The trade show follow-up nobody does
Everyone collects 400 business cards at a trade show. The 5% of reps who close from them do one specific thing in the 48 hours after.
Trade show ROI is almost always bad, and the math is simple: you collect leads and then do nothing useful with them in the window where they remember you.
The 48-hour window
Buyers remember you for about two days. After that, they've been to four more booths, flown home, and caught up on email. Your chance of being recognized drops off a cliff on day three.
If your follow-up goes out in week two, you're starting a cold cycle. You paid $8,000 for a booth to start a cold cycle. Think about that.
What actually works at the booth
Capture the conversation, not the card. A business card is a name and a job title. The conversation is what they actually care about — the problem they mentioned, the tool they're replacing, the person on their team who owns the decision.
Voice-memo it the second they walk away. Thirty seconds while the details are fresh. Do this for every real conversation, not every card scan.
The follow-up
Day 1: a one-line email referencing what they told you. Not "great meeting you at the booth." Something specific — "you mentioned your team just lost their ops lead, so I wanted to send you [exactly the thing we talked about]."
Day 3: calendar link to a short call.
Day 7: if no reply, one more email with a second piece of value and then you drop it.
Why this beats sequences
Sales engagement platforms will happily run a 12-touch sequence on all 400 of your trade show leads. It'll feel productive. It'll convert badly, because it's obvious to the buyer that you don't actually remember them.
The rep who sends five personalized follow-ups will close more deals than the rep who automates 400.