Before the event: arrive with a meeting plan
The best conference results are decided before the flight. If you sponsor or exhibit, ask the organiser for the attendee list; many events share it with sponsors ahead of time. Even a list of company names is enough to start.
Go through the list and rank who is worth meeting. The questions that matter are the same as for any lead: are they in a vertical you can board, are they launching or entering a new market, and do they already have a payment provider? Write down the reason next to each name, so whoever takes the meeting knows why it matters.
- Book the top meetings in advance. Decision makers fill their calendars before the event. A short, specific invitation two to three weeks out works best.
- Split the list across the team. Everyone at the stand should know who they are looking for, and the list should show who has already been met.
- Prepare the next step. Know what you will offer a merchant that is ready: a call with your onboarding team, or a link to start their application.
During the event: capture everything immediately
The single biggest loss at conferences is the gap between the conversation and the data entry. A card in a pocket becomes a name with no context three days later. Capture each contact while you are still with them, or straight after.
- Scan the badge or card on the spot. A phone-based lead scanner reads name, title, company, email, phone, website and any QR code in seconds.
- Record the vertical and the context. What they sell, what they asked for and how urgent it is. One line is enough.
- Mark priority. Hot, warm or later, so follow-up starts with the merchants that are ready.
- Save it where the team works. Contacts should land in the same pipeline as every other lead, not in a separate spreadsheet that someone has to import.
Badge scanners, card apps and a single pipeline
Organisers' badge-scanning apps are useful but often export only after the event, in a format that has to be cleaned and imported. Generic business card apps read the card but know nothing about payments. What payment sales teams need is capture that understands their workflow: the merchant's vertical, its website and the next step, saved into the pipeline the team already uses.
After the event: follow up within 48 hours
Merchants meet dozens of providers at a big show. The ones who follow up first, with something specific, are remembered. Aim to contact every warm lead within two working days.
- Reference the conversation. Mention what they told you. A generic "great to meet you" reads like everyone else's.
- Offer one clear next step. A short call, a pricing proposal or a link to start onboarding, not all three.
- Send from a real person. The person they met should be the sender, from their own mailbox.
- Track replies and stop when they answer. Automated reminders must stop the moment a merchant replies.
Measure each event
Conferences are expensive, so judge them on outcomes: meetings held, contacts captured, replies, onboarding links sent and merchants approved. Comparing those numbers across events shows which shows are worth sponsoring again and which are better visited as a delegate.
How Merchant Scanner does this
The Conferences view takes the attendee list and ranks who is worth meeting, with the reason for each. At the event, the Lead Scanner runs in the phone's browser: photograph a badge or business card, check what it read, including the QR code and the vertical from the card, and save it to the pipeline. Afterwards the same contacts can be added to an outreach campaign or sent a private onboarding link.