Tradeshows like NFDA are a great way to network—get your name out there, meet influential people within the funeral profession, see the latest and greatest products and services—but they can also be overwhelming. You spent three days attending workshops and presentations, visiting hundreds of booths, and gathering endless amounts of business cards and brochures, but now what?

We’ve put together a list of five things we think every funeral firm should do when they return from NFDA, or any other tradeshow for that matter.

5 To-Do’s Following NFDA:

1. Schedule a post-convention meeting with your staff as soon as you return to compare notes and review all the brochures and hand-outs you gathered to figure out what information, products, and/or services you were most interested in for your funeral firm.

2. Prioritize what you want to put into action by brainstorming with your staff. Consider the following questions:

• What information/ideas did you gather that would be beneficial to your funeral firm?
• What new products/services were most impressive?
• What did you learn about your competitors?
• What can you do to differentiate your funeral firm from your competitors?
• What new technology is available that you may wish to consider?
• What products/services will bring value to your funeral firm and your families?
• How can you attract new families?

3. Once you and your staff have agreed on priorities and put together a plan of action of what you actually want to implement, it’s time to go through all those business cards you gathered at NFDA and figure out who you are interested in doing business with. Research the companies, products and services, and look for testimonials from existing clients.

4. Most likely you’ll be receiving a multitude of calls from the vendors/salespeople you met at the show, but if there’s one company in particular you’re interested in working with, don’t be afraid to reach out to them and get the ball rolling.

5. Obviously, you won’t be able to check all the items off your wish list of to-do’s at once, but be sure to stay in contact with the individuals/companies you were most interested in from NFDA. In this day and age, connecting through email, and social networking sites like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, are all acceptable ways of extending relationships past the tradeshow itself.

Feel free to share your funeral firm’s post-convention to-do list by commenting below!

Kelly Murad

funeralOne

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