What Happens After NeoCon Ends? Lost Samples Lead to Lost Revenue

NeoCon is where materials make their debut. But what happens after the designer walks out with a sample? For most brands, that moment—full of potential—leads to a frustrating blind spot. The sample leaves, and the trail goes cold. In the building materials industry, it’s common to invest heavily in marketing, sampling, and showroom experiences. But what’s often overlooked is what happens after the sample leaves the floor. Most brands have no visibility, no tracking, and no insight into which samples lead to orders—or which ones simply disappear.

That’s not just inconvenient. It’s expensive.

The NeoCon Moment is Only the Beginning

Image of 2024 NeoCon Showroom via Corporate Environments

Each June, leading flooring, tile, and surface brands converge at NeoCon, showcasing innovation, material design, and new product launches. Designers and specifiers flood the showrooms, excited to discover what’s new—and samples are everywhere. It’s the perfect setting to spark interest. But what happens next?

That post-NeoCon gap is where most brands lose visibility. Samples are taken, tossed in tote bags, mailed to offices, or handed off without record. Weeks go by. No follow-up. No insight. No ROI.

The Hidden Cost of Lost Samples

Whether it happens at a trade show or a local showroom, sample loss quietly erodes margins. Here’s how:

• Lost samples = lost opportunity
  You can’t follow up with a customer if you don’t know who took the sample.

• Hot SKUs go missing
  Your most in-demand samples may be checked out and never returned, meaning they’re unavailable for the next potential buyer.

• Reordering becomes reactive and expensive
  Reps and showrooms often scramble to restock without knowing what’s needed, leading to waste.

• Overproduction without insight
  Brands continue producing more samples based on assumption, not demand. There’s no feedback loop to guide smarter decisions.

Sampling is one of the most expensive components of your sales strategy. Yet for many building materials brands, it’s also the least measured.

Orbit: A Sample Tracking System for the Post-NeoCon World

Orbit is a sample tracking system designed specifically for building materials. It helps brands track every physical sample from showroom to customer and back again—without needing showroom Wi-Fi or a complicated install.

Here's how it works:

1. Smart labels are added to your product samples

2. A plug-and-play in-store system logs every check-in and check-out

3. Orbit records who took the sample, what SKU, and how long it’s been checked out.

4. Brands and showrooms gain real-time dashboards and daily reports on sample activity

Whether a sample is picked up at NeoCon, checked out at a local retailer, or passed between reps, Orbit captures the moment—and gives your team visibility.

Connect Sampling to Sales Outcomes

Imagine knowing that a designer who picked up your new LVT sample at NeoCon also requested a similar product two weeks later, and that the sample they took never made it back to the showroom.

Now imagine seeing which SKUs are most requested across your network, tracking the sample’s lifecycle in every store, identifying which materials are frequently checked out but rarely result in sales all while building a database of product demand that actually reflects customer behavior. This is the insight Orbit provides—turning sampling from a cost center into a data-driven asset.

Make the Most of Your NeoCon Investment

You spend tens of thousands of dollars preparing for NeoCon: designing showrooms, printing collateral, producing samples, and training your team. But if you’re not tracking what happens after a sample leaves your space, you’re missing the second half of the story.

Orbit helps you turn that interest into insight, and that insight into action. Book a demo and see how Orbit closes the loop on every sample you send into the world.