Friday morning and I just finished sending out my last media guide request from the Green Building Festival Conference at the Toronto Congress Centre. The trade show portion of the conference saw a steady stream of visitors during the morning hours and I got to meet up with some existing clients, potential clients and possible strategic relationships. A perfect networking event and a great opportunity to develop your brand.
The key when you get back from a conference and trade show such as this is making sure you follow up with each contact in timely fashion and provide the information they requested. Speaking with one exhibitor he told me his biggest complaint is someone who says they will follow up and they don't. He shared with me an experience of a marketing person for another organization who was there who took all his contact information back in June and he never heard from him again. The part which annoyed him even more is the marketing rep saying I did send you the information and claimed he never heard back form the client.
The key with following up for me with a new contact is a three part process:
1) Send an email after I get settled thanking the person for speaking with me and sending any additional information they requested.
2) I send out a copy of one of our regional papers to them within two weeks.
3) Allowing enough time for the paper to arrive I do a final call to the person to touch base to ensure I provided them everything they needed.
If I ever miss a step or happen to run into a potential client I make sure that I take the responsibility if there was a broken link in the communication process.
The other thing I mentioned at the very beginning this was a great networking event, I did not call it a sales event. In the past I had made the mistake of trying to close the deal on the spot with a potential client when in reality they are just looking for information. Nine times out of 10 a potential client will buy something from you based on the relationship with you then the power of your product.
The reason I look for sponsorship and strategic alliances is to allow me more opportunities to meet with people, ensure they get to review the papers and build relationships.
Next up for me this month are a couple events in Barrie, first on the 18th is a dinner with the Greater Barrie Home Builders Association and Barrie Construction Association celebrating the Build for Gilda's.
No comments:
Post a Comment