George El-Hage
Partnering with a lead capture vendor is a twelve-month decision dressed up as a product demo. The features are the easy part. What decides whether it still makes sense a year in is who owns the client, who answers the phone on show day, and what happens when the first renewal comes round.
These are the twelve questions worth asking, and how we answer them. If you're specifically an exhibit house, white label lead capture for exhibit houses is the longer version; the product itself sits in event lead capture.
Ask about competition, data ownership, support and renewal before you ask about features. Then let the deal shape follow who does the onboarding, rather than picking a shape first and discovering the work afterwards.
1. Do you sell to my clients directly, or build anything I build?
This is the one that decides the rest. If the vendor also designs booths, produces events or runs stands, every introduction you make puts a competitor in front of your client with a reason to be in the room.
Wave Connect makes software only. We don't design or produce booths, we don't run events and we don't rent hardware. Ask for deal registration and named-account carve-outs in writing from anyone; a vendor who won't put that on paper is telling you something.
2. Revenue share, reseller or white label: which do you actually offer?
Plenty of vendors say "partnership" and mean one thing. The three shapes are genuinely different:
| Revenue share | Reseller | White label | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who signs the client | Wave Connect | Your house | Your house |
| Whose brand the client sees | Wave Connect | Both | Yours |
| Who onboards and supports | Wave Connect | Shared | Your team, with us behind you |
| Who bills | Wave Connect | Your house | Your house |
| Best for | Recommending it on a handful of accounts | Putting it on the proposal as a line item | Houses running their own client services team |
We work with partners on all three, for the right partner. Terms are agreed on a call rather than published, because the right structure for two shows a quarter isn't the right structure for fifty.
3. Who owns the client's data, and what happens if the partnership ends?
The contacts belong to the client's organisation, not to us and not to the rep who captured them. They stay exportable and there's no export fee to get them out.
Ask any vendor the same question in the same words, and ask what happens to the data if your agreement ends rather than if the client's does. The two are not the same. Our answer is written up in full.
4. Does it work at every show, or only where the organizer sells you access?
Some capture tools depend on the show's own API key, often called a developer kit or an event API, which is bought per event from that show's registration vendor.
The AI Badge Scanner reads the name and company printed on the badge, so there's nothing to buy from the organizer and nothing to activate before the doors open. The trade-off is real and worth stating: registration screening answers stay with the official vendor, because they own that database. The full explanation is here.
5. What does a lead come back with, and what if enrichment finds nothing?
A name and a company off a badge is not a lead. Waterfall Lead Enrichment checks multiple independent data sources in sequence for a verified business email, phone number, job title and LinkedIn profile.
When nothing verified comes back, no credit is used. Ask every vendor that second part; a match rate quoted without a failure policy is half an answer.
6. Which CRMs are native, and can fields be mapped per client?
HubSpot, Salesforce, Zoho, Microsoft Dynamics 365, Pipedrive, HighLevel and Outlook contacts are native. Zapier covers anything else and CSV export is always available.
The part that matters for a partner is per-client field mapping, because your clients don't share a CRM and none of them want their fields renamed. Setup is documented here.
Bring the twelve questions to a call
We'll answer every one of them against your own clients and shows, and tell you which deal shape fits rather than which one we'd prefer.
Book a call7. How are seats priced when the booth team changes every show?
Pricing is per lead, with enrichment included, so there are no per-user fees. A ten-person stand and a two-person stand pay the same way.
That's what makes putting the app on brand ambassadors' and temporary staff's phones a staffing decision rather than a budget one. Ask any per-seat vendor what happens when your client staffs up for one week a year.
8. Who supports the client's reps at 7am on show day?
This depends entirely on the deal shape, and it's the question most partnerships skip until it's too late.
Under a revenue share, we support the end client directly. Under a white label arrangement your team runs first-line onboarding and support with ours behind you. Settle it before you sign, because it's the difference between a quiet show weekend and a busy one.
9. Can the client's dashboard and reports carry our brand?
For white label partners, yes: the client logs into a dashboard carrying your brand and receives reports with your name on them.
Be specific about which surfaces, because "white label" means different things to different vendors. Dashboard and reports are the usual answer; the app in the public stores is usually not.
10. What's the attribution window, and does the share apply at renewal?
Ask two things: how a sale is attributed to you, and whether you're still paid when that client renews. Many programs quietly stop after the first purchase or the first year.
For context on how varied this is, one digital card vendor's public affiliate listing pays on the first twelve months while its own terms describe the initial transaction only (PartnerStack listing, verified 2026-08-26). Ours is agreed per partner, in writing, before anything goes live.
11. Where does it not work?
A vendor who can't answer this is hiding something. Ours: a handful of large vendor-run conferences require the official device and prohibit outside capture apps in the exhibitor terms. Registration screening answers stay with the official vendor. Physical interaction tracking, like RFID on demo stations, is a different category of system.
12. Can we try it on our own event before we put it in front of a client?
Yes, and you should. Every account starts with free trial credits, so your own team can run a real show and see what a captured lead actually looks like in a CRM before you recommend it to anyone.
1. Do you sell to my clients directly, or build anything I build? 2. Revenue share, reseller or white label? 3. Who owns the client's data, and what happens if the partnership ends? 4. Does it work at every show, or only where the organizer sells access? 5. What does a lead come back with, and what if enrichment finds nothing? 6. Which CRMs are native, and can fields be mapped per client? 7. How are seats priced when the booth team changes every show? 8. Who supports the client's reps on show day? 9. Can the dashboard and reports carry our brand? 10. What's the attribution window, and does the share apply at renewal? 11. Where does it not work? 12. Can we trial it on our own event first?
Common questions about lead capture partnerships
The two companion pieces: white label lead capture for exhibit houses for agencies that build stands, and lead capture for event organizers if you run the show rather than sell into it.
Prefer to ask these live? [Book a call](https://calendly.com/waveconnect/wave-for-exhibit-houses)Book a call** and we'll work through all twelve against your own client roster.
Bring your questions to a call
Work through the twelve against your own client roster, and we'll tell you which deal shape actually fits rather than which one we'd prefer.
Book a callCompetitor program terms dated 2026-08-26. Product facts verified 2026-09-28.