Trade Show Lead Form Template: 4 Essential Sections To Include

For many exhibitors, lead generation is the number one reason to exhibit at trade shows.

But too many exhibitors only collect business cards, with a few tiny notes scribbled on the back. By the time they get back to the office they have trouble reading their notes and remembering conversations on the show floor.

That’s no way to generate a winning return on investment!

Make it easier on yourself and your booth staffers by following the advice below in building a trade show lead form.  This data can fit on a lead card you print on single sheet of paper. Or, if you use a trade show lead capture app, refer to our guide How to Improve Trade Show Lead Capture and Retrieval.

Rather than give you a picture-perfect template that will never work exactly for your specific needs, I am instead providing guidelines to build your own lead form.

There are 4 main areas of info you need to capture about your trade show leads:

1. Contact info
2. Product interest
3. Qualifying questions
4. Comments/notes

1. Contact info area of your trade show lead form

You should have a space on your lead form or in your digital trade show lead capture app for your attendee’s contact info.  You can often staple their business card over these fields on a paper lead form, and save both your booth staffer and your visitor’s time.

• Name (first name and last name separately if that’s how you house name fields in your CRM)
• Job Title
• Company
• Address
• City
• State/Province
• Zip/Postal Code
• Country
• Email address
• Phone number (you may want their office phone or their mobile phone, depending on your business)
• Authorization to send email or subscribe the lead to a newsletter

2. Product interest area of your trade show lead form

Here you need to think about how you will act on the data after the show.  Are you capturing product interest at the category level, or at the individual product level? Which of your products are attendees at this show going to be most interested in? Are you introducing a new product?

Whatever you decide, list the product names or categories with checkboxes, under a heading “Product Interest” so your booth staffers can quickly mark which products your lead wants more info about.

3. Qualifying questions area of your trade show lead form

This is where your booth staffers can quickly check boxes or write short answers to important questions that help your sales force know how valuable the lead is, and what matters most to them.

Here are several kinds of qualifying questions you can include in your lead form.  Don’t try all of them; ask your sales force what select few will tell them which leads are most qualified, and will help them close more leads if they knew the answers.

• Lead quality: A, B, C or hot/intermediate/future or 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 stars
• Follow-up requested (meeting request, price quote, add to newsletter, etc.)
• Existing client / new prospect
• Vertical markets 1, 2, 3, etc.
• Market segments 1, 2, 3, etc.
• Biggest problem:
• Current vendor:
• Size of current program:
• Decision timeframe in months:

Again, don’t put all of these on your lead form, just the questions your sales people want answers to the most.

If you need help writing qualifying questions – read our guide How to write effective qualifying questions for your trade show app.

4. Comments/notes area of your trade show lead form

Not everything can be captured with a checkbox, so you always need space to write comments and notes about the lead.  Create space for your booth staffers to provide some background on the client, their needs and what they like about your products.  Write about who they know at your company already.  Write about what they like and don’t like about their current vendor.  Write about what your booth staffer agreed to do next. This is the story that will motivate your sales person to follow up on the lead after the show.

If you need help following up with leads – read our guide How to followup with your trade show leads faster 

Bonus field: A space to record your booth staffers’ name or initials.  This lets you track which of your booth staffers generate the largest quantities of qualified leads.

What show is it? Because you very likely go to more than one trade show, you should also include the show name and date, especially the year, so you can better track the lead conversion rate and return on investment.

I hope you can use these trade show lead form template ideas to create a better lead form that increases your lead follow up and return on investment.

DO YOU NEED MORE HELP CAPTURING AND MANAGING LEADS?

Our Guide How to Improve Trade Show Lead Capture and Retrieval is packed with information to help you

• Write good qualifying questions
• Avoid lead retrieval mistakes
• Followup with Leads Faster
• Manage a Booth Overflowing with Visitors
• Capture leads in shows without badge scanners