How to generate quality leads with trade shows

Finding a new lead requires very different processes and skills that are necessary to close an existing sales opportunity. The prospect is one of the most important concepts in the corporate process. The better you manage your lead generation and evaluation process, the more efficient your sales will be.

People who are not your customers yet, but who you think may become your customers in the future, are called prospects. Anyone who asks for a price over the phone visits your stand at a fair or fills out an information form on your website can become a candidate.

Why Do We Need Leads?

Being able to sell over and over to existing customers is of course very important and is often much more profitable than finding new customers and trying to sell to them, but it is difficult to grow your business that way. Every customer is satisfied at some point and may reduce their purchases. Some clients may opt-out of working with you. Some may cease their activities.

Every company that wants to maintain and grow its sales should try to acquire new customers as well as existing customers. For this, it is necessary to first find potential customers, then determine who among them can be real customers and focus on them.

How to Find Potential Leads?

Your lead-finding channels may be very diverse, but we can group them into 2 main groups:

Inbound: Marketing activities such as fairs, advertisements, and sharing on social networks enable potential customers to notice you and take action consciously and reach you. We call these inbound channels. Inward channels are effective when appealing to large audiences or when you don’t know who the people you want to reach are.
Outbound: However, in some cases, it may be more effective and efficient to identify and reach leads yourself. We call such channels outbound channels, through which you identify and reach out to potential leads that have not taken action to reach you.

Not a Funnel, Sieve!

Sales professionals liken the sales process to a funnel that is wide at the top and narrow at the bottom. This is a misleading analogy. The funnel is wide at the top and narrow at the bottom, but all the liquid you pour from the top comes out from under it. However, not every customer can be sold. It is normal for most of the candidates to be eliminated during this process, and a small number of prospects turn into real customers in the end.

Who Are the Real Buyers?

A small percentage of prospects are actually in a position to buy something from you. Recognising who they are early on helps you use your sales team’s time much more efficiently.

To understand this situation, companies conduct a lead assessment before starting the sales process. The purpose of this evaluation is to check if the lead meets some basic conditions.

Candidates who do not meet these conditions are considered unqualified and no sales effort is spent on them. Candidates who meet the specified conditions are considered qualified. Sales teams prefer to spend time only with qualified candidates.