A kitchen-equipment wholesaler left every trade show with a shoebox of cards and stale leads. We built a capture flow that OCRs cards and badge scans into the CRM and fires personalized follow-ups the same evening — in four hours instead of two weeks.
Typical results
97%
Leads captured to CRM
2.6x
Meetings booked per show
0 min
Manual data entry
Figures reflect typical results for this kind of automation.
The challenge
Trade shows were the wholesaler's biggest lead source and its leakiest funnel. Cards piled up in jacket pockets, notes lived in reps' heads, and data entry waited until 'after the show' — meaning two weeks. By then competitors had called first, roughly 40% of leads were never entered at all, and each show produced about twelve meetings.
Before and after
Hours from booth to follow-up
−99%Leads lost after each show
−93%Meetings booked per show
2.6×The automation
We gave booth reps a one-tap capture flow: photograph the card or scan the badge, then dictate a quick note. OCR and AI extract the contact, deduplicate against the CRM, enrich the company profile, and attach the booth note. Each lead is scored, assigned an owner, and entered into a follow-up sequence that references the actual conversation — the first email leaves within four hours, while the prospect is still at the show.
How it works
- 01
Capture in one tap
Reps photograph business cards or scan badges in the booth, adding a quick dictated note.
- 02
OCR into the CRM
Contact details are extracted, deduplicated against the CRM and enriched with company data — booth note attached.
- 03
Score and assign
AI tags each lead by interest and deal size, then routes it to the right salesperson.
- 04
Follow up by evening
A personalized email referencing the actual booth conversation leaves within four hours.
- 05
Book the meeting
Replies and link clicks trigger rep tasks, and hot leads get a proposed meeting slot automatically.
Starts from
- Business-card photos
- Badge scans
Delivers
- CRM lead with booth notes
- Same-evening follow-up sequence
- Hot-lead alerts to reps
The impact
Follow-up typically lands in four hours instead of two weeks, and about 97% of captured leads reach the CRM with notes attached. Meetings booked per show can rise from around twelve to 31, and reps no longer spend the evenings after a show on data entry.
Questions about this automation
How do reps capture a lead at the booth?
A rep opens a simple mobile form or a WhatsApp chat, photographs the business card or scans the badge, and records a short voice note about the conversation. OCR reads the contact details, the voice note is transcribed, and both are attached to one lead record before the rep turns to the next visitor.
What stops duplicate leads from piling up in the CRM?
Before a lead is created, the automation searches the CRM by email, phone and company domain. A match updates the existing contact and adds the booth note to its timeline instead of opening a second record. Cards the OCR cannot read with confidence go to a short review queue for a person to confirm.
Which CRMs and email tools does it work with?
It connects to most CRMs with an API, such as HubSpot, Pipedrive or Salesforce, and sends follow-ups through Gmail, Outlook or the CRM's own sequence tool. Lead scoring rules and owner routing are agreed with the sales team up front. It is a multi-step build, usually rolled out in stages.