Once the dust has settled from your most recent trade show, you and your team need to get together and ask deep, revelatory questions.
Unless you ask these questions, you’ll never know what works, where improvements can be made, or how to consistently turn leads into customers.
But what are the “right” questions to ask during a post-event debrief?
We have a pretty good idea.
As a strategic trade show partner that’s helped thousands of clients amplify their brands and successfully navigate different events over the last 40 years, we’re perfectly placed to advise on the general direction you should take.
Find out which ten questions we recommend exploring below.
1. How many leads did we get?
Approximately 72% of exhibitors attend trade shows to gain new leads, according to industry research, so this is a great place to start.
You can compare the overall figure with the number of leads you acquired at previous trade shows, or at the same show the previous year.
If the number is higher, this suggests that your sales, lead generation, and marketing processes are clearly working. If the number is the same or lower, this may be a sign that you need to go back to the drawing board.
Quantity should never trump quality, but let’s face it—you’re at trade shows to make a significant return on investment. The more high-quality leads you have to work with, the better.
2. Who did we talk to?
You’ll be amazed by some of the details you’ll recall once you revisit the conversations you had on the show floor.
It could be:
- The state someone was from.
- An interesting or relatable anecdote they shared.
- Their hobbies and interests.
- Their favorite sports team.
- Even the names of their kids!
Whatever details you remember, they’ll act as useful signposts.
They’ll remind you about a specific individual and the general vibe of your conversation with them.
This will allow you to determine whether or not they’re a warm, qualified lead.
That leads us nicely onto the next question.
3. What special leads do we have?
Let’s say you captured around 100 leads, which are housed on your CRM system along with the notes from your conversations.
You then need to determine which leads are ‘special,’ i.e., who fits your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) and is most likely to purchase your solution.
Trade show leads are typically segmented into three categories:
- A lead: Clear need for your product or service, expressed a strong interest in it, has the authority to make budgetary decisions. They are your ICP to a tee.
- B lead: Researching their options and plan on initiating a purchase in the next 3–6 months, but may not have the authority to sign off on a potential deal.
- C lead: Shown interest in your product or service but is otherwise a poor profile fit. You wouldn’t make a point of following up with this person.
If you haven’t already scored your leads before the debrief, you should do so at the earliest opportunity so that you can prioritize the order of your post-event follow-ups accordingly.
Related: Common Trade Show Mistakes And How To Avoid Them
4. What pain points did people share?
If you asked the right questions on the show floor, you should have a big, long list of pain points to chew over.
If most of the pain points attendees raised are already familiar to you, you’re clearly doing the right things, and your solution is clearly meeting essential needs.
But if certain pain points arose that you hadn’t anticipated, now is the time to act—otherwise, you risk missing the mark at future shows.
Answering this question will enable you to take decisive action. It will allow you to detect patterns, start to group certain problems, and decide how to address them.
In short, delving into the pain points of your ideal customers will help you meet their needs much more effectively going forward.
5. Which aspects of our product or service most resonated with attendees?
Once you start to answer this question, you might be surprised.
The features of your product or service that you talked about the most or put front and center of your marketing material may not actually have resonated with your ideal customers as much as other features.
Someone could throw a spanner in the works by sharing one very specific problem they have. They may be swayed by one specific feature of your product or service that they feel helps them solve this problem.
Again, you might not have considered this in your preparation before the event, in which case you now have something to think about—particularly if multiple people gave similar feedback.
This information will allow you to either fine-tune certain features of your product or simply highlight one or two current selling points more in your future marketing material.
If attendees were drawn to the features you wanted them to be drawn to, and this interest triggered meaningful conversations, then you can give yourself a big pat on the back. You know what works for future events. Don’t fix what ain’t broke, as the saying goes.
6. What did and didn’t work?
This is perhaps the hardest question to answer.
Instead of spending a long time dissecting it, you may want to break it down into a series of questions, such as:
- Were we happy with our booth location?
