Treat the event as a moving discovery session. Your job is to find the right people, earn a useful conversation, learn whether there is a fit, and leave with a reason to continue. The event floor is only one route. Most good prospects do not appear on the trade show floor.1 Qualified prospects are most likely to be found in sessions focused on your area of interest.2 Research before arrival, seek out the people you came to meet, and use each conversation to decide whether a later meeting is worth scheduling.
Before you arrive
Preparation gives you a route and a reason for each approach. Keep it short enough to use in person, and let what you learn change your route.
Book several meetings before the conference starts.3 Research the prospective client before the meeting.4 Look into the prospect's background, industry, challenges, and needs before you walk in.5 Careful prospecting and pre-event homework can make the introduction and subsequent conversation easier than they were at past events.6
For each planned conversation, write down what you want to learn and what in the event gives you a natural opening. Have a reason to approach, a question to open the discussion, and a view of what would make follow-up worthwhile.
Find the right people
Plan your route around places where likely prospects gather. A session, a speaker area, or a conversation with event staff can give you a better opening than waiting for people to pass.
Floor hunting is in-person prospecting.7 Attend speaker sessions to meet the prospects there.8 Speakers, organizers, and panelists are often available before an event begins, giving you a chance to speak with well-informed and well-connected people.9 Event workers who are receptive may introduce you to people at the event.10 Seek prospects out instead of hoping the right person appears in front of you.11
When you find someone who fits your target, approach while the event context is still useful. Mention the session, topic, or reason you expected to find them there, then ask a question that lets them explain why they came.
Start the conversation
Make the opening easy to answer and connected to the event. Give the other person room to explain why they are there before deciding where the conversation goes.
The first greeting and initial words exchanged help establish trust and credibility.12 Ask: "Why did you personally want to attend this conference?".13 People who are asked why they personally attended tend to bring up their company and why the conference suited it.14
Follow that answer into their interests. Engaging the other person about their interests helps set up productive follow-up during the event.15 If the answer is brief, ask what they hoped to learn, meet, or solve while they were there. Move on when they give you something specific enough to explore.
Run discovery
Once someone engages, let the conversation widen before narrowing it toward fit. Listen for a problem worth another conversation and a reason your solution could belong in it.
Ask questions, let people discuss themselves and their businesses, and use the exchange to assess whether they could be a good customer.16 Use the conversation to understand their high-priority problem and whether your solution is a good fit.17 At any point in the sales cycle, understand what the prospect needs to believe to move to the next buying stage.18
Then decide whether to keep exploring or move toward the next discussion. If the problem is vague or its priority is unclear, keep exploring. If the problem is clear and the fit looks plausible, shift toward the next discussion. Use the first meeting to establish fit before trying to sell the solution.19
Do not rush to fill silence with your own explanation. The useful signal is what they choose to talk about, how specifically they describe the problem, and whether they make room for a further conversation.
Earn the next meeting
A good event conversation should end with a clear decision about what happens next. Make the next step proportional to what you learned and easy for the other person to accept.
Before asking for more time, make sure the prospect can see that you may solve a high-priority problem and that you are a credible person and company to discuss it with further.20 If they appear to be a good fit, make a later appointment for a more detailed discussion.21 Book the prospect into the next meeting.22
Use that later meeting to show enough of the product for the prospect to believe it may solve the problem.23 At the event, explain what the next discussion will cover and confirm the agreed time before you separate. If the fit is absent, close the conversation without forcing a meeting.
What not to do
- Attendance alone does not amount to prospecting.24
- An interaction that looks like a sales attempt may make people shut down after they have been pitched throughout the day.25
- Come prepared, and wait to offer opinions until you have heard enough from the other person.26
- Presenting observations as insights often makes them less effective.27
- A few substantive observations do more work than many superficial ones.28