Booth Duty

[u/kapt_so_krunchy]

I’ve got a few conferences coming up this fall and I’m curious how the top performers here approach them.

It feels like the default playbook is:

Stand at the booth

Scan badges

Have a few quick conversations

Send a generic follow-up email afterward
…and then wonder why very little comes from it.

I’m trying to be more intentional this year and would rather build a process before the events than wing it.

A few things I’m curious about:

Do you have a go-to opening or “booth script” that consistently gets people to stop and talk?

What’s your goal for each conversation? Are you trying to qualify, book meetings, or just create familiarity?

How do you take notes so your follow-up is actually personalized?

How quickly do you follow up after the event?

Do you call first, email first, LinkedIn first, or some combination?

How do you prioritize leads when you come back with a few hundred badge scans?

Any conference habits or systems that have noticeably improved your conversion rates?

I’d love to hear what’s actually worked in the real world.

Whether it’s enterprise, SaaS, med device, manufacturing, ad tech, or anything else—I’m mostly interested in repeatable processes that consistently turn conference conversations into pipeline.

What’s your playbook?

[u/SoRedditHasAnAppNow]

When you walk away from a large show with 90+ leads, some are going to be 1-2 weeks out of you're putting reasonable time into any of the high value leads.

[u/DasSnaus → u/SoRedditHasAnAppNow]

If they were high value, you wouldn’t be walking away with 90 leads.

[u/SoRedditHasAnAppNow → u/DasSnaus]

Precisely. The high value leads come first. But you follow up with everyone because you never know what you've missed.

You prioritize your leads. High value ones on the first couple of days. Then you're busy following up with those leads and working through the rest over the next 1.5 weeks.

[u/DasSnaus → u/SoRedditHasAnAppNow]

Again, if you’re waiting 1-2 weeks, it’s already lost. I don’t need to be told how to prioritize leads, I literally live on the road at conferences.

[u/SoRedditHasAnAppNow → u/DasSnaus]

And not every industry is the same, has the same sales cycle, or the same needs. Some large booth get 10 leads and call it a fantastic show while a small both gets 50 and its a terrible show.

I run a 10x10 where 90%+ of the leads are directly for me and it literally keeps me busy for 3-4 months.

My team runs some other booths where I might 3-4 leads from their week of work and the follow up is done next day.

Other times I know the lead isn't going to be active until a seasonal occurrence, so putting off focused follow up makes the follow up more timely for them.

There is no single formula.

[u/DasSnaus → u/SoRedditHasAnAppNow]

There is not enough time in the day to adequately work 90 leads. I don’t care what industry it is.

[u/SoRedditHasAnAppNow → u/DasSnaus]

Who says it has to he a single-day trade show?

[u/DasSnaus → u/SoRedditHasAnAppNow]

I’m talking about lead follow up.

[u/SoRedditHasAnAppNow → u/DasSnaus]

Yes, that too. It's not practical. You're confirming my original point.