If you sell B2B, you can still use these platforms effectively. Why? Because decision-makers are people with personal and professional social media accounts.
With paid ads, you can hyper-target people by industry, geography, search history, and more. These types of ads help your company stay top-of-mind with those decision-makers by reaching them where they spend their time online.
Ask For Referrals
You probably tell your reps to ask for referrals from their clients, but do you have a formal program in place to track who is asking for referrals, which reps generate referrals and which clients are offering referrals? This is a great time to formalize the process of asking for referrals so reps get used to doing it. Turn it into a mini-contest to get reps interested in adopting the practice and drum up as many referrals as possible.
Use Direct Mail
No one is getting much mail right now. Thanks to closed economies and social distancing, many companies paused their direct marketing efforts. A great way to stand out is to create an interesting direct mail campaign. Using a mix of postcards, mini-mailers, small gifts, and more, you can reach out via mail to prospects anywhere from 5-10 times, with some follow-up in between.
Are You Looking To Build Your Sales Team?
The best lead-generation tactics in the world will not yield sales if you don’t have the right people on your team. If your industrial safety or PPE manufacturing company is looking for top-tier sales talent, talk to The Charis Group. As the premier recruiters in the industry, we help sales leaders build effective, lasting teams. Contact us today to learn more.