Tips for Gathering Leads at Your Trade Show Display Stand

One of the biggest reasons that you invested in trade show displays and continue to invest in a booth at trade shows is undoubtedly to gather good, quality leads. In a prior post, we talked about what you need to do to ensure that the leads you gather at the trade show will be worthwhile for your sales team to contact. This article discusses the tools for managing the data from those leads.

There are several lead-gathering methods available to you, but before you go too far with your research into them, you should check in with your sales department. More than likely, your company already has in place a customer relationship management (CRM) program that handles all of the data related to customer contact information. If this is the case, the CRM program your company uses may well have software available that will help you gather your leads at the show and seamlessly integrate those leads into the existing system.

If your budget is tight, one of the least expensive methods for gathering leads is the paper form. You do want to consider how much time will have to be invested after the show, inputting the data from the paper forms. That expense could demolish any savings you experienced using the paper forms. However, if you choose to use paper forms, you do have the ability to jot notes on the forms about the prospects. In addition, you can also staple prospects’ business cards to the paper forms.

Other options include:

• Renting a lead-capturing device from the show—these devices can be difficult to customize and may not provide you with the information you need.
• Custom-designed lead-capturing devices—these usually allow you to customize the questions and can often interface directly with your company’s CRM program.
• Hybrid lead-capturing system—this type of system uses customized paper forms that can be scanned, and it usually interfaces with your company’s CRM program.

As you can see, there are several methods for capturing leads at the trade show. If you decide to invest in a display stand and a booth, don’t forget to make sure you leverage those investments and your trade show ROI with a solid plan for harvesting and managing the leads you get at your trade shows.

For more check out our article on converting your leads and how to make sure you don’t drop the ball at the finish line.