It’s the week after the huge annual trade show—the opportunity for you and the rest of your industry to showcase your companies and to rollout your latest, greatest blow-the-competition-out-of-the-water product offerings. Unfortunately, instead of having a working model to demonstrate—to wow the thousands of visitors—all your sales force had were a bunch of conceptual drawings, some high-gloss brochures and the ubiquitous key chains to hand out. The sales reps spent three exhausting days giving their spiel about this really cool gizmo that will be available in four weeks. Meanwhile, the competitors on all sides had every dancing, spinning, sparkling, oozing whirly-gig known to man chattering away in adjacent booths, making your company look like the sorriest entry at the local science fair. They were taking orders while you were collecting business cards. Adding to the pain is the fact that tens of thousands of dollars have been expended in travel, accommodations, fees, etc., and that has all gone for naught.

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