“Working the booth” for your company at Dreamforce next week? Some things to keep in mind to ensure you’re a success.

Over the course of my sales career I’ve had some of the best times attending industry conferences and “working the booth”.  Some of the conferences I’ve been fortunate enough to attend include Dreamforce, Inbound, NIRI, CIRI, SCIP, SLA, Sales 2.0 and I could list about a dozen more. 

Working at these events is the best of both worlds. You are at a fun event with your work friends and you’re meeting hundreds of potential clients and planting the seeds for future conversations. 

Whether you are working at one of your first conferences or you’re a seasoned veteran, it’s easy to fall into some traps and not get the most out of your time at the conference.

Below are some tips and tricks to ensure you maximize your time in San Francisco next week. It would be great to hear some other words of advice from the conference veterans out there.

• It’s not about you. Your company is probably paying 6+ figures to have a presence at Dreamforce.   The goal is to create as many leads as possible for the company….not you.  Every conversation with a prospect or client should be as if they are yours even though a lot won’t be.
• Always be present. Stay off your smartphones and don’t make calls at your booth. Save that for your breaks.
• Have meaningful but tight conversations. For the times when you have massive amounts of people swarming by your booth. Look to engage with as many people as possible. Pick up on their cues and if it’s appropriate to have a deeper conversation, ask some qualifying questions and even do a brief overview demo but remember – you are not going to close anybody. Gauge level of interest and try to establish next steps. 
• Pass on the hot leads ASAP. Disclaimer – this is not a knock on marketing departments.  Some companies with limited marketing resources are not able to process a high volume of leads in a timely manner. So when you identify a hot lead, get their card or take a pic of their name badge and get it to the appropriate AE as soon as possible. 
• Don’t talk pricing.  I don’t think I need to elaborate on this one. 
• Network. Learn about other sponsor-companies. Meet other salespeople, leaders and CEO’s.  Meeting clients and prospects comes first. This kind of general networking should come next and spending time with your colleagues who you see every day should be third priority on this list.
• Nothing good happens after midnight. There are a lot of incredibly fun evening festivities. Have a blast but remember you have to get up early for booth duty. Don’t be that person who shows up late smelling like Jagermeister. I don’t want to scare anybody but there are always a few people who go home from a conference without their jobs because of bad decisions.
• Leave it all on the field. Do this not only because you want to maximize ROI for you and your company. But also remember that your senior leaders are there and they are observing who is super engaged and enthusiastic and who is distracted and not working as hard. This is your time to shine. Be your company’s Dreamforce MVP!