How to Respond to, Qualify, Prioritize and Convert Trade Show Leads Into Measurable Sales
By Richard Erschik — The Voice of Trade Show ROI
Trade shows generate plenty of names.
The problem is what happens to those names after the show.
For more than 50 years in the trade show industry—and for more than 22 years operating a company that processed more than one million trade show sales leads—I watched exhibitors make essentially the same mistake:
They collected names at the show and immediately handed all of them to Sales for follow-up.
It sounds logical.
It isn’t.
A badge scan, business card or booth conversation doesn’t automatically make someone a qualified sales lead.
Some visitors are legitimate near-term prospects. Some are future prospects. Some are customers, competitors, students, suppliers or people simply interested in what you’re exhibiting.
Yet after the show, all those names frequently get dumped into a CRM or spreadsheet and sent to Sales with the instruction:
“Follow up with these leads.”
That’s where the process begins to break down.
A Name Is Not Necessarily a Lead
One of the most important lessons I learned processing more than one million trade show leads is remarkably simple:
Names and leads are not the same thing.
A name is someone whose information you collected.
A qualified lead is someone about whom you know enough to justify a salesperson’s time and attention.
That’s an important distinction because salespeople have existing customers, active opportunities, proposals, quotas, meetings and dozens of other demands competing for their time.
Handing a salesperson 150 unqualified names and saying “follow up” isn’t lead management.
It’s transferring Marketing’s unfinished work to Sales.
Every Name Deserves a Response. Not Every Name Deserves a Salesperson.
This is where I believe the traditional trade show lead follow-up process needs to change.
Marketing should not hand every raw trade show name directly to Sales.
Marketing should maintain responsibility long enough to respond to every name, determine who is genuinely interested, gather additional qualification information, identify purchase intention and timing, prioritize legitimate opportunities, nurture future prospects, and only then hand qualified, prioritized opportunities to Sales.
That’s not taking responsibility away from Sales.
It’s giving Sales something better to sell to.
Follow-Up Should Be Planned Before the Show
Another common mistake is waiting until everyone returns from the show to decide what happens next.
By then people are tired, email has accumulated, normal business responsibilities have returned, and the trade show is already becoming yesterday’s priority.
The post-show response process should therefore be created before the show begins.
Before anyone walks into the exhibit hall, the exhibiting company should know who will receive the leads, how every visitor will be acknowledged, what additional qualification information is needed, how leads will be prioritized, which opportunities go immediately to Sales, which prospects enter a nurturing process, and how eventual sales will be connected back to the trade show.
The trade show isn’t over when the exhibit closes.
For ROI purposes, that’s when the most important part begins.
What Information Should Be Used to Qualify Trade Show Leads?
During my years training exhibitors, I taught five basic areas of qualification:
Usage. Does the prospect currently use the type of product or service you provide?
Intention. Are they considering buying, changing or upgrading?
Timing. When might that happen?
Authority. What role do they play in the buying decision?
Budget. Has money been allocated or discussed?
You don’t necessarily need every answer from every visitor while they’re standing in the booth.
But the more of this information you collect, the easier it becomes to separate a casual visitor from an actual sales opportunity.
Why Sending the Same Email to Everyone Doesn’t Solve the Problem
Technology has made sending follow-up faster and easier.
That’s not necessarily the same as making follow-up better.
People receive enormous amounts of email. They have become remarkably good at visually scanning their inboxes and deciding:
Delete. Delete. Delete.
An automated “Thanks for visiting our booth” message sent to everyone may technically count as follow-up.
But sending something isn’t the same as creating engagement.
The objective of the initial response should be to continue the conversation and help determine the prospect’s level of interest.
That may involve email, telephone, direct mail, personalized information, a qualification document or a combination of methods.
The medium matters less than the objective:
Get the prospect to take the next step.
Who Should Own Trade Show Lead Follow-Up?
My answer is:
Marketing—initially. Sales—eventually.
Marketing owns the trade show investment and lead-generation process.
