Leads are great. Sales are better. However, it’s hard to give your leads appropriate attention when you’re busy with exhibitor roles. Whether it’s designing your exhibit, putting together brand messaging, assigning staff to roles or meeting deadlines, your plate is already full. Throwing lead nurturing into the mix only complicates things.

In an ideal world, your company would provide you with measurable goals and objectives for gathering leads, adding contact info to the corporate database and reaching out to customers through a drip email campaign. Because most of us don’t live in bliss, we’ve included practical tips to help you skyrocket more leads into sales.

Let’s dig in!

Define What a Lead Means to Your Company

You can’t quantity, qualify or measure leads until you clearly define what one is. Everyone on your marketing and sales teams must come to an agreement as to what describes a trade show lead. Generally speaking, most companies consider a lead to be a sales contact or person who expresses interest at the trade show. If this is the case, you only need to add contact names into your database. Your company should also be more specific, identifying criteria that makes a person qualified or not.

Set Attainable Goals

The two things you should consider when setting attainable goals are the size of your target audience at the event and how many prospects you can realistically engage with. Don’t automatically assume that your sales reps will always engage with a new person. Your reps will need breaks, and some contacts will take more time conversing with you than others.

Choose an Appropriate Lead Gathering System

There are many ways to capture lead information. Choose a lead management system that aligns with your objectives. For example, if all you want to do is fill your database with names, scan badges into your database. If you want to qualify your leads, you will need a more elaborate system that captures this information. Also, be clear about how the contact information will be entered to prevent duplicates or inconsistent information.

Ask Booth Attendants About Follow-Ups

You already know that not all leads are created equal. Some are just stopping by for the free lanyards. Others may have thought they were interested, but it turns out they’re not. Consider asking visitors if they want a follow-up by your company. Although some will most likely say no, others will say yes. This gives you the opportunity to follow up with people who are genuinely interested in your products and services.

The last step is to distribute lead information to your sales team. Every company has a different process for following up with leads. Though the sales teams tend to get the recognition, your exhibiting program should receive love too! Designing an exhibit, standing on your feet for 10+ hours and engaging with contacts is tough work, yet essential to your brand’s survival.