What To Do About This Pile From Hell...
Great event. Met a lot of great people. Conducted forty+ radio interviews over two days. Learned a ton. Made new friends. Got some potential business opportunities. And….
Got a stack of business cards from hell to deal with (see photo).
This is why I suppose statistics show most “leads” aren’t followed-up with post-show. I mean, do I really have the time to deal with all of these cards? Isn’t there some other way? Isn’t it easier to just toss these things away?
I have no doubt many of you could recommend cool tools and apps on how to capture the contact info found on all these cards…or suggest ways to scan the content. But that’s not what I am talking about.
I am talking about the actual people on the other end of those business cards. Cleverly adding the data into a database is one thing. Making real contact that advances a sales opportunity is another…
Here are a few thoughts:
1. DO NOT just add those names into your company email newsletter database. Just because you met them at the event, and maybe even had a meaningful conversation with them, do not assume they want to be added to your list. They may not unsubscribe from the list, but if they didn’t opt-in, you injured the relationship…
2. DO NOT just toss the cards. There’s gold in those things. Take some sort of action. If you end up tossing the cards, or place them in a shoebox in the credenza behind the desk, you should really ask yourself why you went to the damn event in the first place.
3. DO review each card. Think of at least ONE action you should take. Follow them on Twitter? Connect on LinkedIn? Send email suggesting a follow-up conversation? Place a phone call. Send a helpful article? Send them an mp3 file of their radio interview (that’s mine, and why Trade Show Radio rocks), connect them with a potential opportunity. The list goes on and on…but do something.
4. DO recognize that item #3 above is a lot of damn work. But meaningful. And important. And where the ROI of attending the show in the first place really begins to pay off…
5. DO initiate some type of conversational content.
6. DO NOT send sales “BUY ME!” material (unless they SPECIFICALLY asked for it).
7. DO take notes on cards to remember specific follow-up actions. DO NOT forget like I did in some cases. It is easy to forget when you are running around with your head cut off as I often was…
8. DO identify some of those new contacts and make it a point to keep in touch using the social web and building a relationship with people who might become prospects down the road. They might not be interested now, but develop a friendship, and you may do business later…
9. DO take your pile of business cards and put them in separate piles with specific actions items: hot prospects that require immediate action, cold prospects that require more time and nurturing, media sources that might want your content, people to invite on LinkedIn, people that might be interested in a specific article of yours, people not worth following-up, people that might make a good prospect for another company, etc… You get the idea. Not all cards are “hot prospects” and thus, shouldn’t be treated as such.
10. DO the work. The companies that grow and close sales are the ones that actually followed through on the post-show action items. Just remember this…a majority of contacts made following a show are NEVER acted upon. Don’t be that guy…
What do you think? What would you add?
