Trade shows eat a large share of most manufacturers' sales and marketing budgets. Yet many teams still measure success by the number of business cards in a fishbowl.
In this session from Lake One's Manufacturing Learning Series, Rachel Seiko and Ryan Ruud talked with two guests about how to make trade shows earn their cost:
- Lauren Perez from PURIS, a plant-based pea protein ingredient manufacturer selling to CPG brands
- Pat Estinson, sales manager at American Polywater, a chemical manufacturer serving the electrical and telecom markets
How do you choose which trade shows to attend?
Both guests start with the same question: who will actually be on the floor?
Lauren maps shows to her customers' buying cycle:
- Q1: Budgets are fresh, so the goal is maximum lead volume.
- Summer: A slow selling season. PURIS now walks the summer show (IFT) instead of exhibiting, because its main audience is food scientists who need to try samples.
- Q4: Contracting season. Success is measured in meetings with existing customers.
Pat weighs three factors:
- Show type. National shows vs. regional shows vs. conferences.
- Market position. Some shows are must-attends because Polywater would be "conspicuously absent." Others are chosen to grow a specific segment.
- Audience. Purchasing agents who order by product code need different engagement than engineers who specify products.
How should you set KPIs for a trade show?
Match the KPI to the show:
- Large national shows with purchasing-heavy audiences: lead volume, with more automated follow-up.
- Smaller regional or conference-style shows with engineers and specifiers: fewer leads, higher quality, and personal follow-up by phone or email.
What should you do before the show?
- Promote across channels. Lauren cited the rule that it takes seven touches before someone remembers you. Use social, email, and sales outreach, and say exactly what you'll be showcasing.
- Run search ads on the show's name. Ryan's favorite tip: attendees search for the conference name to find exhibitor lists and hotels, but almost no one advertises on those searches. A small budget can drive traffic to your booth or session.
- Prospect the attendee list. Get the company or contact list if available, find people on LinkedIn, and reach out before the show. Many show apps let you connect with attendees in advance.
- Book meetings early. Pat is already booking meetings for a February conference. Watch out for time zones when scheduling for a shared meeting room.
- Design an open booth. No table full of brochures with staff sitting behind it. Push the table back, stand in the open, and use product displays that invite people in.
- Train your team. Cover products, what questions to ask, and what not to share. Lauren's internal motto: "Clarity is kindness."
- Keep messaging simple. When PURIS changed its booth header to "Disruptive pea protein," far more people stopped to ask what made it disruptive.
What should you do during the show?
Use a lead capture tool. PURIS used to staple business cards into a labeled notebook and sort them by hand after every show. Moving to badge scanning on each rep's phone, with required notes, changed everything. It also lets you send an automated "great to meet you" message right away, before the attendee forgets your booth.
Staff the booth with experience. New hires learn a lot at shows, but they need experienced people beside them. Lauren always has a food scientist at the booth because technical questions come fast.
Use incentives selectively. A Yeti cooler raffle works at a farmer show. At an ingredient show, the sample is the incentive. If you run a giveaway, use digital entry so you capture a real email address.
Protect your stamina. Wear good shoes, pay for booth padding, keep water on hand, block personal time, and get sleep.
How should you follow up after the show?
Rachel's reminder: not everyone in your CRM cares. Don't drop every badge scan into the same nurture sequence.
- Qualify and tier the leads. Some get a personal phone call. Some get a personal email. Some get automated nurture.
- Lead with value. Instead of asking for another meeting, share three insights from the show or invite them to a lunch and learn or webinar. Then use HubSpot engagement data to decide who moves forward.
- Test, and admit what didn't work. Lauren once sent pre-show emails from the CEO's address to every contact assigned to him. Some of it started good conversations. Some of it was cringeworthy. A broad nurture campaign also underperformed. The lesson was to narrow and vet the list, not to stop experimenting.
- Keep your data clean. Polywater has been on HubSpot for four to five years and still runs regular contact cleanup so follow-up content matches the right segments.
Key takeaways
- Choose shows by audience and buying cycle, not habit.
- Set KPIs per show: volume for national shows, quality for regional ones.
- Capture leads digitally with notes, and follow up within days.
- The show isn't over when you fly home. In long B2B sales cycles, the follow-up month is where the ROI comes from.
Want your next trade show leads routed, tiered, and followed up automatically in HubSpot? Talk to Lake One.