Optimizing Lead Capture and Appointment Management at ESMO 2024

Situation

At ESMO 2024, 25+ global pharmaceutical companies needed help managing everything from event logistics and field force engagement to lead capture and KEE appointments. With large teams on the ground, juggling booth activations, endless emails, and Excel spreadsheets was time consuming, pulling focus away from building meaningful relationships with HCPs. These companies needed a simpler, more centralized way to handle things in real time.

SpotMe Life Sciences stepped in to make that happen. We supported over 6,000 reps, with more than 2,500 users actively engaging through our Field Force Hub App. From coordinating field teams and sending notifications to capturing leads and managing appointments, our solution took care of the heavy lifting. Everything was seamlessly integrated, so the pharmaceutical teams could stay focused on what mattered most – connecting with HCPs and driving results.

Challenge

Exhibiting at congresses such as ESMO is a multimillion-dollar investment, and making the most of every interaction is critical for companies looking to maximize their return on investment.

Before ESMO, these 25+ companies faced challenges in three key areas of HCP engagement – lead capture, appointment management, and satellite/theater sessions. On top of that, coordinating logistics for staff and sponsored HCPs was constantly complicating things. Many were still using Excel spreadsheets to manage congress processes, which added even more inefficiency and made it harder for them to get the most out of their congress presence.

Here are the challenges they faced in more detail:

HCP Engagement

1. Lead Capture

Capturing high-quality leads is a key part of engaging HCPs, but many companies still rely on outdated or unintegrated tools, such as manual forms or simple scanners provided by the congress organizers. This results in fragmented data, compliance risks, and missed opportunities for immediate follow-up.

The Problem Caused

• Congress-provided lead capture tools lack the flexibility to customize data capture forms by team, resulting in the loss of valuable HCP insights
• Congress-provided scanners are not integrated with exhibitor CRM systems. This means that captured data either arrives late or never in the CRM
• Fragmentation of tools across different congresses means unstructured data that’s hard to act on – reducing the ROI of these congress integrations

2. Appointment Management

Efficiently scheduling and managing thousands of appointments with HCPs at large congresses is difficult, especially when relying on simple calendars, Excel spreadsheets, email threads, and agency-printed schedules. This often leads to scheduling conflicts and missed opportunities to engage with HCPs.

The Problem Caused

Manually managing appointment logistics results in double bookings, no-shows, lost meeting slots, and confusion about room availability, all of which hinder reps’ ability to focus on high-value interactions with HCPs.

3. Satellite/Theater Sessions

These sessions provide an opportunity for deep engagement with HCPs, but many companies lack the tools to track attendee participation, sentiment, or engagement in real time, resulting in missed follow-up opportunities. Often, feedback is collected through either a voting token or non-integrated survey tools (Mentimeter, SurveyMonkey, etc.).

The Problem Caused

Without integrated data collection during sessions, exhibitors are unable to track who engaged with their presentations or assess session effectiveness in real time. This reduces the overall impact of these high-value interactions.

Logistical Coordination

Managing the logistics of large congresses like ESMO is another challenge. Exhibitors must ensure that reps and invited HCPs have access to accurate, up-to-date information about personalized agendas, hotel details, booth locations, and more. However, many companies struggle with fragmented tools such as a congress app with an agenda (that is not personalized) and messaging communicator groups (WhatsApp) that lead to disorganization and inefficiency.

The Problem Caused

Disorganized logistics can lead to confusion about schedules, missed meetings, and a poor rep and HCP experience. Without a centralized system, managing travel logistics, personal agendas, room bookings, booth interactions, and team coordination can be cumbersome and negatively impact ROI.

Solution

SpotMe Life Sciences offered a range of solutions to address these challenges, streamlining processes and maximizing efficiency:

1. Universal Lead Capture

We equipped teams with Universal Lead Capture, allowing reps to scan any badge via optical scan (OCR) or capture leads via manual entry, including a kiosk mode.

