What to do when most attendees on a conference are vendors?
Missing lead generation opportunities
The goal of a conference or event is to encounter potential customers and get their attention in order to create interest in your products or solutions. The pure lead generation opportunity!
Have you ever been to events or conferences where most of the attendees are vendors too?
Thus for every potential client there are at least two vendors.
Competition is fierce just to get talking to one (none vendor) attendee.
Moreover these people don’t want to talk to yet another vendor as they are attending the conference for the speakers and to meet colleagues from other companies.
Thus you find yourself stuck for one or two days on this conference far away from the office and home!
What do you do during the conference?
- Socialize with the other sales people in order to find out if there are opportunities for a better job?
- Brag and boast about your gadgets (iPhone) and company car to impress the other salespeople?
- Play games on your mobile until your battery runs out?
- Call your wife several times until she hangs up as you are complaining too much?
- Chat with the much too young hostesses for your age?
- Write Tweets (Twitter) on your mobile about conferences where most attendees are vendors?
- Run away? Going shopping or site seeing.
- Get drunk in the bar of the hotel?
These are all egocentric actions: me, myself and I.
Probably not so good for your image in your industry.
Use the lost 2-day conference time by:
- Make the best out of the situation by trying to speak to some of the attendees?
- Ask intelligent questions at the end of each presentation stating clearly your company name?
- Steal the attendees list from the registration desk when nobody is watching?
- Calling upon customers and prospects?
- Socialize with the other vendors in order to get into partnerships?
- Chat with the other vendors in order to find out about their business?
- Calling colleagues in the office in order to find out if you can help?
- Prepare email replies on your off-line portable computer?
- Reply emails on your portable computer using wifi paying for the connection?
- Composing and editing quotations you had planned to make over the next weekend?
- Take the next plane back home (on your expenses)?
These are actions for the benefit of your business.
Are conferences still worth attending for lead generation?
How many of these overpopulated vendor conferences do you attend each year?
What do you do on such an event?
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Good point and good choices: one should always give “Chat with the much too young hostesses for your age?” a try
Okay straight now: I attend 3-4 events a year for lead generation.
If it is definitely a “no potential customers” event, i will leave as soon as possible. This happens but not very often anymore, because i prepare my spend-time-on-events better than in my earlier days.
@Gerold Braun: we must admit, we do chat with the hostesses too.