The fair is over. The work that pays for it starts on Monday.
The cost of a trade fair is concentrated in three days. Almost all the return comes in the week after, when nobody is in event mode any more and everyone is back in production.
Follow-up doesn't fail out of laziness, it fails for lack of context. At the stand the conversation has specific content; what comes home is a business card, which keeps none of it. With just a name you can only write a generic message, and a generic message gets put off.
You solve the problem during the fair, not after: thirty seconds of notes for every contact that matters, taken on the spot, with three fixed pieces of information.
When you get back, split the contacts into three groups, never one list. A single list looks insurmountable, which is why nobody ever starts on it.
This piece is part of the guide to export operations for small food producers and covers the channel that brings small producers more foreign contacts than any other.
The scale of the problem
A major Italian food fair generates numbers that on their own explain why the memory of any single stand is fragile. Cibus states on its website that its 2024 edition had over 75,000 visitors, 3,000 brands and 3,000 buyers.
The buyer you spoke to met dozens of producers in three days. They went back to the office with a pile of material in which your leaflet is physically indistinguishable from the rest. They didn't forget you out of indifference: their memory did what any memory does after three days like that.
Your message isn't competing with other messages. It's competing with the reader's exhaustion.
Why follow-up never really gets going
The easy explanation is that there's too much to do when you get back. That's only true on the surface. The real cause lies one step earlier, and it's mechanical.
At the stand the conversation has content: which product they tasted, for which market, what doubt they had, what you promised to send. That content lives in your head for twenty minutes and then evaporates, because the next person turns up straight away.
What survives is the business card, with a name, a company and nothing else. Back at your desk, looking at that card, the only message you can write is “it was a pleasure meeting you at the fair, please find our catalogue attached”. You know as you write it that it won't work, and so you put it off until tomorrow, for three weeks.
The thirty seconds that save the contact
The fix is at the stand, not at your desk. After every conversation that matters, before the next person arrives, jot down three pieces of information. On the back of the card or in a note on your phone, either is fine.
- The market and the channel. Where they sell and through whom. Two words will do: Germany, specialist retail.
- The specific thing. The product you discussed, the doubt they raised, the question they asked. It's the detail that will make your message recognisable.
- What you promised. A price, a sample, a spec sheet, a date. If you promised nothing, write that down: that's information too.
Add one symbol for priority, for example an asterisk next to anyone who asked for something concrete. Back at the office, that asterisk will do half a day's reconstruction work for you.
The three groups, when you get back
A single list is why follow-up never starts. Eighty undifferentiated lines on a Monday morning produce procrastination. Three groups with three different treatments produce an afternoon's work.
| Group | Who goes in it | What they get |
|---|---|---|
| Asked for somethingwithin 48 hours | They asked for a price, a sample, a document, availability. There's an open promise. |
A practical reply with the promised item already attached. No catalogue, no company presentation: what they needed, and the next step with a date. |
| Interestedwithin the week | A real conversation, but no specific request. They stopped, tasted, asked questions. |
A short message with the detail from your conversation, a single attachment chosen for them, and a concrete offer: a call, a sample, a price list for their market. |
| Passing contactsfile | Cards swapped out of politeness, the curious, suppliers, colleagues. |
File them with the note, no email. Treating them like the first two groups is what makes the job look impossible and stops it altogether. |
The unspoken rule is that group one gets served before group two even exists. Anyone who asked for something has already put their hand up, and a buyer who asked for a price and doesn't get it within a few days has learned something about you that no later email can undo.
The template: someone who asked for something
Subject: [product] - the [price list / sample / spec sheet] we discussed at [fair] Dear [name], It was good to meet you at [fair] on [day]. You asked about [specific request], so here it is, attached, rather than promised for later: - [document 1: what it is, in one line] - [document 2, if any] From our conversation I understood you sell [product type] in [market] through [channel]. The price list attached is the one for that market and quoted [EXW / FOB], so the figures should be directly comparable for you. One open point from our talk: [the doubt they raised]. [One or two lines answering it concretely.] Next step, if useful: I can send [samples / a sample box] to your office this week, or set up a 20-minute call on [day] or [day]. Which do you prefer? Kind regards, [name] - [role] [company] - [website] - [phone]
Two details carry almost all the weight. The attachment is already there, rather than promised: needing a second message to deliver something doubles your chances of being ignored. And bringing up the doubt they raised at the fair shows, without saying so, that someone was really listening.
