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It's Only Common Sense: The Show is Done, So Now What?

Did you spend last week in San Diego attending the IPC APEX EXPO? If so, you made a lot of good contacts, you talked to a lot of people, spent time with potential customers trying to convince them to buy your goods and services, and with the right vendors checking out their products and goods trying to figure out what equipment and services would be good for your company.

If you’re a sales manager-type, you spent time looking for great salespeople—both direct and reps. You also spent quality time wining and dining customers and potential customers.

If you’re an operation type, you checked out the new equipment to see how you can best equip your shop for the future.

You attended technical presentations and met as many smart people as possible, trying to absorb as much information as you could. You were a virtual sponge trying to absorb all that information, knowledge, and technology.

You also tried to pick up as much industry G2 as you could, trying to get the lay of the land in your industry as well as your customer’s industry.

You snooped around trying to find out how your competitors are up to—and to discover where all the business is going.

If you did things right and took full advantage of your time at the show, you worked practically 24/7, doing everything you could to improve your business position in the marketplace.

And finally, you tried to have a good time, despite the COVID cloud hanging over your head.

Now what? What do you do with everything your learned at the show? How do you handle all the people you met? What do you to make sure that you get the most return on your investment that you possibly can?

Here’s what you do. It’s time to get into the proper follow-up mode. Without following up on everything you did last week you will have wasted your time, and your money as well.

Here are five things you can do when you get back to that home office to make sure you squeeze as much value for the time you spent in San Diego as you can.

1. Review and rate the show: While things are still fresh in your mind, review your notes, and then put down your impression of the show. Was it worth it and why? Would you recommend it to your associates? Are you going back to the show next year?
2. Make a list of what went right and what could have been improved. This is especially important if you were an exhibitor. Did you have everything you needed with you? Make a list of what you forgot and need to bring next time. Make a list of what was not necessary to bring. What ideas, things, and giveaways did you see other people doing in their booths that you might want to do in your booth next year?
3. Contact the people you met immediately. Actually, I would urge you to do this before you even get home. Follow up and complete the loop that you started when you first talked to them. Remind them of what you talked about and then let them know what the next step will be. If you promised them to do something for them, then do that right away. The important thing is to not let things go even a day.
4. Learn from what you learned. Review everything you saw at the show, everyone you met with, the white paper presentations you sat in on, and learn from it all. If you have done a good job paying attention, you will come away from this expo a lot better informed than when you went in.
5. Track the return on investment. Once again, this is very important if you were an exhibitor. List in detail how much you spent on the show including travel and living expenses while you and your team were there. Then make a list of the customers you met with and start tracking whether you will get any business from those customers in the next year. This is the purest way to track your return on investment. Of course, there are other reasons to be exhibiting, but the most important reason of all is to meet potential customers and grow your business with your current customers. If that does not happen you have a problem and should re-evaluate your decision to exhibit at this show. But before you make that decision, make certain that you did everything possible to make this show a success for you and your company. Usually when I hear from someone that the show did not work for them, I consider the source and come to realize that they did not work for the show. And in more in the spirit of under promising and over delivering...
6. Start planning for next year. Immediately after the show is the right time to set things up for the following year. From what you learned this year, what are you going to do next year to have an even better IPC APEC EXPO 2023 show experience?

It’s only common sense.

Dan Beaulieu is president of D.B. Marketing Group.