How do I follow up with the leads I collected at an expo or trade show?

A simple follow-up routine

1. 1At the stall, jot a quick note on each card or in your phone: what they asked about and how interested they seemed.
2. 2Within a day or two, move every contact into one place rather than leaving cards in a bag.
3. 3Group leads into hot, warm and general, so the most promising ones get attention first.
4. 4Send a short personal message or email that mentions your conversation, plus the catalogue or price list they asked for.
5. 5Set a date for the next touch, such as a call or sample, and actually keep it.
6. 6Ask before adding anyone to newsletters or broadcast lists, and respect requests to stop.

How technology helps

• Card scanning with a phone camera captures names, numbers, emails, titles and company details without typing.
• Tags or groups let you separate leads by event, product interest or business type.
• Reminders make sure follow-ups happen on time, even during a busy week after the show.
• CRM sync or CSV and VCF export puts leads where your sales team already works.
• Backups mean a lost phone does not mean lost contacts.

Example: MyBizScan

MyBizScan is a business card scanner and contact manager built by DCPL Technology for Android and iOS. It uses OCR with multi-language support to extract names, phone numbers, emails, job titles and company details from visiting cards, lets you group contacts with custom tags, and includes built-in follow-up reminders. Leads can be pushed directly into Zoho CRM or exported as CSV and VCF files, and contacts can be shared by email, messaging apps or QR code. It also lets you create your own digital business card, with local and cloud backup.

Quick checklist

• All cards digitised within a day or two.
• A note on each lead about what they wanted.
• Leads sorted by priority.
• A personal follow-up sent to each.
• Next step and reminder set in your CRM.