Build lead scoring and follow-up sequences BEFORE expensive events—70 leads with no system means zero ROI
Events can generate dozens of leads, but without infrastructure to score, prioritize, and systematically follow up, those leads go cold and the event investment is wasted. Before spending $20K-$30K on event presence (booth, travel, hotels), you must have: (1) Lead scoring criteria to grade leads (10s you chase no matter what, 7s get sequences, 5s and below get automated nurture), (2) HubSpot sequences or similar automation ready to deploy immediately, (3) Team capacity to handle the volume—following up with 70 leads is almost a full-time job. Events without this infrastructure are expensive lead generation that converts at 0%. The hard part isn't getting leads—it's converting them, which requires systems before you attend.
When to use
Before investing in any lead generation events, conferences, or tradeshows. When you're about to spend significant money on event presence. After your first event if you discovered you couldn't convert the leads. When planning sales/marketing budget and considering event strategy. Particularly important for expensive enterprise-focused events where booth costs are high.
Don't do this
Booking events without considering post-event follow-up capacity. Assuming you'll 'figure out the follow-up' after the event when you're excited about the leads. Spending event budget without spending on lead management infrastructure. Manually following up with event leads one by one without sequences or prioritization. Treating events as the strategy rather than one input to a conversion system.
1 Founder Who Did This
Got 70 leads from loyalty event costing $20K-$30K (booth, hotels, etc.). Came back excited, started putting in HubSpot, but 'weren't really ready to intake 70 leads.' No lead scoring (which are 10s, 7s, 5s), no sequences set up, no capacity to follow up. Yosef says: 'It's almost like a full-time job to make that convert... taking understanding that you have the capability to follow up and not just a game plan is something to take into consideration.' All 70 leads went cold. Event had zero ROI.