On and of I tend go to business and consumers fairs here in Kuala Lumpur once in a while. Just to see who is there, what they are offering, how they do it… what is out there…
It strikes me that very few companies really follow up on their leads. Not even via SMS or a Phonecall. E-mail seems like the last thing they will use… So far my disappointment..
So I wonder why do I give my business card to them, why don’t they write down what they ask. I believe this has to do with the current Malaysian SME Business culture, where quotes are not easily send out via email. Maybe they are a bit tired of sending out quotes, or it’s just not done. It could also be that the way of having to enter the acquired data/business-cards on the expensive fair is not done due to using old methods (book and paper). I think there is an open market here.
Speaking for myself, I know it’s a lot of work to follow-up on leads but that part is very important if you want to be seen as somebody who takes the prospect/suspect serious…
Also what is the point in being present on a fair if you never engage in a dialogue with your suspects/prospects after the fair… I am not talking about spamming them, I am talking about dialogue, find out what people want, who they are, qualify the lead.
Maybe the use of fast technology/cardscanning into email/text will help in this process…
www.cardscan.com – they have some local dealers in KL, Malaysia, I have seen them on different fairs. It’s a good product, I can totally recommend it. Scan your cards, email your suspects, to make them into qualified prospects.
And no, I did not get paid to say this. But I would not mind putting up some paid advertising for Cardscan on the right side of this company blog 
Automation and efficiency starts with simple but effective steps. Currently I use the Cardscan Executive. It links nicely to Ms Outlook 2007. I recommend to run it under Windows XP Pro (currently trying to get it to work properly under windows Vista) and there is even a plugin for the Blackberry.
Summary : when I run around on a fair (since nobody, but really nobody emails me back, or maybe after 3 months…) here is what I do :
- I take pictures of all products that interest me. visual memory of the interesting things
- all businesscards and brochures and the directory of the exhibitors goes into to one box
- all the acquired cards are scanned into the cardscan database
- interesting contacts are emailed and more questions asked. if an email link cannot be setup I don’t this is a very healthy company on the level of email/online interactivity… we are 2010, reminder !
- if the contact is a qualified lead it goes into a filemaker pro database and the business process or quoting, figuring out what people want starts there. this is tracked in details. it’s a lovely system
- in the outlook folder I have boxes also prospects-malaysia, fair-xyz, containing the leads that come from that fair
- if needed with a handy software called Mail List King MLK is used to do some emailing, but we don’t spam people. No point in that.
- Finally, some of the contact enter willingly their email in our online subscription system on our wordpress based blog.
This is how a small company with little resources can do as much as a big one (who also does not email me back by the way).
Next step is of course how to learn to do proper calling, processing of online orders, talk, sell to people over the phone. Etc.. Basically my conclusion is that if it works for me, it can for anybody else. Focus on follow-up, good service and enhancement of what and how you do things and keep the costs low.
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