It’s the morning after the place party. What now?

Feeling a bit groggy after the Place Party festivities last night? Well it’s time to gulp down some Alka-Seltzer and beat the devil out of that hangover, you’ve got work to do!

Let’s be honest, its been a long year and with current events being as they are, we were all due a bit of a shindig. But in cold light of day, as you sip milky tea from the comfort of your bed, there are things you can start doing now to capitalise on all the great networking you did the night before.

Attending industry events is an investment. The fun that comes with it is a nice bonus. 

Yes, the fine food, industrial vats of prosecco and the good company are reason enough to attend on their own, but there’s also the potential for better business, more clients and a more prosperous end to the year. The question is how do you measure the returns once the fun stops and what can you do to capitalise on the opportunities you prospected?

Relationships

In property and professional services, people buy people. How did last night’s shenanigans help you to build good relationships?

You should be able to talk about current clients and collaborators you spoke to, as well as new connections made.

Make a note: who you spoke to, whether you knew them already or not, and what promise you made. Then deliver on your promise.

Most importantly, make sure you follow up on leads. Emails are fine but phone calls are better.

Reputation

Here is how you make your marketing team happy. How many people saw or engaged with your email, social media and online activity related to last night’s event? What was the sentiment of that interaction? Who got involved? How many people engaged with your blog / vlog? If you made some new connections, see if any engaged with your content and socials. Better yet, check out their channels and throw some engagement their way. It’s a great way to continue the relationship you started the night previous.

Revenue

It is fairly simple to identify whether an event contributed to attracting new business or investment. If you talked about an opportunity last night, you’ve helped to move it along the pipeline.

Use the tags on your database to flag who you met so that you can track the results, from contact to lead, enquiry and eventually revenue. You’ll need to be able to prove it in order to have an informed conversation about next year’s investment.

Recall – what did you learn?

Parties and conferences aren’t just about business development.  They are also about having fun – whatever that means to you. What did you learn? What surprised you? What trends did you see? What relationships did you build?

Share that knowledge with your colleagues and your clients; use it for creating content and for making a better informed decision next time around.

So. First things first. Have a good breakfast and a strong coffee. Do your follow-ups. Review your RoI. And prepare for the next event: next week has plenty to offer.

Need help with your networking skills or planning your next event? Call Luma Marketing today and we’ll make sure you’ve got the networking skills to pay the ever increasing bills.

First published on Place North West.