Take the Lead by Fol­low­ing Up

Make sure the pro­duc­tiv­i­ty and clar­i­ty of a suc­cess­ful meet­ing don’t evap­o­rate after you walk out of the room. Keep the momen­tum going by fol­low­ing up.

“Fol­low­ing up is extreme­ly impor­tant,” says Woody Wilder, vice pres­i­dent of sales at Mura­ta Amer­i­c­as. ​“We’ll actu­al­ly have a series of meet­ings after EDS … and we’ll take those top­ics [from the meet­ings] and put them at the fore­front as the fol­low-up mechanism.”

The fol­low-up process begins atthe meet­ing, says Jeff May, pres­i­dent of Logix sales & mar­ket­ing. Give some­one on your team the respon­si­bil­i­ty of tak­ing notes and keep­ing track of action items and com­mit­ments,” he advis­es, ​“so that at the end of the next meet­ing, you’re not try­ing to remember.” 

Make sure every­one who was present is on the same page, says Mike Budd, Jr., vice pres­i­dent of Budd Mar­ket­ing Sys­tems. ​“Many times we’ll fol­low up with a quick 15 to 20 minute call, and make sure we all agree on the priorities.”

And final­ly, get back in con­tact with­in 30 days. When you fol­low up, good things are bound to follow.