PSA: One comment from a booth staffer at a Minneapolis expo changed my whole view on lead capture

I used to think scanning every badge was the way to go, no questions asked. Then at the Midwest Marketing Summit in Minneapolis last April, a guy named Derek working the booth next to me said 'you're just collecting names, not making connections.' He showed me how he only scans badges after a real 2-minute chat, and his follow-up rate was 80% compared to my 20%. Has anyone else seen better results from a specific booth strategy like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

alexc936d agoMost Upvoted

I heard a sales podcast say quality conversations beat quantity every time.

brown.gavin6d ago

Oh man, this is exactly what I've been saying for years. The problem is nobody stops to ask what actually counts as a quality conversation. If you have five calls that go nowhere because you're scared to follow up, those aren't quality either. I think the real secret is that you need a certain amount of quantity just to figure out which conversations are worth digging deeper into. You can't tell if someone is serious until you've had enough reps to know the difference between politeness and real interest. So it's not either or, it's both working together at different stages.