Capturing Conversations and Qualified Leads

The Story

Excel Dryer, an American manufacturer of high-quality hand dryers, has the aim of streamlining handwashing with fast, efficient, eco-friendly products. When it comes to events and trade shows, Excel Dryer takes the same approach: they want a streamlined process from start to finish. In previous years, they used a lead capture system that slowed their processes and made it harder to reconnect with leads immediately after shows.

Industry

Manufacturing

Location

United States

Integrated Software

Pardot

Streamlining Trade Show Performance

Rick Ritacco, Director of Marketing for Excel Dryer, explains, “We had been using trade show scanners from each show, paying ridiculous amounts of money, and in addition, there was a lack of consistency in the questions we were asking in the booth. We wanted to standardize that approach so that when people visited us they would be asked the same questions, our sales reps would rate them appropriately in terms of prioritization, and then we would execute a consistent plan of attack.”

Ritacco searched for a better way and found iCapture. After testing iCapture out with his sales team, Ritacco moved forward with a partnership.

iCapture helped them develop the following key areas:

Follow up faster and more effectively with leads
Create a consistent and automated process
Help sales reengage with relevance

The automation made an immediate difference for the Excel Dryer team after partnering with iCapture. Instead of manual entry, scanned leads now instantly route to the proper channels in their CRM.

Ritacco says, “Before it was a manual process, hours of burn time for us in terms of getting it right and then loading into the CRM correctly. So iCapture solved a lot of headaches for us.”

Devon Hoffman, Digital Marketing Specialist at the marketing agency Site-Seeker, helps manage Excel Dryer’s events. He explains that before iCapture, most of the time reps handwrote notes on the backs of business cards. Between spreadsheets and business cards, it took a good chunk of time to input and qualify all the leads from events. Often, a week passed between collecting a lead and reengaging.

“But now we have the ability to streamline that process,” says Hoffman.

With iCapture, Excel Dryer can qualify and segment while scanning leads. Since they often display multiple products, having a system in place to separate leads by product interest simplifies the process.

Another important element for Excel Dryer is the human factor behind the software. Hoffman explains that in the busy trade show world, unexpected problems sometimes arise. But even if something unexpected materializes off-hours or over the weekend, he can always jump on the phone with a team member at iCapture.

“The biggest positive for iCapture for me is the service team,” says Hoffman. “And if I have to get something set up, like an API, I will send it over at noon and by 12:30 I get an email back saying the show is ready to go. Some cases, even with as streamlined as we try to make this, I find out about the show the day it starts and someone in Support sets up those things quite quickly.”

A System that Supports the Sales Team

For Excel Dryer’s sales reps who work at the booth, it was crucial to adopt a system that would enhance their ability to make meaningful conversations.

“The sales team knows that when they show up, it’s going to look the same and it’s going to be consistent,” says Ritacco.

Happy Excel Dryer Sales Reps at Trade Show

He also explains that iCapture has helped the sales team make connections outside the booth. At dinners, cocktail parties, and other social networking events, the sales reps find iCapture to be “extremely useful.” With iCapture on their phone, they can scan business cards during after-hour events as well.

“The reps have enjoyed this process,” adds Hoffman. “They know that they’re dealing with people who are low in the funnel because we’ve weeded out the top of the funnel ones by determining that they were cold. They’ve got the ones that are going to be sales-ready, hot, good to go. It’s saving them a portion of the process of having to cold call or reinitiate their conversation.”

Maximizing Conversations from Events

With an automated, streamlined, and integrated system, hot leads pipe straight into Excel Dryer’s CRM. Bypassing manual entry, reps can now immediately contact the hottest leads rather than taking up to a week to reach out post-show.

“My sales team is going after these leads and it’s important to hit them very, very quickly after the show,” says Ritacco. “So the timeliness of the information getting into the CRM is very critical. The reps will scan contacts in at a show, and that data will be in the CRM by the time they get back to their hotel at night. So they can actually log in to the CRM, see what was hot, and send emails that evening.”

Excel Dryer also uses auto-reply emails as part of their post-show sales tactics. After scanning a prospect’s badge or business card, the prospect can select which products they are interested in. Once the rep submits the scan, the auto-email will go out and include information on the product. This way, Excel Dryer can connect and start a conversation with a prospect during the show.

Hoffman explains, “The biggest thing from our marketing standpoint has been the auto-reply emails. When someone is scanned and has a conversation, they’ll receive an email after taking a few steps out of our booth. To them, it’s a personal email, but from our standpoint, an automated email.”

In addition to reaching out faster, the reps also reach out with more relevance. The qualifying information captured within the booth, such as product interest and level of interest, helps reps add meaning to each follow-up call or email. Reps sometimes insert notes as well to remember specific talking points or appointments.

“We’ve got something to start the conversation with,” says Ritacco. “It makes it so much simpler to reengage than some of the off-the-shelf things that the show provides. I recommend iCapture to anybody who sells a product, who wants to measure or closely monitor the return on investment of their shows as well as other marketing efforts. It just makes good sense.”