For Starters #25: On Attending Conferences and Other Events
TLDR; Don’t.
One of the key principles of demand-first development is, um, identifying demand. This means reaching out to new prospects every week. For Starters that don’t come from a sales background, the sheer volume and discipline of steady outreach, following up, and siren song of working on product can be overwhelming. That’s why we developed our Sales Pipeline For Starters offering - to get over the inertia and help you develop a steady outbound sales practice. Reply or book a time for more info.
Conference are like social media.
It’s unlikely your buyers are there.
Admittedly, I’ve hosted more conferences than I’ve attended, and the last conference I truly enjoyed was the 2017 HomebrewCon here in Minneapolis. It was a short drive from my house, so it was easy to bail when things got boring, and each session served a flight of beers relevant to the session’s content (e.g. historical recreations for the session on historical recreations). It was fun and purely entertainment.
On the other hand, I’ve friends that enthusiastically attend all kinds of professional conferences on a regular basis as part of their corporate job.
I’d like to repeat that: part of their corporate job.
In my book, there are only two reasons to go to a professional conference:
You’re presenting (no, panels don’t count).
You’re meeting with clients, as they all happen to be in one spot.
Both of these presume your clients attend.
For starters, there is no reason to pay the entrance fee and definitely no reason to pay for exhibition space. You can find a way to meet with your clients either way - e.g. coffee shop across the street or the main hotel lobby.
In either case, making a conference worth your time and money takes some preparation:
Calculate the Opportunity Cost. Compare this effort end-to-end, traveling, scheduling, everything - against your the next best alternative? Could you line up the same number of sales conversations without traveling to the conference? It might be that you could make the same progress without all the costs and inconvenience of traveling. Is what you really need is a weekend not thinking about your business - then book that instead. If you’re concerned about FOMO, know that it’s only effective on binary decisions - either this or not. As soon as there’s more than one good choice: this, that, or the other thing - FOMO is neutralized.
Figure out how many of your warm clients and prospects will be there. Do not commit to the event until that number hits double digits. This is not a time for cold outreach. This is for follow-up conversations with people you haven’t been able to meet in person yet, it’s simply the wrong context to start a relationship, too much distraction.
Schedule time with your clients. Yes, I know, it’s a conference and there’s a million other things going on. All the same, if they won’t schedule time with you or if they wave their hands with some vague, ‘we’ll find a time when we’re there’. Don’t go. It’s not going to happen.
I’ve heard in some industries there are specific annual conferences where everyone to sign next years contracts. By all means, if you’re at that stage with a prospect and they’re expecting to sign the contract at the conference - go, sign, win.
But that’s not every industry, nor is it every conference.
Know why you’re there - and have a deliberate plan.
No two events are the same - the last year’s Must Attend Conference may not be happening again this year, or the formats has changed, or any number of things could have shifted in the industry so that it’s not longer Must Attend, and it could be that your buyers aren’t there anymore. Instead, they’re on vacation with their family that week.