Three days of trade show gone. Now your team is back at the office. And now starts the most important phase: the follow-up on trade show leads.
Don’t fall from your chair, yet, but most exhibitors don’t follow-up (statistics show it’s 80%, insane, I know).
But not you, right?
So back to the office: the email, the phone call, or the zoom call.
These things your team thinks will turn these conversations they had into sales. You know what the problem is? A visitor will receive a lot of them, and if they sound like every other company that was on the trade floor, they will fall flat.
Not only that, they will land in between two meetings, or in an inbox already crowded with emails from 47 other vendors.
But wait, it gets even more difficult. Why?
Because once the visitor leaves the trade show hall several cognitive phenomena happen that make follow-ups inefficient.
I know, you were a real person, you spoke to them, maybe you promised each other to stay in touch. But once they left the show you became one of many people they spoke 10 minutes to in their busy lives. So when the email arrives or the phone rings, they barely remember you.
The conversation you started on the floor died there.
How to avoid that death by trade shows, and what to do to have better follow-ups with trade show leads is what we will look at in depth now.
When to follow-up matters
The time window between a conversation at a trade show and a first touch is a gap, and so there has to be a bridge. The larger the gap, the more difficult it is to build the bridge.
Because the gap can easily become the gap between "Let’s keep in touch" and "Sorry, who are you again?"time is of the essence. Every day that passes erases the conversation you had in their memory. Memory is, fortunately, or unfortunately, built on repetition. This phenomenon even has a name: The availability heuristic. Something that happened days ago feels less real than something that happened yesterday.
So when exhibitors think they are giving the visitor time to process, what they are actually giving is space for the memory to disappear. And space for their competitors to sneak into the gap.
How to follow-up matters even more
For the 20% of companies that follow up, they follow up once, maybe twice. But when they do, and do it quickly after the show, they make a mistake: they send a polished email that recaps what you discussed, attach some resources, and ask for a next step. And the problem with that is that it reads like a sales email (because it is).
But visitors over three days talked to dozens of vendors. The conversation they had with them is already fading. By the time this email arrives, they have forgotten what made the conversation different from the 12 others they had that day.
And this is when it gets tricky. Because this phenomenon has two sides.
One called the paradox of choice. Or analysis-paralysis. The more they meet exhibitors, the more products or services they see, the more confused they will be.
And because of the doorway effect (if you want to read more about that, read What neuroscience says about trade shows, the more blurry it will be in their heads. Who is who, what products do what, which feature belongs to which.
It’s not the exhibitors' fault, but it’s their problem.
Shows are designed this way, and it takes a deep understanding of their dynamics to play one’s card right in this game.
What best exhibitors know about trade-show follow-up dynamics
The best exhibitors understand that when and how is paramount. And so they do things differently.
First they understand that memory is built upon repetition.
So their first email arrives while the show is still happening. Or the next morning. They do not wait until the show is over. And certainly not three days later.
Now, I know what you might say: isn’t it pushy? It’s not. Here’s why: they don’t sell.
That would be pushy, and that early would backfire.
What they do is different: they care.
How? With a quick note the same day or the next morning that does two things important: It interrupts the forgetting, and it shows this care you have for people.
It reminds visitors that the conversation was real, that they mattered to someone.
(and it doesn’t have to be an email, SMS actually work better in those cases).
They’re not even trying to continue the conversation. You are just showing them they are important.
The message can be simple, of course, but neither templated, nor generic. That will send the opposite message, that they’re just one more number. A real sentence from you, acknowledging something specific you talked about, that only you would know, would do.
"Hey [name], how’s the rest of the show going? Looking forward to catching up with you."
That is it. Nothing else. No brochure. No call to ask for a meeting. Just the fact that you kept thinking about them after they left your booth.
Why not start a sales process at this stage? I explain why in an article to come (link here to come).
The problem is not what you say, it's how you sound
Most follow-up emails or phone calls fail because they sound like follow-up emails or phone calls. They move from warm to cold. They attach PDFs the visitor did not ask for. They talk about synergies, doing business together, but they do not ask how are you.
Compare these two:
Version A: "Hi [name], thank you for visiting our booth at [show name]. I enjoyed learning about your organization and would like to discuss how our solutions can help drive your growth. I've attached our latest case study for your review and would appreciate the opportunity to schedule a call at your earliest convenience."
