Whether you’ve been planning events for what feels like a lifetime or you’re just starting out, you likely understand the importance of the customer experience. In your case, customer refers to several entities. Sponsors, speakers, and guests should all leave your event with their expectations exceeded.
In the case of your speakers and sponsors, their biggest goal is to leave with leads that actually matter to their businesses. Not just a pile of scanned badges or half-filled contact forms, but real, qualified prospects who are interested in what each business has to offer.
Your sponsors and speakers are a huge part of what makes your whole event worth attending. To help them fulfill their goals, you’ll need to employ strategic lead retrieval. It’s not enough to simply collect information. You need to ask the right questions to uncover valuable insights and move potential customers further down the funnel.
When you use it intentionally, live event lead retrieval is a powerful tool. Your success hinges on how well you prepare your questions and how skillfully your team engages with attendees. Every event is an opportunity to refine your messaging, identify your ideal audience, and collect meaningful data that your sales team can use after the event ends. But if you’re not asking smart, purposeful questions, you’re missing the chance to qualify leads in real time.
As you build your strategy for capturing high-quality leads, think about what your speakers and sponsors truly need to know to identify a potential customer. The right questions reveal buying intent, budget constraints, decision-making power, and real-world challenges your product or service can solve. By providing your speakers and sponsors with powerful lead retrieval questions, you can level up your event ROI in a whole new way.
Start by Identifying Intent and Interest
Your first priority should be gauging how interested someone is in your sponsors’ and speakers’ solutions. You don’t want them to waste time chasing people who were just browsing or picking up a brochure out of politeness. Instead, train them to focus on uncovering genuine curiosity or a pressing need.
One effective approach is to provide them with open-ended questions to ask guests.
- “What brought you to our booth today?”
- “Have you been exploring solutions like ours for your team?”
These questions gather basic data, spark a conversation, and give clues about where the lead stands in their buying journey.
You might also encourage sponsors to ask if guests are currently using a similar solution or what challenges they’re facing in the area your product supports. These responses reveal whether they’re in research mode, ready to buy, or just passing through. With that insight, you can prioritize hot leads over cold ones and adjust your follow-up strategy accordingly.
If you’re using event management software with lead retrieval tools, make sure your form or app allows space for qualitative notes. This way, you can add key comments or observations that will help your team personalize the next step in communication.
Understand the Decision-Making Role and Buying Timeline
One of the most critical aspects of lead qualification is knowing whether you’re talking to the right person. You don’t want your speakers and sponsors to spend their post-event outreach on people who can’t make a purchasing decision or who don’t influence the process. This is why their next set of questions should focus on decision-making roles and timelines.
- “Are you the primary decision-maker for this type of solution?”
- “Who else on your team would be involved in the purchase process?”
These questions are respectful and direct, and they help determine how close this lead is to converting. If they’re speaking with someone who isn’t the buyer, that’s still valuable, but it shows that the follow-up should include materials that can be shared with the decision-maker.
It’s also helpful to ask about the expected timeline for making a decision.
- “Is your team looking to make a change in the next 3–6 months?”
- “When are you hoping to implement a new solution?”
Questions like these help you categorize your leads into short-term and long-term follow-ups.
By capturing these details during the event, you set your sponsors up for more effective, timely, and relevant outreach. And if you’re using an event platform with CRM integration, your notes can sync directly with your sales tools so nothing falls through the cracks.
Discover Budget and Resource Availability
Let’s face it, no matter how interested a prospect seems, if they don’t have the budget, the chances of closing the deal are slim. This doesn’t mean a sponsor shouldn’t follow up, but it does mean they should tailor the messaging and timelines appropriately.
While asking directly about budget can feel awkward, you can help sponsors frame the question in a way that’s more conversational.
- “Have you allocated a budget for this kind of investment this year?”
- “What’s your typical budget range for solutions like this?”
These questions help gauge financial readiness without coming across as pushy.
Another angle is to ask about internal resources. If your product or service requires onboarding or team implementation, find out if the company has the capacity to support it.
- “Do you have a team in place to manage this type of rollout?”
- “Would you need implementation support from our team?”
These kinds of insights not only help sponsors assess the strength of the lead but also allow them to provide the most relevant information during follow-up. If someone expresses budget constraints, you can share financing options, phased implementation plans, or case studies that show ROI over time.
Gather Industry and Company-Specific Context
If you want to make your future outreach as personalized as possible, you’ll need to go beyond surface-level data. Understanding the lead’s industry, company size, and key pain points allows sponsors to tailor their messaging and demonstrate that they’ve done their homework.
- “What industry are you in, and what makes your organization unique?”
- “What’s the biggest challenge your team is facing right now in this area?”
This is the sponsors’ chance to show curiosity and position their solution as a way to solve specific, real-world problems.
They’ll also want to confirm the company’s size and structure. A small startup will have very different needs and budgets from an enterprise organization. Knowing this ahead of time helps sponsors frame their solutions appropriately and align follow-up resources.
If you’re providing sponsors with a live event lead retrieval scanner, either through QR codes or RFID solution, ensure these questions are embedded in your digital form. That way, you don’t let sponsors miss the chance to gather these important insights, even if the conversation is brief.
Ask How They Want to Be Followed Up With
Not every lead wants to receive a generic email blast the day after the event ends. Remind sponsors that if they really want to stand out, they should ask attendees how they prefer to be contacted and what kind of follow-up would be most helpful to them.
- “Would you prefer a phone call, email, or calendar invite?”
- “Is there any content or demo we can send your way to help with your decision-making process?”
When your sponsors give the lead control over how they engage, they’re more likely to respond positively.
Your sponsors will also show that you respect their time and preferences, two things that go a long way in building trust and rapport. For your sponsors, this means more qualified meetings, better response rates, and higher conversion potential. And for you as the event manager, it means happier sponsors and guests alike, leading to higher attendance rates for both returning guests and newcomers.
Giving Your Speakers, Sponsors, and Guests the Best Experience
Event management is about so much more than choosing the right venue, caterer, and topics. Your speakers and sponsors are the backbone of your event. Without them, your guests would have nothing to experience.
Giving your sponsors and speakers the best experience possible at your event not only encourages them to return for future events but it also results in a better guest experience, which benefits everyone. Each party stands to grow event revenue when you work together. Standing out by helping your sponsors and speakers use intentional, specific lead retrieval questions is an excellent way to go above and beyond.
When you encourage speakers and sponsors to approach lead retrieval as a conversation, not just a scan, you create opportunities to build real relationships and set your team up for post-event success. The goal isn’t to collect the most leads; it’s to collect the right ones. With the right questions and mindset, you can help turn every interaction into a stepping stone toward the next sale.