SMART Sales Objectives For Exhibitors: 10 Examples

In our article on the exhibitor benefits of SMART objectives, we discovered that simply trying to sell as much as possible won’t work well as your company’s sole exhibition objective. Sure, you’ll make some sales, but you’ll find yourself lost in all the data and blissfully unaware of what went right or wrong.

Now that you’re more familiar with the concept, let’s take a look at some SMART sales objectives examples of these you can use to help you succeed in the US events industry. From generating leads like a pro to increasing brand awareness, expect relevant SMART sales goals for your business and the B2B trade show environment.

Lastly, we’ll conclude with a real-world example of how a business applied SMART goals for greater business success on the trade show floor. Sales managers, sales reps, and event planners, you won’t want to miss this!

Top 10 Sales Objectives Examples For Trade Shows

Here is our top ten list of sales objectives examples for B2B trade show exhibitors:

1. Generate qualified leads
2. Secure on-site meetings
3. Close new deals
4. Increase brand awareness
5. Enhance lead conversion rate
6. Collect customer insights/feedback
7. Launch a new product or service
8. Increase customer lifetime value (CLV)
9. Increase social media engagement
10. Improve post-show follow-up effectiveness

Remember to check out our exhibitor’s objective setting template for an easy way to set SMART sales goals for your trade show.

1. Generate Qualified Leads

Generating more qualified leads is one of the most common and effective goals exhibitors set for their trade shows. Lead qualification is an important part of this, and refers to the process a sales team uses to decide which sales prospects are more likely to make a future purchase.

Once you’ve identified these potential customers, you can start forming a relationship with them and walking them through your sales funnel.

Here’s how to make it a SMART objective:

• Specific: We’ll collect contact details from potential decision-makers.
• Measurable: We’ll capture at least 100 qualified leads during the event.
• Achievable: We’ll assign dedicated staff just for lead qualification.
• Relevant: We’ll focus on high-value prospects matching our ideal customer profile for better results.
• Time-bound: We’ll achieve this within the 3-day duration of the trade show.

2. Secure On-Site Meetings

Exhibition events are more than just a place to market new products. Your custom exhibition stand can facilitate networking and business discussion with new customers and other industry leaders. Meetings offer you many knock-on effects; who you choose to meet with can contribute significantly to your brand awareness, sales, and company image.

Here’s how to make it a SMART objective:

• Specific: We’ll schedule in-depth discussions with our key prospects only.
• Measurable: We’ll book 20 face-to-face meetings.
• Achievable: We can employ a pre-show email campaign to encourage bookings.
• Relevant: We’ll target industry professionals with buying authority for better results.
• Time-bound: We’ll complete all our meetings by the last day of the show.

3. Close New Deals

Sales can be a part of your trade show success, but it needs to be done properly. Besides knowing your audience and revenue targets, you should also be familiar with your sales pipeline for maximum returns.

Remember that closing new deals can be easier when dealing with existing customers or customers you’ve worked with before, due to a lower customer acquisition cost.

Here’s how to make it a SMART objective:

• Specific: We’ll convert trade show interactions into immediate sales.
• Measurable: We’ll close at least 5 new contracts.
• Achievable: We’re in a position to offer exclusive trade show discounts to sweeten the deal.
• Relevant: We’ll target only B2B clients with high purchase intent for better results.
• Time-bound: We’ll follow up within 30 days of the event.

4. Increase Brand Awareness

Ultimately, your sales performance won’t be awe-inspiring if people don’t know who you are, no matter how interesting your product or service may be. To increase revenue in the long run, you’ll need to start by getting your name out there.

Social media is an important asset when trying to achieve this objective.

Here’s how to make it a SMART objective:

• Specific: We will increase brand visibility by 60% among trade show attendees.
• Measurable: We will achieve at least 500 booth visits and 1,000 social media engagements.
• Achievable: We shall target industry-specific engagement averages for this event.
• Relevant: Enhanced brand recognition among industry decision-makers will help our sales.
• Time-bound: We will achieve our engagement targets just before the show ends.

5. Enhance Lead Conversion Rate

Simply put, lead conversion rate refers to the percentage of visitors you end up converting into leads and customers as part of your sales funnel. You can use the following formula to work this out easily:

Lead conversion rate = (Number of leads / Total number of visitors) x 100%

Improving your lead conversion rate might not always be advisable or even realistic, depending on the circumstances. Sometimes you might end up with leads that are qualified but fewer in number, rather than many leads that aren’t qualified.

Here’s how to make it a SMART objective:

• Specific: We’ll double the percentage of leads converting into sales opportunities.
• Measurable: We aim to increase our lead conversion rate from 10% to 20%.
• Achievable: We’ve already trained staff on sales conversations and lead nurturing.
• Relevant: Any high-intent prospects will help us considerably.
• Time-bound: The increase should happen within three months.

6. Increase Customer Satisfaction

Customer satisfaction is a critical component of any B2B business, and is measured through customer feedback. This gives you insights into the needs of your clients that you can use to improve your business going forward. There are a variety of tools and methods you can utilize to approach this, should you make it one of your sales objectives.