This led to faster and more accurate data collection, customizable lead qualification forms tailored to specific teams, and real-time data synchronization with CRM systems for immediate follow-up. Moreover, by supporting high-traffic environments with a kiosk mode for self-service lead capture, our tool ensured compliance with integrated consent and signature collection and provided flexibility through manual entry when needed. These features improved lead volume, data accuracy, and the speed to next best action, ultimately increasing event ROI.

Here is more information about how reps used Universal Lead Capture at ESMO:

Optical Character Recognition (OCR) scanning

Reps scanned congress badges or business cards using OCR technology, which automatically extracted and populated lead information into the SpotMe app. This streamlined data mapping to configured fields in the lead form.

Manual lead entry

In cases where badge scanning was not possible, reps had the flexibility to manually enter lead information using custom forms in the SpotMe app. They could

• Add leads by filling in configurable fields such as name, email, and organization
• Qualify leads on the spot by adding additional details or follow-up actions
• Update lead information in real time to ensure accurate data collection

Lead qualification forms

Reps captured additional information beyond basic HCP contact details by adding qualifying questions and additional input fields, modifying qualification forms in real time based on event or business needs, and customizing qualification forms based on the team.

Kiosk mode

For high-traffic booths, gated booth activations, or unstaffed stations, the SpotMe app offered a kiosk mode where attendees could enter their own details. This self-service option increased:

• Lead capture volume in busy event environments
• HCP autonomy in sharing their information
• Efficiency in lead capture without manual intervention

Consent collection

To meet compliance requirements, reps collected additional consent from HCPs by adding a consent checkbox to the lead capture form and capturing multiple consent types (e.g., marketing, data sharing) as part of the lead data.

Signature collection

Reps could collect signatures electronically using the tool. This ensured attendees could digitally sign consent forms directly in the app, resulting in adherence to regulatory requirements. It also meant that signatures were securely stored along with the lead information for audit purposes.

CRM integration

Captured leads were synced in real-time with their CRM, ensuring all lead data was immediately accessible during ESMO.

2. Appointments

Rep teams used our Appointments management tool to schedule, reschedule, and manage HCP appointments through the Field Force Hub and Backstage.

The centralized system of calendar functionalities, room/location management, robust permission controls, and external calendar synchronization reduced the complexity of managing business suite appointments at ESMO.

Here is more information about how reps used Appointments at ESMO:

Planner view – full calendar control

Organizers oversaw and managed room usage with a powerful appointment planner view on Backstage. They used the centralized overview of both room and attendee schedules to optimize coordination for both pre-event and onsite appointments.

Rep view

Reps accessed their appointments with HCPs and KOLs in the app through a list or calendar view. Depending on the configuration, they could see their own appointments or the full schedule of their peers, which helped them simplify the scheduling process.

Business suite room management

Teams configured available meeting rooms, set capacity limits, and defined the dates and times when rooms were available for booking. This meant they had full control over who could book appointments in specific rooms, ensuring only authorized people could reserve important spaces. They blocked selected time slots to manage room maintenance or other scheduled activities. When traditional business suite rooms were fully booked, reps were provided with the flexibility to book custom locations (e.g., booth lobby or informal meeting areas).

Scheduling and invitations

Reps scheduled appointments directly using the SpotMe app or Backstage. Both app users and external users were invited via an email address and detailed appointment descriptions and RSVPs were managed directly in the app.

Calendar integration

External participants automatically received calendar invitations and responses were directly synchronized with SpotMe. As soon as an invitation was accepted in the external calendar (e.g., Outlook, Google), it was automatically updated in SpotMe.

Advanced permissions

Appointment visibility, editing rights, and room access were configured at a granular level to ensure compliance and operational control. Different levels of permissions were set per room or user, ensuring proper access management.

Attendance tracking

Reps tracked appointment attendance in real time to improve event ROI measurement. This allowed the companies to measure the effectiveness of scheduled appointments through attendance metrics.

Appointment buffer times

Buffer times for room cleaning and preparation between appointments were automatically added, ensuring smooth transitions and optimal room usage.

Real-time notifications

Reps received instant notifications for appointment acceptances, declines, cancellations, and updates. Reps, planners, and participants were kept informed via in-app notifications and email, ensuring smooth communication throughout ESMO.

