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Most Common Post-tradeshow Mistakes

A couple of weeks ago, UNEX attended ProMat in Chicago. It is arguably the preeminent show in the material handling industry and for one week, Chicago was the capital of the material handling world. Trade shows that big can be pretty surreal. There is so much going on between all of the attendees stopping by the booth, meetings with partners and clients and educational seminars that it doesn’t feel like real life sometimes. With all of those resources, companies often walk away with dozens of takeaways that they want to implement into their business. They’re reinvigorated. The problem is, when they get back into the office on Monday, there are 600 emails and 25 voicemails that all need to be answered immediately. Don’t allow the real world trap you into these three common post-show mistakes.

  1. Not Following Up - You left the show with a pocket full of business cards. You took those cards for a reason! Don’t just put those cards on your desk and forget about them, take the time to follow up with those new connections. Relationships can be formed at trade shows but you have to put the effort in after the show.
  2. Not Digesting What You Learned - It’s easy to attend an educational seminar and leave with five great ideas to improve your business. That’s why you attended in the first place. But those great ideas aren’t doing anyone any good if you don’t follow through with them. Take some time after the show to review your notes and set up a plan of attack to follow through with those actions. If they were important enough to write down, they’re probably important enough to pursue after the show.
  3. Not Honoring Your Commitments - Thousands of people came by your booth this week and showed interest in your product or service. They’re intrigued by they want some more information. “I’ll call you next week,” you say as they hand you their business card. This goes beyond following up on a potential connection, this is good customer service. If you don’t follow up when you said you were going to, the company looks bad. That potential customer will absolutely remember this when it comes time to buy. So don’t make any promises you can’t keep!

Avoid these common pitfalls and your business will reap the benefits. Make sure you didn’t spent that time and money in vain.