A trade show is a great place to pick up some leads, provided, of course, that you know what you are doing and how to follow up properly after the event. A trade show is an exhibition that has been organized in such a way to allow companies in particular industries to show off as well as demonstrate their newest products or services. In addition, such a show also permits companies an opportunity to research the activities of their rivals while evaluating the recent market opportunities and trends.

It is imperative that you obtain full information relating to your trade show leads because this can lead to sales. In fact, what really leads to sales is the effective and efficient follow-up after the trade show! The people of your company who are manning the booth at the show have the duty to collect, record and then qualify the all-important trade show leads from all of the people who will inevitably go by your display. To make certain that you have success at this endeavor, it is advised that you begin a system while you are still in the event-planning stage. You ought to determine and then prioritize which information your company’s reps require from the booth visitors in order to make several things happen.

For starters, the information collected ought to allow your company’s booth staff to assess every visitor’s potential to purchase your company’s product or service. This should incorporate material information that is related to the particular needs, budget constraints or flexibility and specific timing for the eventual purchase.

What leads to sales from a trade show booth is the all-important follow-up, which is an art form in and of itself when done properly. There are various ways through which you can contact the many prospects after the show; some examples are by e-mail, by personal visits, by telephone and by regular or snail mail. Another, somewhat more ambitious alternative to the aforementioned options of following up is the automated tracking system. Specifically, you may want to leave nothing up to chance and use an automated tracking system in order to electronically obtain the data from booth visitors as they swipe their nametags upon entering your company’s booth section. Of course, for this automated tracking system to work in the first place, you will have to double-check with your company’s trade show contact to ascertain if the nametags will feature strips to enable this purpose.

If you settle on using this automated way of getting trade show leads, be certain that the system’s output offers up all the info that you want for post-marketing ambitions. You might even be faced with a situation where you have to pay additionally in order to customize the data reporting. This will allow you to successfully employ the collected data for use as trade show leads.

A trade show is nothing if you do not exploit all the info from booth visitors and use them to turn your prospects into real customers. To succeed at this, you have to be prompt and not procrastinate. This means that you will want to follow up with a strong prospect who visited your company’s booth pretty soon thereafter. Otherwise, his or her desire to actually purchase will fade away.

leads to sales, Expert Status, Trade Show Leads, Persuasion, direct marketing

Author's Bio: 

Trade Show ROI believes the key to converting leads to sales is in the follow up. And the key to an effective follow up system is creating an Expert Status for your Company on the web. Visit http://www.TradeShowROI.org/Epert to attend a free webinar.