Welcome back to part 2 of Effectively Evaluating Your Events: this time, we’re talking about How to Measure Pipeline Impact. If you read Part 1: A Step-by-Step Approach to Evaluating Event Success: Introducing the Event Scorecard, then you know how important it is to have a flexible reporting system for your events to better understand what works and what doesn’t.
The event scorecard serves as a tool to tell the story of the event, providing a breakdown of the most important aspects that should be happening and holding the individuals accountable for filling it out. By analyzing the data collected through the Event Scorecard you can provide valuable recommendations for improving future events and maximizing their impact.
However, in order to effectively evaluate events, it is essential to utilize event scorecards AND measure pipeline impact.
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Now most people identify “impact” as ROI, and while your pipeline does impact ROI in the long term, it can be better adjusted if you focus on the impact on the pipeline directly. To gauge the true effectiveness of an event, it is important to assess its impact on the sales pipeline. This can be done by analyzing various factors.
Factors To Evaluate Pipeline Impact
1. Direct Lead Generation
One of the key metrics to consider is the number of leads directly generated as a result of the event. In order to track this, you can monitor website conversions during and around the event period, with particular emphasis during the event itself, and on the 1 to 2 days following the event. By analyzing this data, you can identify any noticeable spikes in lead generation, which could indicate a potential pattern or trend. These insights will enable you to make informed decisions and optimize your lead-generation strategies for future events.
2. Deal Stage Conversion
This involves examining the progress of active or working deals within your CRM system. By carefully assessing whether these deals are accelerating faster than normal during or after a tradeshow, you can gain valuable insights. For instance, if out of 15 prospects engaged at the event, a significant number are progressing further in the sales process, it demonstrates a positive correlation between the event and deal progression. This data-driven approach allows you to make informed decisions and optimize your strategies for future events.
3. Growing Current Accounts and Sales
As you strive to grow your current accounts and increase sales, you can assess the influence of tradeshows on your existing customers and accounts. One effective way to measure this impact is by evaluating the subsequent order volume and sales that result from contacting these customers within the tradeshow window. By comparing the sales figures before and after their involvement in the tradeshow, you can determine if there is a notable increase in sales from these accounts. If you observe a significant uptick in sales following their participation in the tradeshow, it serves as a clear indication of the direct impact that tradeshows have on driving sales growth. This data-driven insight allows you to pinpoint the effectiveness of tradeshows in nurturing relationships with existing customers and maximizing revenue opportunities.
4. Direct/New Sales
By following a systematic approach, we can identify prospects who were already in the prospecting stage but became viable opportunities as a result of their participation in the specific tradeshow. These individuals, though initially at the early stages of the sales process, may not have converted at the same pace or even converted at all without the invaluable exposure and engagement they experienced during the event.
By attending the tradeshow, these prospects were immersed in an environment that allowed them to gain unique insights, establish meaningful connections, and directly interact with your brand. This exposure played a monumental role in fostering a sense of trust and familiarity, which expedited their decision-making process and transformed them from mere prospects to valuable sales opportunities. In the absence of their involvement at the tradeshow, these potential customers might have taken significantly longer to convert, or worse, may have never converted at all. Understanding the impact of tradeshows on converting prospects into tangible sales opportunities enables you to strategically leverage these events to propel direct sales growth.
Why Evaluating Your Impact Matters
By incorporating these elements into your event evaluation process, you can gain a comprehensive understanding of the event’s success and its impact on the sales pipeline. This data-driven approach provides valuable insights for future event planning and optimizing ROI. Remember, the story of an event goes beyond numbers; it lies in the subjective and objective evaluation of its impact.