Lead Retrieval Scanners Set Exhibitors up for Failure

It is commonly believed that 80% of tradeshow leads receive no follow-up.  This often quoted statistic was created by CEIR (Center for Exhibition Industry Research) a while back and I think it still holds true today.  Most bloggers that talk about tradeshow lead follow-up will quote this to back their argument for going through a series of steps to improve your company's lead follow-up.  However, I don't think this addresses the real problem.  The truth is the rental tradeshow lead retrieval systems are a major reason why most exhibitors don't do a good job on their tradeshow lead follow-up.  These systems allow the exhibitor to create a list of "prospects" by scanning the attendees barcode, but gives them very limited ability to designate what each person wanted.  

The average booth rep has a conversation with an attendee, scans their badge, and then moves onto the next attendee.  This is where the problem lies.  These systems don't make it easy to qualify the leads, and if it's not easy, the booth rep isn't going to do it.  After the show you end up with a list of people that came by your booth and no info about what they wanted.  With more and more shows giving the exhibitors incomplete info (missing phone # and email addresses), because their attendees don't want to be bothered by a bunch of sales calls and emails, you can get an almost worthless list of names after paying thousands to exhibit.

Why doesn't show management see this glaring issue and fix it?  They want their exhibitors to be successful which is why they are providing this service in the first place.  I think this problem has never been addressed because show management doesn’t know about it.  Their exhibitors are scanning thousands of names with absolutely no qualifying info, but they don't talk to the sales people that get the leads after the show.  From their point of view, the leads system works perfectly.  And most marketing people that I talk to seem to be happy with these systems, so maybe there isn't a problem at all.

I don't think the companies that provide these services are to blame. They are providing a service that show organizers need. Tradeshow managers don't complain enough about them to bring about a change, and for the most part, I think everyone that uses these systems is happy. The only person that isn't happy is the sales person that gets the list of unqualified leads after the show. Eventually she stops following up on the leads because her time is better spent on her other qualified prospects. And the tradeshow lead follow-up problem goes away until CEIR does another survey.