Events held by Distributors and the People that Attended

[Parfitt_David]

Like many companies, we sell direct to businesses, as well as distributors (who then sell our stuff direct to businesses).  Often the distribution companies hold events or attend tradeshows where our products are showcased.  My question is understanding how to handle the list of attendees the distributors send to us after the event or tradeshow.

I have all sorts of ideas running through my head like Should we even upload these people and should we even score these people since it was technically not our event?  Many of them are potentially already Leads or Contacts in our CRM, people in Marketo, or brand-new to us altogether.

So to break it down, really, here are my questions:

1. Should we upload these people to our database as having visited a distributor's booth or attended a distributor's event? Maybe just upload NEW people, and skip existing?
2. If so, do I need to create an Event Program for each distribution event so we can attribute an acquisition program to new leads or could I just create a Default Program that doesn't expire, and upload all people through this method

I appreciate the guidance on this -- thanks in Advance. If you have any ideas please feel free to let me know.

Dave

[Rachel_Noble]

It all depends on if/how you want to report on this. A couple questions to consider:

1. Does sales care about leads who attended/visited booth at distributors' events? This question impacts both interesting moments and lead scoring.
2. Does marketing care? Will you market to these people differently having known they are potential customers of distributors?
3. Will you market to people who visit a distributor's booth/attended a distributor's show but have no other relationship with you?
4. Do you need to track visiting distributors' booths/attending their events for any other reason (profit share, attribution, etc)?