A Chat with Pete Gillett, CEO at Lead Capture Platform: Zuant

Tell us about Zunat

Zuant is the go-to lead capture solution for sales, events, exhibitions and marketing teams. From lead capture at exhibitions to driving engagement in retail and virtual events, Zuant is an automated data capture solution to streamline the start of any customer journey. All of the data captured is fed in to Zuant Cloud which then seamlessly connects with existing CRM systems.

How did you come up with the idea for the company?

We started life as a database marketing company and as a result of the early work we did in processing exhibition leads we realised that there must be a better way – this all tied in nicely with the launch of the iPad back in 2010 which was the ideal device for a quality approach to badge scanning and content sharing. From there we launched the Zuant app – a lead capture app for sales, events and marketing teams.

Tell us about your core product or service

Zuant 3D is our latest product – this uses Matterport’s 3D photography to create an immersive virtual experience. A digital scan of a physical space is used to create a ‘digital twin’ which converts a live event in to a virtual experience and opens up sales channels to a 24/7 global audience.

Zuant 3D has a great advantage over traditional interactions, as it can either be an entirely exclusive experience for a customer to self-navigate alone, or a guided tour with dual controls for sales agents to use.

The technology has applications across all kinds of sectors including trade shows, events, retail, property, manufacturing, construction and hospitality. Maserati has used Zuant 3D for a virtual showroom, Toshiba used it to extend the life of their exhibition stand and manufacturer Plug Power used it to provide a virtual factory tour for the launch of their new factory. Zuant 3D transforms lead capture and maximises conversion rates by as much as 20%.
 

What most excites you about the industry?

The industry is constantly changing, oddly against a backdrop of exhibition organisers who always continue to do things pretty much the same way they have for the last few decades!

Covid enabled us to develop the relationship with Matterport to develop Zuant 3D, and that’s proved as relevant today as it was when we started to develop it.

What has been the biggest challenge you’ve had to overcome along the way?

Covid was a huge challenge for all companies involved with the events industry for obvious reasons. However, we managed to use this as an opportunity to diversify slightly and develop Zuant 3D.

We are lucky to have a brilliant technical team, but an ongoing challenge is always to have enough technical capacity to keep pace with the speed of development.

What is your number one piece of advice to aspiring entrepreneurs?

Stay gloriously independent. Keep your confidence in your breakthrough ideas which the rest of the world may not be ready for. You don’t need a partner who may prove to be troublesome in the future if your goals aren’t exactly aligned (which is rare), and never lose your majority stake in the business you founded, until you can afford to!

What can we hope to see from Zuant in the future?

Zuant AI is going to be an absolute breakthrough for tradeshow sales teams – completely eliminating the headache and costs involved in badge scanning, manual data entry, lengthy pre-show set-up and training sessions.

Tradeshow badge scanning can easily cost in excess of $100k a year for Badge Kits or rental scanners. Zuant AI delivers huge cost savings by allowing sales teams to capture valuable leads without always having to pay for badge kit APIs or renting different badge scanning systems at every show.

The Zuant AI app can scan any badge or business card and instantly sends the image to the Zuant Cloud for enhancement with any additional data that can be sourced online. The resultant ‘Lead Grid’ then allows the data to flow through to a client’s CRM or Marketing Automation system for follow-up.

Zuant AI can also pull detailed information from CRM system live at events, enabling sales teams to access client history when scanning a badge which provides great background context for relationship building.