B2B without the BS

How to Be a Big Fish, Part Two

Posted by Robert Bell under Events

Did your last trade show or conference make you feel like a small fish in a big pond?  If so, you’re not alone.  More and more companies are expressing frustration with exhibiting at big shows and are finding it more cost-effective to produce their own summits and workshops for customers and prospects.  They aren’t abandoning the “must attend” shows entirely but are cutting back their presence and focusing on engaging directly with the people who can have the biggest impact on their business in the short-to-middle term.

From my point of view, it’s an inevitable outcome of globalization.  The pond really is getting bigger.  When marketing becomes global, it tends to favor companies that can operate on a global scale.  Fortunately, it also creates countless niches where smaller companies – meaning all those that are not multi-billion-dollar multinational conglomerates – can prosper.  They just have to avoid playing by the rules of the biggest fish.

If you choose to product your own event for customers and prospects, there are five key things to get right.  I talked about two of them last time.  Here are two more:

Mix business and pleasure
We have worked on events that started out as golf outings,  dinners and after-dinner booze-fests.  We have also produced straight half-day seminars starting with a quick cup of coffee.  Whatever the format, you need to strike a balance.  It took the invention of online social networking to remind us that we are social animals at heart, despite our best efforts at business discipline.  People will come to your event to learn but also to network, to gossip, and to relax just a bit.  Find a way to combine both in your event, by starting with a nice breakfast, ending with plated lunch or a cocktail reception or holding a pre-day sports fest.  Respect people’s valuable time – but don’t miss a chance to let them get to know you and each other.

Share the wealth
There’s no reason you have to bear all the costs or receive all the benefit of the event.  It will actually gain depth and interest if vendors and strategic partners serve as panelists and speakers.  And your bottom line will benefit if they contribute by sponsoring the program.  You have to design the program so that what they have to say fits into your message.  You also have to make sure they understand that self-promotion is not the goal, because it takes just one speaker droning on about how great his products or services are to ruin a workshop.  But approached properly, this is one of those situations where everybody really can win.  Your customers and prospects will benefit from different perspectives and expertise.  Your vendors and partners will benefit from the exposure.  You will have a more satisfied audience, build strong relationships with your vendors and partners, and save money.

How to Be a Big Fish, Part One

Posted by Robert Bell under Events

As they are preparing to leave for college, work or other adventure away from home, millions of young people each year receive the same words of wisdom.  “You have been a big fish in a small pond, my son (or daughter).  But now you are heading into a much bigger pond.  Don’t be surprised if you feel like a small fish for a while.”

For most of us, that small-fish feeling doesn’t go away.  If you really want to experience it, just book an exhibition booth at most industry trade shows.  Unless you are a multinational giant with a booth the size of a small city block, you feel minnow-size.  You look minnow-size.  You are one among hundreds, whereas the whole point of targeted B2B marketing is to be seen as one of a kind.

That’s why more and more companies, while continuing to go to the “must attend” shows, are going into show business for themselves.  They are producing summits for their customers and best prospects that focus on the burning issues in their particular sector of the business.  Rather than “mile-wide, inch-deep” engagement with their market, they are targeting the people who can have the biggest impact on their business in the next year, and creating an intimate opportunity to share knowledge and break bread.

Lots of companies are doing it, but as usual, not everyone is doing it well.  There are five key things to get right.  Here are two of them:

Make it about them, not you.
Your overall goal is to have guests walk away thinking how great you are.  But the quickest way to defeat that purpose is to focus on what your company does rather than on what your guests want, need or are worried about.  Forget a 15-minute overview of your products and services.  Feature a conversation with a satisfied user of one instead.  Don’t talk about benefits and features; discuss the three biggest problems and opportunities in the industry and tell the story of how your products and services helped a customer to address them.

Let them know this is not a sales pitch.
Your audience’s first assumption is that you want to get them into a room to sell them something.  (People always know us better than we think.)  Everything you do to market the event must counteract that assumption.  Invite customers to speak.  Get a recognized expert to keynote.  Publish a program that is long on issues and social events and short on telling your company’s story.