KingofGIF

In-person conference attendance MasterClass by Savages?

I'm gonna start attending a bunch of in-person conferences soon.

During my remote sales career, I've only attended a handful of these with no success for me (or the company, although marketing said it was only for brand awareness that cannot be measured speech). Unlike my sales process skills, I've never spent time going out of my way to better this aspect, and this is day 1 for me, asking seasoned fellow savages for help.

Could Y'all please pour all of your knowledge here? What has worked for you, do's and dont's, etc.

I'll first attend a tech startup conference type and then will go on to attend some more enterprise-focused. I got a lot of dumb questions, like what to wear, what to do, what's the post-conference outreach, and so on.

XOXO,

🎈 Mentorship

🤝 Networking

👥 Social Selling

13 comments

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E_Money

Big Shot

💰

Do: Take advantage of any open bar events and grab all the company swag you can from booths. Double dip on both when possible.

Don't: Not do that

KingofGIF

Politicker

assigment understoond

CuriousFox

WR Officer

🦊

This pretty much sums it up. 🥂

TennisandSales

Politicker

Head Of Sales

This kind of depends on what you are trying to accomplish.
Will you be stuck at the booth the whole time?

Able to walk the floor?

Do you have to attend sessions and shit?

Normally for in person events I have gone to I do a few things:
1. see who is giving away the coolest swag and snag some.

2. find the best after parties and hit those up

3. Connect with any prospect of mine and try to put a face to a name if I havnt yet. (if your able to grab a coffee or a beer, do that but keep it casual. no business unless they bring it up)

4. work on your pitch. You will get a chance to answer "So what do you guys do?" a bunch of times. try out a few different answers and see what works the best. Take that and use it in cold calls going forward.

Also make sure to max out the amount of money your company will give you on food and drinks.

✌️

DungeonsNDemos

Big Shot

Rolling 20's all day

This is legit. And remember to reach out to prospects that you know will be attending BEFORE the event (if at all possible).

braintank

Politicker

Enterprise Account Executive

Do you have a booth, or just prowling the floor?

KingofGIF

Politicker

The first one I'll just be prowling, the following ones will have a booth

braintank

Politicker

Enterprise Account Executive

Prep work helps in both scenarios.

If you're prowling, have a list of people you want to bump into. Find the speaking engagements your prospects are most likely to attend. Or if your prospect is speaking, think up a really good question to ask them. I've had 100% hit rate following up with execs saying "I was the person who asked about xyz, can we talk more?"

Also find a good spot to meet up with people and email them in advance. For example -- Are you going to XYZ conference? Let's meet at the Starbucks across the street.

When you have a booth, don't be afraid to leave to attend events where prospects hang out.

Sunbunny31

Politicker

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

Prep work is key, as you are going to want to target appropriate contacts and prospects. Nothing worse than being buttonholed by some rando who isn't a buyer or brings nothing of value and will hinder your networking.

Cruise by the competition's booths and look for what is/is not working with regard to messaging, set up, etc. See who's interested, and if you somehow bump into those contacts later on, you can find out if they are serious buyers or not. Have business cards handy; they're stale and outdated, but less intrusive than fumbling for phones on the spot while juggling drinks/snacks and swag, and haven't died out just yet.

Pachacuti

Politicker

They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy

You're trying to network more/better at conferences? I like to leverage meals for this. I find an open seat amongst people I don't know, while making sure their badges are those of potential clients, and take a seat. Best way to get to know people is over a meal.

I also try to get a list of attendees, ID 5-10 I want/need to meet, and hunt them down.

Blackwargreymon

Politicker

MDR

This kind of depends on what you are trying to accomplish.
Will you be stuck at the booth the whole time

1nbatopshotfan

Politicker

Sales

Tempting as it may be, you’re not closing deals at 2am. Go to bed.

(I have literally never followed this advice and look like a corpse after the first day)

Error32

Politicker

ISR

Yeah I think you're making a mountain our of a mole hill here.

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KingofGIF

In-person conference attendance MasterClass by Savages?

13 comments

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