Most business is lost by the lack of follow-up. Make sure you maximize your trade show investment by following these four critical steps when you return home. 

• Don’t get lost in the weeds. It’s natural to dive into the stacks of paperwork that are sitting on your desk, but the first thing you should do is your follow-up—or at the very least, schedule when it should take place.

• Enter the contact information of your new prospects. You are only as good as the information you have, so make sure you are entering that into your database. 

• Do what you said you were going to do. If you said you would follow up with a phone call, e-mail, or package, be sure to do exactly what you committed to. 

• Don’t give up. As it is for you, it’s easy for operators to get caught in the weeds when they return from a show. If they don’t get back to you right away, be persistent. 

To many of you, the lack of follow-up that takes place is unimaginable. But the reality is, it happens more often than not. Just think: If you do what you’re supposed to do, you just might beat everyone else to the punch. Good luck!