Automatic reminders

There were automatic reminders via email and in-app notifications for both reps and engaged HCPs before appointments. These reminders ensured participants were well prepared, reduced the risk of no-shows, and increased overall engagement.

Integrated with the CRM

SpotMe appointments were instantly visible as the Account/Contact Activity on the HCP’s timeline thanks to the SpotMe Sync App for Veeva and Salesforce.

Implementation / Workflows

Universal Lead Capture

To properly capture HCP consent, SpotMe made it easy by combining Universal Lead scanning with signature collection. Here’s a step by step explanation of what happened:

1. When HCPs arrived at the booth, reps started their usual conversations
2. At the end of the conversation, the rep asked to scan the HCP’s badge for follow-up and to share their information with the commercial team
3. To keep things compliant, the rep handed the iPad to the HCP to get their digital signature
4. After, the rep completed the lead form by adding more details using SpotMe’s advanced lead qualification forms, customized for each team
5. All the data was directly synced into the company’s CRM (Veeva/Salesforce), ensuring the team could follow up with the HCP right away

Appointments

We identified three main workflows as key use cases at ESMO:

Workflow #1 Reps requesting room allocation for pre-arranged appointments with HCPs

1. Reps provided a list of HCPs they wanted to meet, along with pre-agreed dates and times
2. The meeting planner entered these appointments into the SpotMe platform, using the tool to assign them to available rooms
3. If a time slot became unavailable, the planner coordinated with the rep to either find a new slot or explore alternatives, such as holding the meeting outside the business center
4. Once finalized, both the HCP and the rep received calendar invitations with all the relevant details, including the meeting topic, date, time, and room allocation

Workflow #2 Reps inviting HCPs directly from within the app

1. Reps scheduled appointments directly within the app
2. They quickly added appointments, selecting either custom meeting rooms or those allocated at the booth
3. The HCPs received calendar invitations with all the necessary details, ensuring they had everything they needed to join the meeting at the designated location

Workflow #3 SpotMe’s Professional Congress Service Team managed HCP outreach and invitations

1. Our Professional Congress Service Team handled the outreach to HCPs and managed the invitation process
2. The pharma company provided a list of HCPs they wanted their reps to meet, along with discussion topics
3. The team used SpotMe’s Appointment Request forms to reach out to each HCP, asking if they were interested in a conversation and to provide their availability
4. Based on their responses, the planned scheduled the meetings according to the available time slots for both the reps and the HCPs

Logistics and Rep Engagement

We took several steps to enhance logistics and rep engagement:

1. Each rep received individualized agendas tailored to their specific appointments and activities
2. Each rep received personalized logistics support for their travel and accommodation
3. Reps could exchange insights and updates on discussion boards and feeds to encourage ongoing interaction
4. Everyone received live notifications to stay everyone informed in real time
5. Reps collected competitive insights during ESMO
6. The most active reps received awards through gamification and leaderboards

Results

SpotMe’s platform delivered impactful results at ESMO 2024:

• Lead Generation: Over 7,300 leads were captured, seamlessly integrated with CRMs, ensuring effective post-event follow-ups.
• Efficient Meetings: Reps coordinated 3,125 HCP appointments, cutting scheduling time by 40% and allowing for stronger connections with HCPs.
• High Engagement: Features like engagement feeds and activity challenges helped maintain strong participation, shaping meaningful interactions.
• Operational Efficiency: By centralizing logistics and communications, SpotMe’s app reduced complexity, making event management smoother.
• Real-Time Insights: Analytics on engagement, leads, and meetings enabled pharma teams to make data-driven decisions, maximizing their presence at ESMO 2024.

Conclusion

SpotMe Life Sciences made a big difference for 25+ global pharmaceutical companies at ESMO 2024. By streamlining lead capture and appointment management, we enabled these companies to focus on what truly mattered – building strong connections with HCPs and maximizing their presence at the congress.

We are proud of the thousands of HCP engagements, leads captured, and appointments successfully coordinated. These results highlight how our solution drives real value at medical congresses. We look forward to continuing to support our customers with our Congress Excellence Suite.

To find out how SpotMe Life Sciences could transform your congress experience, book a demo today.