How to Follow Up After a Trade Show in New Zealand

Following up after a trade show is essential to turn the contacts you made into actual business. Many small businesses in New Zealand struggle with slow or disorganised follow-up, losing leads to competitors who respond faster. After a trade show, you typically have a list of contacts gathered from conversations, business cards, or lead capture forms. Without a clear plan, these leads can get lost or ignored.

Why this comes up / what goes wrong

Small business owners often attend trade shows with limited staff and resources. They collect many leads but then face these challenges:

• Leads are scattered across notes, spreadsheets, and phone messages.
• Follow-up is delayed beyond the crucial first 48 hours.
• Lack of personalised messages makes contacts feel generic or ignored.
• No clear system to remind the sales team about next steps.

These issues result in missed sales opportunities and wasted trade show investment.

Step-by-step

1. Organise your leads immediately after the trade show

• Collect all business cards, digital forms, and notes.
• Enter or import the details into a single list or CRM.
• Check for duplicates or incomplete data.

1. Prioritise leads by interest and potential value

• Mark leads who showed strong interest or fit your ideal customer profile.
• Assign high, medium, or low priority tags.

1. Prepare personalised follow-up messages

• Reference your conversation or their needs.
• Avoid generic sales pitches.
• Include a clear call to action, such as scheduling a call or demo.

1. Contact leads within 48 hours

• Use the preferred communication channel (email, phone, WhatsApp, SMS).
• Log each contact attempt and response.

1. Schedule follow-up tasks for each lead

• Set reminders for a second and third follow-up if no response.
• Space follow-ups over the next two weeks.

1. Track responses and update lead status

• Move interested leads to the next sales stage.
• Remove uninterested leads after final follow-up.

1. Analyse results and refine your approach

• Review which messages and timings worked best.
• Adjust your follow-up schedule for future trade shows.

Using a sales task board can help keep all follow-ups organised and visible to your team. HelloGrowthCRM offers sales task boards to manage these tasks efficiently.

Example (fictional figures)

An electrical contractor in Wellington attends a trade show on 15/03/2024 and collects 40 leads. They plan to follow up within 48 hours.

• Day 1 (16/03/2024): Enter 40 leads into the CRM.
• Prioritise 10 as high interest, 20 as medium, 10 as low.
• Send personalised emails to all 40 with a call to action.

Follow-up schedule:

• Day 3 (18/03/2024): Call 10 high-priority leads.
• Day 7 (22/03/2024): Send SMS follow-up to 20 medium-priority leads.
• Day 14 (29/03/2024): Final email to all leads who have not responded.

Calculations for time spent:

• Entering leads: 40 leads × 3 minutes = 120 minutes
• Writing personalised emails: 40 leads × 5 minutes = 200 minutes
• Calling high-priority leads: 10 calls × 10 minutes = 100 minutes
• Sending SMS: 20 messages × 2 minutes = 40 minutes
• Final email batch: 30 leads × 3 minutes = 90 minutes

Total follow-up time = 120 + 200 + 100 + 40 + 90 = 550 minutes = 9 hours 10 minutes

This disciplined approach maximises the chance of converting leads into customers.

Common mistakes

• Delaying initial contact beyond 48 hours: Leads lose interest. Prevent by scheduling follow-ups immediately.
• Using generic messages: Contacts feel unvalued. Prevent by personalising each message with details from your conversation.
• Not tracking follow-ups: Leads fall through the cracks. Prevent by using task boards or CRM reminders.
• Ignoring low-priority leads completely: Some may convert later. Prevent by scheduling at least one follow-up.
• Overloading your team with manual follow-ups: Leads to errors. Prevent by automating sequences where possible.

Automated sequences can help with consistent follow-up. See HelloGrowthCRM’s email automation and sequences for managing multi-step outreach.

Doing this in HelloGrowthCRM

HelloGrowthCRM helps you manage trade show follow-ups by turning each follow-up into a task with a due date on your sales task boards. The day’s calls and messages appear as a list, so you don’t have to remember everything. You can also set up a five-step follow-up sequence over two weeks that runs automatically and stops as soon as the prospect replies. For calls, an AI agent drafts your follow-up message after the conversation, so you only need to review and send it. These features save time and reduce missed opportunities. Learn more about HelloGrowthCRM for New Zealand.

Frequently asked questions

How soon should I follow up after a trade show? You should contact leads within 48 hours to keep their interest high. Immediate follow-up shows professionalism and helps you stand out from competitors.

What is the best way to follow up: email, phone, or WhatsApp? Use the channel the lead prefers or the one you used at the trade show. Email is common, but WhatsApp and SMS can be more direct and personal in New Zealand.

How many follow-ups are appropriate after a trade show? Typically, 3 to 5 follow-ups spaced over two weeks work well. Stop once the lead responds to avoid annoyance.

Should I personalise every follow-up message? Yes. Personalised messages referencing your conversation or their needs increase response rates significantly.

How can I keep track of multiple follow-ups without getting overwhelmed? Using a CRM with task boards or automated sequences helps you organise and remind you of each follow-up without relying on memory.

Key takeaways

• Follow up within 48 hours with personalised messages.
• Prioritise leads and schedule multiple follow-ups over two weeks.
• Use task boards or CRM reminders to track all follow-ups.
• Avoid generic messages and delayed contact.
• Automate sequences to save time and improve consistency.
• HelloGrowthCRM features help manage follow-up tasks and automate outreach.

Start your follow-up process today with the tools and steps outlined here. To manage your leads and follow-ups efficiently, start on the Free Forever plan (200 leads, no credit card).