- How streamlined was the logistics and planning?
- Did we get as much foot traffic as we were hoping for?
- Did we ask attendees the right questions?
- Did our booth design elicit the desired responses and align with our offering?
- Were our giveaways strategic and aligned with our product or service? Did they boost engagement in our booth?
- Was our lead capture process slick and seamless?
- Was each person’s role clear, and did they have the support to fulfill their role on the show floor?
- Were we on budget and did we manage cash flow efficiently?
Asking quick-fire ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ questions like these will help you get to the answer quicker and identify where there’s room for improvement.
By working with an experienced, strategic trade show partner like The Trade Group, you’ll iron out many of the issues you faced and turn many of the ‘Nos’ into ‘Yeses’ in no time.
7. What was the energy like in the room?
This is another very open-ended question that can be segmented into other important questions, such as:
- Was the vibe what we expected? Was it a bit flat? Was it more dynamic?
- Was our energy reciprocated by the attendees we spoke to?
- How receptive were attendees to being sold to?
- Which aspects of the event atmosphere were surprising to us?
- Which exhibitor engagement strategies did people respond positively to?
- Were there any examples of gamification that we could use in our booth at the next show?
We could continue, but you get the idea.
You’ll get a good handle on how you performed at the show and how you can approach future events by digging into these questions.
8. What were our competitors doing?
Trade shows represent a rare and invaluable opportunity to witness firsthand what your competitors are doing and gain insightful intel that you can take back to the office.
For example:
- Any new products or services they’ve brought to market.
- What type of booth they had and where it was on the show floor.
- How they’re positioning themselves in the marketplace.
- Subtle changes or interesting hooks you notice within their brand messaging.
- Gaps in the solution they provide and critical pain points they’re overlooking.
- Any digital and interactive features they had within their booth that you could utilize at future shows.
By reviewing these important details with your colleagues, you can judge where you are vs. the rest of the market and capitalize on an opportunity that may not come around too often.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7diyGvDoQys
9. What did we learn?
The answer to this question should be a short, sharp summary of:
- The most important points raised during the debrief.
- What they ultimately mean for your business and its position in the market.
- Your plan of action moving forward.
Think of a ‘key takeaways’ segment in a report or news article, where the information is condensed into five to ten bullet points.
If you had a separate ten-minute debrief with the CEO about the show you just attended, what information would you want them to know?
That should dictate how you address this question.
10. Would we attend this show again?
This depends on what success looks like to you.
Our client Tulip Cooking added more than 25 new dealers to their network after we designed a booth for them to take to the Kitchen & Bath Industry Show—one of the most competitive stages in the home design world.
If you generated meaningful conversations, got plenty of high-quality leads, achieved a stronger ROI, and improved your overall reputation in the marketplace, the answer to this question is straightforward.
It’s also straightforward if you didn’t enjoy the show and came away without anywhere near the number of high-quality leads you expected.
However, it may be more nuanced, depending on numerous factors.
You may have won business but not enjoyed the general vibe of the show.
Or, on the flipside, you might not have achieved the ROI you were hoping for, but the show itself might not have been the problem. It may have been the first time you exhibited at that show, and you have a solid action plan that will enable you to get better results next year.
You may arrive at the answer quickly, or it may take more time.
But by considering all of the above questions before arriving at this most crucial one, you’ll make the most informed decision.
Capture and convert your ideal leads with The Trade Group
We’ll help you showcase your new solution, attract your ideal leads on the trade show floor, and convert them into long-term, loyal customers.
We do this by taking a different approach to booth design. To us, a booth isn’t just a concoction of materials you take to a trade show.
It’s an immersive, on-brand, storytelling asset that must align with your commercial goals and enhance the attendee experience.
Discover how we’ve helped other businesses like yours make unforgettable impressions on the show floor since 1986.
If you’re interested in partnering with us, contact us here or give us a call at (800) 343-2005.