Marketing should therefore own the initial response, qualification and prioritization process.
Once someone has demonstrated sufficient interest and meets the company’s qualification criteria, the opportunity should move immediately to the appropriate salesperson.
That’s where Sales belongs.
Not digging through piles of names looking for somebody who might want to buy.
How Should Trade Show Leads Be Prioritized?
Not every legitimate prospect has the same urgency.
A simple system can separate opportunities into categories such as:
A — Immediate opportunity. Strong interest, appropriate authority and near-term buying intention.
B — Developing opportunity. Legitimate prospect, but purchase timing or other factors make the opportunity less immediate.
C — Future/nurture opportunity. Potential fit, but not ready for active sales pursuit.
The terminology doesn’t matter nearly as much as having a process.
Salespeople should know who deserves attention first and why.
What About Everyone Else?
Don’t throw them away.
Someone who isn’t ready to buy today may become a customer six months or two years from now.
That’s what nurturing is for.
Keep providing useful, relevant communication until the prospect’s situation changes or they indicate that they’re no longer interested.
This is another reason separating qualification from immediate Sales follow-up matters.
Not ready today doesn’t mean never.
How Do You Measure Trade Show ROI?
Eventually every exhibiting company should be able to answer a very simple question:
What did we get for the money?
Not:
How many badges did we scan?
How many people visited the booth?
How many demonstrations did we give?
How many giveaways disappeared?
Those are activity measurements.
ROI requires connecting the trade show investment to business results.
That means tracking qualified opportunities through the sales process and ultimately connecting resulting revenue—or whatever business outcome was established—to the event that helped create it.
Without that final step, you’re measuring activity.
You’re not measuring return.
The Complete Trade Show Process
Trade show success isn’t created during three days in an exhibit hall.
It’s a continuous process:
PRE-SHOW → DURING-SHOW → POST-SHOW → PAYOFF
Before the show, attract the right people.
During the show, engage and identify potential buyers.
After the show, respond, qualify, prioritize and nurture.
Then measure what happened.
That’s how exhibiting becomes a business process instead of an expensive event.
Frequently Asked Questions About Trade Show Lead Follow-Up
How quickly should trade show leads be followed up?
Quickly—but relevance matters as much as speed. A fast, generic response isn’t necessarily better than a slightly later response that continues the actual booth conversation.
Should every trade show lead go to Sales?
No. Every name should receive an appropriate response, but only qualified and prioritized sales opportunities should consume a salesperson’s time.
Who should qualify trade show leads?
Marketing should own the initial qualification process, with qualification criteria developed jointly by Marketing and Sales.
Is entering trade show leads into a CRM enough?
No. A CRM records and manages information. It doesn’t replace the strategy and human process required to respond, qualify, prioritize and pursue opportunities.
When does trade show lead follow-up end?
For immediate opportunities, when the prospect enters the normal Sales process. For longer-term opportunities, nurturing may continue until the prospect buys, declines or is no longer considered viable.
What’s the biggest trade show lead follow-up mistake?
Treating every name collected at the booth as though it were already a qualified sales lead.
About Richard Erschik
Richard Erschik has spent more than five decades in the trade show industry as an exhibitor, entrepreneur, company owner, author and trainer.
For more than 22 years, his lead-response and management company processed more than one million trade show leads for approximately 150 exhibiting companies. He has trained more than 45,000 professionals and presented at the EXHIBITOR Show for 18 years.
Today, Richard teaches exhibitors and show organizers a practical PRE-SHOW → DURING-SHOW → POST-SHOW → PAYOFF process designed to improve lead quality, follow-up and measurable ROI.
Want to Put This Process Into Practice?
Knowing what should happen after a trade show is one thing. Building the complete process before the show begins is another.
Richard Erschik teaches exhibitors and show organizers how to apply these principles through his live online Exhibitor Training Webinar, covering the complete PRE-SHOW → DURING-SHOW → POST-SHOW → PAYOFF process.
Learn more about the Exhibitor Training Webinar.