What’s the main reason your company exhibits at trade shows? Does it help generate more sales? It’s actually part of an effective lead generation strategy — one that drives more leads to your business. Exhibiting at a trade show is a great way to get in front of like-minded prospects and existing customers (both pro and consumer). Here are some tips to improve your lead generation strategy:

1.    Make Your Trade Show Booth Attractive

What’s the main reason your company exhibits at trade shows? Does it help generate more sales? It’s actually part of an effective lead generation strategy — one that drives more leads to your business. Exhibiting at a trade show is a great way to get in front of like-minded prospects and existing customers (both pro and consumer). Here are some tips to improve your lead generation strategy:

• Feature Your Brand

Make sure your trade show exhibit design includes your company’s logo and colour scheme to help customers remember you. A good way to do this is to use the same colours throughout your booth materials, from tablecloths to banners.

• Show Your Best Side

Give customers a reason to stop by your booth. For example, if you sell a variety of colorful balloons, hang up a huge balloon display.

2. PROVIDE TRAINING TO YOUR BOOTH STAFF ON LEAD GENERATION

A good lead generation tool can do a lot of the heavy lifting for you when it comes to generating and managing leads. At the same time, that doesn’t mean you can neglect your booth staffing decisions and let just anyone be in charge of your displays. Talk to your staff in advance and offer training to help them generate the greatest number of leads at each event. You may even want to put them through some mock trade shows so they can practice interacting with attendees before the big day arrives

3. KNOW WHAT MAKES A QUALIFIED LEAD

Another important part of your training process is making sure everyone on your team understands what makes a qualified lead. The answer to this question is different for every business, but the following are some general rules of thumb to keep in mind:

• Must be looking to purchase within a specific time frame
• Must demonstrate specific needs that your business can solve

Once your staff knows what makes a qualified lead, they also need to know what kind of information to collect from each attendee (phone number, email address, etc.) to qualify them.

4. ONLY PASS ALONG QUALIFIED LEADS

Make sure your staff is only passing along qualified leads to the sales team. This will set them up for more positive interactions after the event, and will yield better results from your trade show exhibit.

5. ALWAYS FOLLOW-UP

In general, it takes at least a few follow-ups to close a deal. Not everyone you talk to will be willing to purchase something on the same day as the trade show. However, if you follow up with them a couple of days after, they might be ready to move forward. This is why it’s important to schedule follow-ups for after the event has ended. Your lead management tool can help you with this process and ensure you don’t forget to check in with any of your prospects.

ADVANCE YOUR LEAD MANAGEMENT AT EVENTS TODAY

Exhibiting at a trade show is a big investment. Maximize your ROI by following these steps for enhancing your lead retrieval process. And if you’re looking for any help along the way, we’re here for you!