Effectively prospecting at conferences.
Conference season is in full swing! You may have attended Dreamforce, Inbound, Afrotech, etc!
Conferences uniquely pose the opportunity for an organic drive-by that you can’t really re-create without thousands of people mulling around the booths and attending sessions. With so many people, how do you maximize the opportunity to get in front of the right prospects and network like a pro?
If you’ve ever watched Silicon Valley, there is a great scene in the first season when the team is at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference. Jared comes in with a huge stack of papers with images and bios that he has printed out on every conference participant so the team knows who to talk to. Dinesh then takes out his phone, points it at a random attendee and pulls up all relevant information about them.
The scene points to an important best practice which is: figure out who is attending, who is worth your time, and use that info to open up a discussion.
How do you do this?
- Download the attendee list from the conference ahead of time
- Reach out to your clients that will be attending to set up time with their leadership
- Identify target companies that fit your ICP that aren’t your existing clients and identify your top prospects at each based on buying persona
- Look up their LinkedIn, social, company website
- Save their photo and a few key notes about them - including any community groups they may be part of
- Reach out ahead of time and ask if you can take them for coffee or stop by the booth
- Stage a drive-by and stop by their booth to say hello
- Host “office hours” - let anyone you reach out to know that you’ll be by the Starbucks on the 2nd floor from 10-12 and you’d love for them to stop by
- Identify key happy hours or parties your targets will be attending and attend - use the research you did ahead of time to open up discussion in groups. Go have fun!
Be targeted, be informed, and put yourself out there! The worst thing they’ll tell you is that they have to run to a conference session, and you can offer to walk them there.
🤝 Supporting others as you network 🤝
It can be really enticing in these moments of connection to jump straight into your pitch, don’t fall into this trap!
Focus on points of commonality and personal connection first. Really listen and see if there are ways that you can support the person standing across from you.
Networking should be at least 70% listening to see how you can support (not sell to) the person you’re talking to! It’ll build the foundation for a stronger sales relationship down the line.
✨ AI Magic ✨
Are you attending a million conferences and don’t know where to start? What sessions should you choose? Try asking Claude.ai for recommendations.
Use the prompt: I am a (company) (role) attending (conference). Which sessions should I attend to (goals).
For example: “I am an AI tech founder attending Dreamforce. Which sessions should I attend to learn more about AI?”
✉ Share, share, share! ✉
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Originally posted on ReveNews Sales blog. You can subscribe here!
