Capturing Leads

Capturing leads is the most important aspect of attending a trade show. You need to have a method in place at the show to do this. Just as you want your landing page for an e-mail or online ad to collect a potential customer’s contact information, you also need a way to collect information from potential customers at a trade show.

You can do this in several ways. You might have a signup sheet at your booth for a freebee or special prize (e.g., “Sign up now for our daily drawing. Every day at the trade show, we give away 10 free copies of our latest software.”). If it’s a B2B trade show, you might also keep a bowl or basket at the booth where people who are interested in your products or services can leave their business cards.

Some trade shows are making it easier for companies to collect contact information from attendees. The attendees wear special badges with embedded microchips or bar codes. Each vendor at the show gets a scanner, and the company reps need only to scan badges to capture the attendee’s essential information.

Your goal should be to capture as many leads as possible at the trade show. After the show, you should make sure that your marketing or sales staff follows up on those leads promptly. It amazes me how many companies don’t do this. They spend thousands of dollars to attend a trade show. They collect business cards or other contact information from hundreds of potential customers who visit their booth. And then, after the show, they don’t follow up on those costly leads!

This is the same as flushing money down the toilet. The people you meet at trade shows usually have a good reason to be there; they are very likely to have a need or interest in your types of products or services. If you don’t follow up with them after the show to gauge their interest, you are throwing away valuable leads that could easily turn into potential long-term customers! Therefore, you should treat the leads from a trade show with the same importance and urgency as leads from any other lead-generation tactic. Follow up on those leads as soon as possible!