4 Reasons your event lead capture solution should integrate with your CRM

If you’re in the event lead capture space, chances are you work with a lot of systems. First, there’s your marketing automation software. Then, there’s your event lead management (ELM) software and capture devices. Finally, the part sales really cares about, your CRM. Of course, that’s not counting the many various other connectors you might be using (Twilio, Hootsuite, Calendly, etc.).

So where should the event data flow? We’ve worked with companies that fear connecting event lead capture tools directly to their CRM. We get it; your CRM needs to be clean, but let’s look at our primary concern: interacting with qualified leads while they are still warm. 

No matter how good your marketing nurture is, the best way to interact with a warm lead is person to person. The best way to manage person to person interaction is in your CRM. See our point?

Today, we’ll explore 4 reasons why connecting your event lead capture tool directly to your CRM is the way to go.

1) Save your data instantly

Your contact data is instantly added to your database. Let’s face it, your booth staff have a lot to do. They have to keep up with traffic during the event and build rapport at dinners and parties after the event. As a result, it’s going to be some time before they can enter lead data into your CRM. In a best case, it’s the same evening. In the worst, it’s weeks later when they find a business card buried in their wallet.

One caveat, to do this (and most things on this list), you need to use a lead capture tool like Captello that can communicate with your CRM in real time. The show provider’s generic scanner won’t be able to do this in most cases, and you’ll likely wait 1-2 business days after the close of the event before you get leads. And as we’ve written before, that’s not the only reason to avoid generic scanners. 

2) Sync qualified leads only

One reason marketers cite not syncing directly to the CRM is sales; sales only want to see qualified leads in their CRM. They’re right to want that. They don’t have time to sift through potentially hundreds of cold leads when there are warm leads that need follow up now.

When you use a customized lead capture form, you can empower your booth staff to identify qualified leads. These leads get sent to the CRM for immediate human follow up. The rest can sync to your marketing automation platform for nurture to warm them up.

3) Assign leads automatically

Another common bottleneck is lead assignment. Some sales managers have specific rules for when leads get assigned and who gets them. By using an ELM solution like Captello, you can help automate this process.

First, you can build assignment rules directly into your ELM software. Based on demographic data and survey responses, the system can assign leads based on your rules. Better yet, if you already have rules set up in your CRM, your ELM tool can invoke those when syncing. Either way, the right lead gets to the right owner every time. 

4) Avoid losing any leads

When you connect your event lead capture tool to your CRM, you make sure no one gets lost after the event. You’ve undoubtedly heard some of the grim statistics about event follow up; some resources claim up to 80% of leads don’t get follow up. 

Event lead capture systems like Captello can actually assign tasks to the lead owner. That means that while your booth staff are still capturing leads, your sales people already have follow up scheduled on their calendar. In turn, sales management will have an easier time tracking follow up immediately after the event. 

These are a few reasons we suggest connecting directly to your CRM. Of course, there are cases when you’ll want to connect with Marketing Automation instead. If you’re wondering which integration is best for you, schedule a demo with Captello today.