Here’s how to make it a SMART objective:

• Specific: We want to gather 25% more insights on products, services, and industry trends.
• Measurable: We will conduct at least 50 structured interviews with attendees at our booth.
• Achievable: We successfully conducted 40 interviews at our last trade show event.
• Relevant: We can drastically improve customer satisfaction based on the insights.
• Time-bound: We will complete all our interviews in two days.

7. Launch a New Product or Service

B2B trade shows are the perfect springboard to launch your new product or service in front of industry leaders, helping you achieve your future sales revenue that much quicker. Turn this into one of your smart sales goals for more business growth on exhibition day.

Here’s how to make it a SMART objective:

• Specific: We will introduce one new offering to the market only.
• Measurable: We will generate 200 new product demo sign-ups.
• Achievable: Our last new product launch demo also received 200 sign-ups.
• Relevant: We shall showcase our innovation to a highly targeted audience.
• Time-bound: We should achieve the goal within one day.

8. Increase Customer Lifetime Value

Customer lifetime value refers to the profit a business can expect to gain from one customer over the entire business relationship. You can use SMART criteria to improve how you go about achieving this goal.

Here’s how to make it a SMART objective:

• Specific: We want 30 new clients to sign up for our loyalty program.
• Measurable: We’ll record all 30 sign-ups on our event management app.
• Achievable: Our competitors regularly target similar figures.
• Relevant: It will support our existing business expansion goals.
• Time-bound: We will secure the sign-ups within the trade show timeframe.

9. Increase Social Media Engagement

The physical space of a stunning trade show booth can even be used for growing your virtual presence online. It sounds counterintuitive but, with the help of some energetic sales leaders and striking displays, you can really grow your online following.

Converting physical stand visitors to online followers has never been easier, though you should tailor your objectives to SMART criteria to adequately appreciate the result.

Here’s how to make it a SMART objective:

• Specific: We will boost our online presence during the trade show on LinkedIn.
• Measurable: We aim to gain 500 new LinkedIn followers and 5,000 post impressions.
• Achievable: We’ve developed event hashtags and invested in influencer collaborations to help achieve our targets.
• Relevant: A stronger online presence translates to more brand credibility in our industry.
• Time-bound: Achieve engagement targets within a few hours.

10. Improve Post-Show Follow-Up Effectiveness

One important part of your sales process is how you navigate post-show follow-ups. Many exhibitors still neglect this activity, which is indispensable to the lead conversion cycle and your sales revenue.

Follow-ups also help you identify flaws in your exhibition planning, allowing you to set more realistic sales goals at future events.

Here’s how to make it a SMART objective:

• Specific: We’ll decrease lead-response time by 50%.
• Measurable: We’ll follow up with 100% of qualified leads within 7 days.
• Achievable: We previously followed up within 14 days.
• Relevant: We have to maximize our trade show ROI.
• Time-bound: We’ll complete the follow-ups within three days post-event.

Case Study: Maximizing Brand Exposure With Navan

Navan are an all-in-one expense management company with software solutions for travelers. While their company is 10 years old, they recently rebranded in 2023. This included their new name (Navan) and logo.

In 2025, Navan felt the need boost their brand presence at a trade show following their rebrand. They targeted the Startup Grind Conference in San Francisco and chose Booth Exhibits™ as their dedicated booth builder.

Navan had a hurdle to overcome: they didn’t have the largest space to work with. Booth Exhibits™ maximized their brand presence with an impactful design, but Navan also wanted to go a little bit further.

With the SMART framework in mind, Navan wanted to increase their brand presence on the show floor. Here’s how they planned that:

• Specific: Navan wanted to raise more awareness about their brand and offerings.
• Measurable: Navan tracked awareness through increased social media engagement and email signups.
• Achievable: Although they had rebranded recently, Navan had achieved similar results before under their old name.
• Relevant: Getting new customers familiar with Navan’s new brand was crucial before drawing them into the sales cycle.
• Time-bound: They wanted to achieve their goal before the end of the event.

To make the most of their appearance, Navan’s exhibition staff walked around their booth and the show floor with branded wheelie suitcases. The result? More visitors from further away were drawn to Navan’s exhibition booth.

By adopting a SMART goals approach and partnering with Booth Exhibits™, Navan made a big impression at Startup Grind 2025.

Putting Theory Into Practice With SMART Sales Objectives

Should you find yourself longing for greater trade show success and improved sales metrics, setting SMART sales goals is a powerful method of improving your exhibition performance over time. Soon, you’ll find yourself exceeding your SMART sales targets and drawing more customers into your sales cycle.

Booth Exhibits™ prides itself on being your dedicated exhibition stand builder throughout the United Kingdom. We’d love to work with you at your next event, so give us a call today!

What are smart objectives in sales?

A SMART sales objective is a sales objective that is specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound.

What is an example of a sales objective?

A sales objective can be something like “I want to increase my brand awareness to help future sales”.

What is an example of a SMART objective?

An example SMART objective would be “I want to sell 50 products by the end of today.”