Version B: "Hey [name], how are you? So are you going to implement that CRM change this year you told me about? I kept thinking about your comment about how clunky they can be. And if you’re ready to fix that coding issue you told me about, ready to jump on a call with you. You know how these things are, the more we wait the more problem they cause"
Version A is what every exhibitor sends. It could be from any company, about any product, to any person. It’s as generic as a shutterstock photo, and shutterstock photos are not even seen by the eyes anymore. These messages will be forgotten before the visitor finishes reading it.
Version B is a real conversation. It shows you heard something important. It shows you are thinking about them. It shows you care and you are here to help, not to sell. It is understanding. And it sells better than any pitch could do.
Version B is a human who was paying attention. Version A is a company’s process.
Build the follow-up sequence around continuity, not conversion
Here is a real architecture that worked for one of my clients.
Of course it has to be tailored to you, your business, your visitors.
But use it as an example of what’s possible.
Touch 1: Same day or next morning. Not a sell attempt, but a carrying message. An acknowledgment, a “I thought of you and our conversation”.
Touch 2: Quickly after the show. Something useful. An article about the problem they discussed. A statistic about what they were trying to solve. A question they realized matters more than the ones you asked at the booth: “I kept thinking about you. I did more work. I learned something new that connects to your situation”. And a simple, casual, friendly “talk to you later”.
Touch 3: When it made sense, depending on the reaction of the first 2 messages. This is where they asked. Not for a call. But for their perspective. "How have you been doing? Following on from our conversation, I'm curious whether this X,Y, Z approach I was working on would work for you or if there is something specific I am missing." They didn’t ask them to decide, or to make a move, yet. They were still “cooking” them. They are far more likely to engage when asked for their input rather than for their time.
Touch 4: This is when enough touch points have happened and when it should feel different now. This is the moment when you will know if you should push forward or move them to a nurturing funnel. That is the “ready to move forward” moment.
As you can see this sequence was not designed to convert the lead, but to keep the conversation open long enough for the lead to decide if you matter to them. That is a completely different job.
Most exhibitors are trying to convert. So they sound like they are trying to convert. The visitor feels it. And so they fly away. But by being genuinely curious about them you lower their guards and they open. Ever thought of this? A close in sales, is actually… an opening.
The cost of following up wrong
Here is what happens when you follow up the way most exhibitors do.
You send the email or give the call after the show. The visitor opens up or picks up and they recognize the pattern. Another exhibitor. Another salesguy. Another one sounding exactly like the last one. The email goes to the folder. Not deleted, but filed. Out of sight. And the conversation says “we’re not ready yet, call me later”.
Then, when you try to follow up again, they have already decided not to engage. The window is closed. The conversation is closed because you never actually opened it.
When follow-up feels like a lock instead of a continuation, this is what happens.
So sure you showed up at the show, sure you paid a lot to be there. But you lost it at the follow-up, because you tried to close instead of opening, because you chilled something that needed to be heated. And you made them run away
This is the moment most people miss
Most exhibitors believe follow-up is a formality. That if the person was truly interested, they would remember you without the email. That good prospects will come back if they want what you have.
That belief is what is costing them their trade show leads.
Visitors don’t decide to buy based on how well your follow-up email is written or how well you speak on the phone. They decide based on whether the conversation is still happening in their heads between you and them. If you are still thinking about them. If you have done any work since the booth to understand their situation better.
If they feel you haven’t given them more attention, why would they give you theirs?
It’s multilayered, I know (you can read Why trade show follow-up fails to dive deeper in their psychology.
But here’s the essential thing to remember: the moment after the show is not the moment to sell harder. Instead be more present. Because the show disappeared, show them the conversation you had with them didn’t disappear with it. Prove them that the conversation mattered to you. Not that you were only interested in their wallet.
That is what changes everything.
Because if the leads were coming to your booth and the conversation were happening, the only question you need to answer is whether you are still having these conversations when you get back to the office.
If you want to dive deeper into trade show performance you can read How to be successful at trade shows.
And if you’re ready to take your shows to the next level. Watch The Exhibitor's Edge masterclass. You'll discover the M.A.G.I.C. Exhibiting™ Formula the best exhibitors use to run every element of trade shows, including follow-up we just talked about.