followbooth
Integrations

Trade show leads into your CRM: four ways

Four ways to move leads from the stand into the CRM, what each needs, which Followbooth plans include them, and the four steps to send new leads to Zapier.

Followbooth · · 4 min read

The stand is only half the job. The leads have to reach the people who will call them, and in most companies that means the CRM. There are four ways to do it, and the right one depends on how often you do it and how much you want to automate.

Followbooth does not have one-click connectors to CRMs yet. There is no native HubSpot, Salesforce or Pipedrive connector. What it has today is the four routes below.

1. CSV export

Export every lead to a CSV file whenever you want, on every plan. Import the file into your CRM.

This is the right choice if you exhibit a few times a year. It takes ten minutes after the show, and nothing can break in between. Do it in the first two days, before the follow-up, so that the CRM has the leads when sales starts calling.

Two things help: export once, not after every day of the show, and put the name of the show in a CRM field when you import, so that you can count results by show later.

2. REST API

Each company can create API keys. The API lists and reads leads, in steps since the last change, and creates leads. The limit is 120 requests a minute per key.

Use it if you have a developer, or a tool that can call an API on a schedule, and you want the CRM to pull new leads without anyone clicking. The OpenAPI file is at https://app.followbooth.com/static/openapi.json.

The API can also create leads in Followbooth from another tool. A repeated call is safe if you send an external ID.

3. Signed webhooks

Followbooth posts an event to your https address when a lead is created, changed or graded, when material is sent or fails, and when a visitor replies. Every call is signed with a secret you get when you create the webhook. A call that fails is tried again several times. You can filter by event, language, grade (A, B or C) and channel.

A useful filter is grade A only, so that your CRM or chat gets a message only for the leads worth a call that day.

4. Zapier

Zapier works through its built-in Webhooks by Zapier app. There is no Followbooth app in the Zapier directory yet.

To send new leads to a spreadsheet, a Slack channel or a CRM:

  1. Create the catch hook in Zapier. Make a Zap with the trigger app Webhooks by Zapier and the event Catch Hook. Copy the Custom Webhook URL it shows.
  2. Add the webhook in Followbooth. Open the Integrations page and choose New webhook. Paste the URL, tick the events you want, for example lead.created, and save.
  3. Send a test. Press Test. Zapier receives a test call and offers it as sample data. Then scan or create a real lead, so that Zapier also sees a real one.
  4. Add your action. Add the step you want: a row in Google Sheets, a Slack message or a contact in your CRM. The lead fields arrive with names such as data lead first_name and data lead emails.

Webhooks by Zapier is a premium app on the Zapier side, so you need a paid Zapier plan. Check the current plans on the Zapier website.

Which plans include what

CSV export is on every plan. The API and webhooks are on the paid plans, Event Pass (€149 per show) and Team Annual (€790 per year). The Free plan does not include them. Prices exclude VAT.

How to choose

If you…Use
exhibit a few times a year and import by handCSV export
want new leads in the CRM without clicking, and have a developerAPI or webhooks
want a Slack or sheet notification, or a no-code CRM stepZapier
need a native, one-click connectorNot available yet

Whichever route you pick, test it with a few real leads before the show, not at the stand. A webhook URL with a typo is much easier to fix in the office.