B2B without the BS

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.