Now that the Conference is over… What Should I Do Now?

Do you have conscious, well thought out plan for how do you unwind after a professional conference and still take advantage of all the great ideas, contacts and leads you got? Let’s face it, one big challenge with the aftermath of conferences is that they lead to more work and the stark reality is that the week after a conference is brutal. So here are my hot tips for a successful re-entry into the work week:

1. Tell your clients and people you work with you will be gone an extra day or two. If I'm coming home on Saturday, I tell everyone I'm back on Monday. (I know you wish you had thought of this ahead of time, but remember it for the next conference)

2. Don't schedule anything the first day back in the office. Remember this is the beginning of hell week so don’t add fuel to the fire.

3. At all cost resist the temptation to check your emails to see ‘what’s happening’ because you will get sucked into email hell Instead make a list of all those great ideas from the conference, key contacts and leads to follow up on. Prioritize this list with an A, B, C analysis. A = High priority, B = Medium priority and C = I will get back to these when I complete A and B. Two key points to remember when prioritizing your list; 1) focus on the ones that will have the biggest payoff, i.e., meaning lead to revenue generation and 2) identify which ones should be delegated or assigned to someone else.

Under no circumstances should you give your assistant all the business cards you gathered and have him/her input them to your follow up database. First, include the business cards in your A, B, C sort. Keep the A cards because these are people you should be calling or taking action with immediately. Remember to copy both sides because we know you made notes on the back indicating:

(1) the conference where you met,
(2) summary of your dialogue and
(3) actions to be taken.

If you are worried that you may lose or misplace the cards put them on the copier and make a sheet with the A cards. Then give them to your assistant to input along with the B and C cards into the database.

4. Keep in mind that the people you met at the conference are also going through their own hell week so use this time wisely by preparing something of substance to send to them beyond “it was nice meeting you or thanks for great discussion.” If you promised to send them something specific then send it to them or if not, summarize the essence of your dialogue and include your marketing materials. Or my favorite, make them a one time special offer as a conference special. With regards to timing have your information ready to go so it will be on their desk on Monday which is likely to be the first day they have come up for air after the conference and doing the same thing you have been doing.

5. Finally, respect potential clients time and don't unnecessarily pester them. When you call them if they are not able to talk or not interested get them to opt into your list to receive free and valuable information, like your webzine* or a white paper, etc.

Let them catch their breath after the conference too

* If you do not have a webzine contact us to learn about our Private Branding Service in which we create a complete online webzine for your firm.

Feel free to contact me at wbnixon@aol.com or 949.770.5264 with questions or comments or to find out how your company could send out a personalized Ezine, without you doing much work!

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