Have you been successful doing it? What's a non-creepy way to engage? During breaks when people are eating? Get the attendee list and send or call? You would need a pretty good hook right? Attend sessions and take notes on questions they are asking?

Juancallclose

Director

Catalyst

Opinionated

Valued Contributor

Going to trade show/conference without a booth?

Have you been successful doing it? What's a non-creepy way to engage?

During breaks when people are eating?
Get the attendee list and send or call? You would need a pretty good hook right?
Attend sessions and take notes on questions they are asking?

🔎 Prospecting

15 comments

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oldcloser

Arsonist

💀

You're an attendee. Assessing competition. "What do you think of that thing?" Face to face prospecting and they can't hang up or delete you. It's a beautiful thing. Lock and load. Can be successful if you work the hell out of the room.

Maximas

Tycoon

Senior Sales Executive

Definitely, I second this!

oldcloser

Arsonist

💀

You're always first to second.

Maximas

Tycoon

Senior Sales Executive

Lol, always love to endorse good work, keep it up and you'll always find my support :)

Pachacuti

Politicker

They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy

Hit the sessions which are most applicable to your solution. Sit by someone you’re either stalking or don’t know and strike up a conversation.

Sit at lunch with strangers, not others from your company.

If you know certain prospects are going to be attending, make appts with them in advance. Invite them to lunch or coffee or something.

Look at the speakers list and target them as well.

Gyro25

Notorious Answer

Account Executive

Conferences are still one of the best places to prospect regardless of whether you're an attendee, exhibitor or organizer. Set a # of leads for yourself on your phone, make brief notes on each conversation(Hot,cold, lukewarm, PMF) and aggressively follow up after.

Some of the best success I've had in person is doing that. Attened sessions where your buyers are and mingle.

CPTAmerica

Opinionated

President/CRO

All that you've listed will work. Sit at busy tables during coffee/meal breaks and just introduce yourself. If you're going with someone else, split up at those times to maximize the chance of meeting an ideal prospect.

Reach out ahead of the show to your target prospects and let them know you'll be there and ask for a meet up.

Try to find the sessions that are more interactive. Typically round table type sessions where you actually interact with the folks you're sitting next to during the session.

DON'T get hammered and waste an entire show day hungover. Save that for the last night.

FinanceEngineer

Politicker

Sr Director, sales and partnerships

What do you mean, engage? Usually there is an app where you can message in it. You can also use the name and company and try LinkedIn. I also like to swing by booths of those I’m looking to connect with and having a chat there.

Sunbunny31

Politicker

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

Do you have an attendee list? Have you aligned it with your prospect list? That’s how you set up meetings in advance. Do you have partners attending and manning a booth? Let them know you’re there so they can direct prospects to you.

Sidle up to ransom people, eyeball their badge, use one of your favorite pick up lines. If it fails spectacularly, make sure you let them know who you are: name of a competitor’s employee.

Juancallclose

Catalyst

Director

Love this! Also, is it ransom or random? Both can work I think!!

Sunbunny31

Politicker

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

I was going to say random, but I’ll own my typo.

Juancallclose

Catalyst

Director

I like it!

pirate

Big Shot

🦜☠️ Account Executive

Sounds like an idea!

JustGonnaSendIt

Politicker

Burn Towns, Get Money

I have done this several times.

Most important thing is to pre-set as many meetings as possible. "Hey, I'm going to be out at this conference, saw you were too, would love to meet and get your opinion on X while we're there"

Always sit with different people. At Breakfast, at Lunch, at Dinner. Strike up conversations with everyone. Ask what they're there to learn about.

If there are any speakers you would really like to meet with, attend their session. Take notes. Come up with questions about their material that lead in the direction of what you'd like to discuss. Try to talk to them after their session (many speakers will stick around and let folks come up to talk to them post-session in the transition period).

If you can't meet with them at the conference, follow up after. "I was at your session at X Conference. Y was a very interesting point. I'm curious what you think about Z - Could we find a time to meet and discuss?"

Ctralt

Fire Starter

AE (Account Executive)

Be genuinely curious. Attend sessions that are relevant to your product/space or relevant to a talk track that you might have and then make conversation with both the attendees and presenters afterwards.

It will eventually naturally come out in a conversation what you do/who you are and now you’ve tied it to something they were obviously interested in while at that session.

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Juancallclose

Going to trade show/conference without a booth?

15 comments

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