Jump to Events, Trade Shows.

Meetings: Take a corporate meeting for instance. The attendees have been entertained, they've brainstormed and networked, perhaps they've been trained or generated a plan of action, and then they are free to go home. Does the sponsor of the meeting expect anything to happen after that? You bet!

Consider the possibility of continuing the meeting after the meeting - by using Internet tools to follow up on the meeting's goals or to create an electronic meeting place where attendees can continue the good work they began when gathered together in person.

One valuable tool is the Post Meeting Forum, which can easily be built on a private realm of the Internet or on a corporate intranet. Somewhat similar to a chat room, the forum can be hosted by one of the meeting's organizers, who attends on a regular basis to establish a topic, monitor the responses and direct actions. The frequent participation of managers is highly recommended to keep the discussion moving in the right direction and to assure appropriate participation.

Events: The main purpose of an event is to create an after effect. A branding event, for instance, where the audience is treated to a good time under the banner of your corporate logo, assumes the audience goes home with a positive feeling for the brand. Continue that positive feeling with after-event, memory building devices.

Consider providing still photographers who will send photographic gifts to your audience. Or a PhotoZap booth, where attendees can make their own websites under highlighted by the event name and your logo. An event video, featuring the highlights of the event, with lots of audience shots and interviews, sold at cost, is a great way to make your event last - perhaps until the next event, which adds annual continuity throughout the seasons.

Tradeshows: The most desirable result of a tradeshow is a list of qualified prospects. Post-production for the tradeshow entails the gathering, sorting, storage and contact action of that list. Assuming the production was on target, your tradeshow audience should have been propelled to identify itself with your organization.

Identity of qualified prospects can be by hand (calling cards in the pocket), by mechanical means (filling out forms, carbon copy rubs of a credit card device), or electronically (by swiping a magnetic or optically identified card). Long before the tradeshow, decide which method you will use and establish a plan of action for dealing with the list.

List management, at the very least, should involve a personalized letter and literature package to every qualified name on the list. Failure to follow up in this manner, within 30 days of the show, reduces your tradeshow efforts to that of a commercial event. When was the last time you bought something because you remembered seeing it at a county fair?

More aggressive list management may be employed to extend the mining of the list throughout the year - up to the next tradeshow. Such management begins with contact software, such as ACT! or Goldmine. These products place all your contacts into a database that may be searched by any type of information (last name, company, town, zip, phone, whatever). They also offer a calendar that can be loaded with "calls to make," templates for various types of letters (Just select the name and the letter and presto - it's ready to print!), and dozens of time saving routines for managing a large sales effort.

Once the list is databased, follow a plan of action to propel the prospect to the cash register. Every contact with the prospect should do two things: 1. a reason to purchase, and 2. a method of further qualifying the prospect.

The reason to purchase can be a limited-time sale, a new technology, a new product, a free seminar, a rebate, whatever. The response of the prospect to the reason should then be recorded. Did the prospect buy when offered a better price or did he buy when offered a learning opportunity? Did the prospect never buy or respond? Answers to these questions help you cull prospects from the active list to a "dead prospect" list. Never throw away prospects.

Refine the hot prospect list until you have identified their needs and the factors that make them buy your product. Use this information to configure your next tradeshow or marketing communication. Use the dead prospect list as a negative reference. What common elements exist in the dead list to identify as something to avoid?

Finally, when and if business is really slow, make exploratory visits to the dead list and see if things have changed. Sometimes a prospect will not buy because the time isn't right or the prospect's business is slow. Often an entire category of dead prospects may be identified and the reason for their disinterest discovered. Overcome that obstacle successfully, and you've discovered a gold mine of activity that your competition has, no doubt, given up for lost.