4 common mistakes when attending B2B events

Over the past 16 years I have been fortunate enough to run multiple events, from 3 day summits, tailored dinner’s to virtual events. During this time I have witnessed the good, the bad and the ugly.

Heading into 2023, many marketers may face pressures to slash budgets in midst of the economic crises. That being said, Barbie Mattie (VP and Principal Analyst) from Forrester, explains the merits of disciplined “spend money to make money” approach, and not to hold back as this could hinder long term competitiveness.

Purse strings might be tighter this year, so it’s even more important to make the most out of each investment. Whether it’s a spend in content marketing, webinars, SEO or attending events, the importance of getting it right is paramount.

I have shared a few experiences on some common mistakes when attending events, from a sponsorship side, and what you could do help drive success pre-event.

1. Not knowing your audience well enough

Its crazy the amount of times I have been asked by sponsor attendee's (on the day of the event), "who is attending from a delegate side"?

For each event you choose to sponsor, as a company, you will have access, pre-event, to see what company, persona, executive names and titles you'll be meeting and networking with during the event itself. In some cases you will also have insight into their challenges, focuses and needs.

Best practises to get to know your audience (pre-event):

• Take the time to research into each attendee – LinkedIn profile, LinkedIn post, articles they might have written. Connect with them on LinkedIn, if not already connected. Depending on what type of event it is, i.e. a conference, mention you are also attending the same event and would be great to grab a coffee. This is a great way to get some meetings pre-arranged whilst at the event itself.

• Research into the companies that are attending. Look at any recent articles they have posted, or news stories. This can help you to spark conversations with their attendees at the event, and help you identify if there is a selling opportunity pre-event.

• Once you have done the above, categorise your priority list of executives you have to meet during the event. This will help you structure your time at the event itself, and make sure you are giving yourself the best possible chances for positive outcomes. There is no point wasting your time with companies/ executives who have no interest in your services.

2. Overselling

I think all of us can relate at one point in our lives that we have been ‘hard sold’ too, or at least they have tried to hard sell you. I have seen this time and time again at different events, and it's one of the biggest mistakes people make.

No one wants a product or service rammed down their throat in this day and age. It may have worked 10/15 years ago, but it won’t now and hasn’t for a long time.

Each event is different in how they run i.e. how many attendees vs sponsors are there, format etc. But one thing is constant - when you are speaking to a prospect, you are speaking to another human. We all know people buy from people, which is why it's so important to build a relationship with your prospects during the event.

If you have done your research correctly, pre-event, then you know they are looking into your solution. So take the time to build a relationship and don’t even talk about your company until prompted and, trust me, they will ask if you get them ‘liking you’ from the off.

3. Post event follow ups:

Your post event follow ups are crucial to ensuring you are gaining as much success from attending the event.

What not to do:

• Leave it over a week to reach out to the delegates you met with
• Pass their contact details onto a colleague, who didn’t meet that person, to reach out to.
• Start selling straight away.
• Not reach out at all (sounds obvious, but I have seen this happen previously).

What to do:

• Reach out the to the delegate within 48 hours of the event.
• Thank them for their time, and touch on a personal aspect from your meeting with them.
• Touch on their pain point, which was hopefully covered in your meeting at the event.
• After a few interactions (back and forth) via email, see if they would be keen to arrange a follow up.

It’s so important to engage with your prospects post event. The benefit from meeting them in person is that you have a personal relationship with them, to some degree. Lean on this and help guide them through their pain points which, hopefully, you will have a solution for.

4. Aligning Sales and Marketing:

Marketeers and sales executives tend to have the same business objectives when attending events, but how they are executed are sometimes very different.

The idea of nurturing a prospect to guide them to a business outcome, is mostly more favourable from a marketing side. Where, on the sales side, It can be to get around as many people as possible and ‘spread the net’, so to speak.

I deal with marketers mostly pre-event, but I am a salesman at heart. It’s been really interesting to learn what their business objectives are for each type of event. There are the obvious ones such as MQL’s, brand recognition, pipeline etc, but sometimes some more subtle ones, such as researching into their target audience, understand the market in more detail.

Whatever your business objectives might be when attending events, it’s absolutely imperative to align Marketing’s objectives to the sales objectives - this will drive more success for you as a company!

Summary

There are many more aspects to look at whilst attending events, and I have only highlighted a few. I think, in this day and age, event companies (like my own) provide you with so much insight to the companies and executives joining, that you can get the most amount of value out of each event, and make each event a success.

I’d love to know if you experienced any other ‘mistakes’ in the comments below or, alternatively, if you would like to have a chat about our experience on ‘best practises’, please reach out - it would be great to chat!

Tom Roberts

CEO

Kinetic Alliance Ltd