Close the Sale with Well-PlannED
Tradeshow Exhibit Follow-Up

Tradeshow exhibit success requires immediate follow-up on leads and activities generated from the trade show floor. Giving booth visitors your company literature, collecting contact information about leads, and engaging in meaningful conversation with prospects about your products represent only a portion of the tradeshow exhibit sales process.

Immediate and continual follow-up by mail, email, phone and personal visits is essential to maximizing your revenue potential.

Determining how you will collect lead information and the materials you will use in your follow-up activities needs to occur during your tradeshow planning process.

Include different information and literature for your marketing before, during and after the event.

For example, rather than sending the same company promotional brochure that you mailed ahead of time to registrants or had available in your exhibit booth, plan ahead to send a new piece with additional information and selling points that appeal to the needs of your prospects.

In your follow-up communication, be sure to address specific interests or needs the customer shared while visiting your booth.

Any way you can personalize your written or verbal communication will yield greater marketing impact and put you closer to securing a new client.

If you are making a follow-up phone call, which always makes a greater impact over sending a email or a text, refer to the conversation you had with the prospect when he or she was visiting your booth. Then, mail or email specific information the potential customer requested. Personalized, handwritten notes always make a positive impression when using mail.

Forwarding articles, fact sheets, and other detailed product information that directly address customer needs will send a message of service and commitment that will help you solidify the sale.

The style and form of follow-up in which you engage should be determined by the sales potential of the lead. Before the event, you should develop a scoring system for leads generated from t booth visitors and segment prospects for different types of follow-up based on potential to buy.

So a prospect who has decision-making authority and a large budget would get a higher score and more intense, personalized follow-up attention than someone picking up your literature who represents a business that is auxiliary to your product offering.

When making follow-up contact, include a special offer to encourage your prospects to take action. This may include special pricing or value-added offers that are meaningful to helping prospective customers be more successful.

Among all event marketing and follow-up activities, timing is critical. Don’t let a hot prospect become a cold lead because too much time has passed before you’ve made contact. Leads from tradeshows should first be contacted within a week of the show.