Capturing sales leads

Takes 3 minutes to read

To get the most out of a show, follow-up is crucial – but it's often left out of most event plans (industry statistics show that eight out of 10 exhibitors fail to follow-up leads after a show).

The secret is to ensure your after-show follow-up strategy is written up before the show starts: email follow-ups should be written, designed, and any offers decided on.

Often people are not ready to buy at they moment they discover your product, so creating a way to capture their information ensures you have the opportunity to convert them at a later date.

Depending on your goal, you may be collecting sales leads, competition entries or newsletter sign-ups. Think carefully about the environment, as at certain times it may not be practical to collect names with the many people typically crowding stands – it's best to KISS (keep it simple stupid).

Your way of capturing leads could be a simple clipboard and pen, or an iPad containing an app to capture data. But whatever you do, ensure you check the data each day and keep the information safe.

  • At the end of each show day, collate all visitor data collected and enter the most common fields into a CSV or Excel file. Once the show is complete, you will have a full show database to work from.
  • Consider the use lead generation software like XPO Leads App to collect data and have it sync back and saved to their servers each day.