The template: someone who was just interested
Subject: [product] for [their market] - following up from [fair] Dear [name], We met at [fair], at the [hall/stand] stand: you tried [product] and mentioned [detail they said about their market or their customers]. That detail is why I am writing rather than sending our usual catalogue. For [their market] the relevant item in our range is [product], because [one concrete reason: format, shelf life, certification, price point]. I've attached only the English spec sheet for that product. If it seems worth trying, I can send a sample so your team can taste it, at no cost. Just reply with the shipping address and I will arrange it this week. If the timing is wrong, tell me when to come back and I will. Kind regards, [name] - [role] [company] - [website] - [phone]
The last line is the same one that works with stalled reorders: making it easy to say no gets you more replies, because it spares the reader the awkwardness of letting someone down. The same mechanism comes back with the distributor who stops reordering.
A statistic that's everywhere claims 80% of trade fair contacts never get followed up, attributed to a research institute in the exhibition sector. We looked for it at the source and couldn't find it in any document from that institute: it's cited almost exclusively by companies selling lead-capture software. That's why it doesn't appear on this page.
The Cibus figures above come from the fair's official website and refer to the 2024 edition. They're there to show the scale of the memory problem, not to support a claim about conversion rates.
The English templates are written as templates and don't reproduce real client correspondence.
When the contacts number fifty
With ten useful contacts, all this is an afternoon well spent. The system breaks further down the line, and it breaks at a precise point: the second week.
In the first week you reply to the people who asked for something, and it gets done. In the second you should pick up the lukewarm group, but production has restarted, existing customers' orders take priority, and that group becomes a folder nobody reopens. A fair's most interesting contacts almost always die there, not at the stand.
That's when collecting contacts and reminders has to come out of one person's memory and go into a place that keeps the enquiry, the context and the deadline together, with the rule set out in Ethics: the system drafts the message and flags who's been left hanging, but no message goes to a buyer until a person has read and approved it.
Before you spend time on a contact, it's worth knowing what it's worth, and that filter is set out in the signs that separate a serious buyer from a time-waster. If the enquiry arrives by email with no fair involved, it's a different moment, covered in how to reply to an email from a foreign importer.
Questions and answers
How soon should you follow up trade fair contacts?
Within two or three working days of the fair closing, and not because of sales urgency but because of the reader's memory. A buyer meets dozens of producers in three days and comes back with a pile of almost identical material.
The message has to arrive while the memory of your stand can still be recalled, and it has to include a detail from your conversation. Writing after three weeks doesn't make you late: it means you're writing to someone who has already decided who to talk to.
What should I write in the follow-up email?
Three things: a concrete reference to your conversation, the promised item already attached, and a next step with a date.
The concrete reference (the product they tasted, the doubt they raised, the market they talked about) is what sets the message apart from a mailshot. And attach the promised item straight away: needing a second message to deliver it doubles your chances of being ignored.
How should I organise the contacts when I get back?
In three groups, never one list. People who asked for something specific get a practical reply within 48 hours. People who showed interest without asking for anything get a message within the week, with the detail from your conversation and a concrete offer. Passing contacts get filed with a note, no email.
Treating the three groups the same is why follow-up usually never starts: a single list looks insurmountable.
Why do trade fair contacts almost always go without a follow-up?
Not out of laziness. Because the context is lost during the fair, not afterwards. At the stand the conversation has specific content, but what comes home is a business card, which keeps none of it.
With a name and a company all you can write is a generic message, and you know as you write it that it won't work, so you put it off. The fix is in the thirty seconds of notes taken at the stand.
Is a trade fair worth doing if the contacts never get followed up?
No, and that's the most uncomfortable part of the calculation. The cost is concentrated in three days, but almost all the return comes the following week, when everyone is back in production.
Taking part without a written plan for the days after produces visibility and handed-out brochures, not orders. Before you book next year's stand, decide who will have protected time the week after to write.
Notes on sources
- Cibus, the fair's official website. The source of the 2024 figures: over 75,000 visitors, 3,000 brands, 3,000 buyers. They show the scale of the memory problem, not a claim about conversions.
- This page doesn't repeat the widely shared statistic that 80% of trade fair contacts never get followed up. It's attributed to a research institute in the exhibition sector, but a search of that institute's website shows no sign of it being published: it circulates almost entirely through companies selling lead-capture software. When the source doesn't stand up, the figure isn't published.
- The two English templates are written as templates and don't reproduce real client correspondence.
A fair's best contacts don't die at the stand.
They die in the second week, in a folder nobody reopens. At Itria we start from the outside and build tailored digital systems for exporters. For you, that means more enquiries, fewer losses and less manual work. Drop us a line about what's slowing you down. We'll make the first move: we'll look at what a buyer sees when they search for you, and tell you what we found. Even if we never end up working together.