The Truth About Business Development at Conferences

The Truth About Business Development at Conferences

Kelly Kennedy: Welcome to episode 57 of the business development podcast. And if you've ever wondered, how do we handle conferences? How do we market conferences? How do we do it if we're exhibiting? How do we do it if we're just attending today? I'm going to cover it all. Stay tuned.

Intro: The Great Mark Cuban once said business happens over years and years. Value is measured in the total upside of a business relationship, not by how much you squeezed out in any one deal. And we couldn't agree more. This is the business development podcast based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, and broadcasting to the world. You'll get expert business development, advice, tips, and experiences.

And you'll hear interviews with business owners, CEOs. And business development reps, you'll get actionable advice on how to grow business. Brought to you by Capital Business Development, CapitalBD.ca. Let's do it. Welcome to the Business Development Podcast, and now your expert host, Kelly Kennedy.

Kelly Kennedy: Hello, welcome to episode 57 of the Business Development Podcast.

Today we have an interesting topic that once again, I've neglected a little bit because I had to think about it. It's one of those ones that's not necessarily an easy one. There's two sides to it. There's two opinions and I've been on both sides. So it's a fun one. We're gonna explore it today. Before we get into today's topic, though, I want to just give a little show update.

We had a really cool thing happen just yesterday, actually. I was checking in on our metrics to see how our show is coming along, and Wow, we had a crazy update. So, it looked like there was a bit of a glitch with our Spotify updates to our hosting platform, which is CoHost. Shout out to CoHost in Canada.

And Yeah, we had a bank error in our favor, and that's always fun. It's not really a bank error, but monopoly phrase. We had about 12, 000 downloads added to our total listenership, which was on backlog with Spotify. They had a little error. Yeah, a little, but really cool. I thought that we were just approaching our 60, 000 downloads, Mark.

We have actually surpassed 70, 000 downloads to be accurate. We're at 71, 250 as of this morning. So super, super cool blows my mind. I did the average, right? We've been around for six months that averages to just about 12 thousand downloads per month on average of the business development podcast. So if you're wondering how this show is going, it's going amazing.

And I just want to thank you so much for tuning in week over week to my, my lovely business development podcast listeners. I know that there's a lot of you have been with us right from the beginning. And I really appreciate you. And I appreciate all of the effort that you guys have done to spread the word and share the show.

We really can't do it without you. And it's just so cool that we have hit that in such a little period of time. Just to give you a heads up as well. We. Slowly, but just about approaching our first thousand subscribers. So that's crazy. Like so cool. If you have subscribed to this show, I appreciate you so much.

Thank you for doing that. Thank you. If you've left us a rating or left us a review, I appreciate it immensely. And if you're just getting the show for the first time, if you enjoy it, would really appreciate it. If you would follow us on Spotify, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen, it just helps us to basically change the algorithm a little bit and, and recommend more people to our show.

So once again, if you're. If you're enjoying this show, please follow us, like, subscribe, rate, helps us grow this thing. Tell your friends, family, colleagues, we appreciate it greatly. Well, let's get into it. What is this crazy topic that I'm getting into? Well, you'll know because the show topic will probably be somewhat relevant to it.

And I've probably introduced it a little bit better. But today we are chatting about business development at conferences. Yep, I know. It's one that I've neglected a little bit. I've had a lot of questions regarding it. I've actually addressed some questions on the Community Questions episodes regarding conferences, but you know what?

It deserves its own show. It's a big thing. All businesses are doing them. And I don't even know if they understand why or what they're getting from it. And it's so funny, because I've seen this on multiple levels. Not just with small companies, but with big companies too. They do it just to do it. And you know what?

That's fine, but understand your reasons behind it. So I'm going to take a business development aspect, look at this for you today. And I'm talking to my business owners who go to conferences, who, who maybe buy gigantic booth packages, and maybe you're spending 20, 000 to attend a conference every year.

Let's chat a little bit about it. I'm going to go over what the benefits are basically how to do business development at a conference. What the benefits are to different things and what you're getting and then you can weigh it out and decide in the future is this for us or is there maybe some better ways?

Well, I think we'll definitely open up a little bit of light to what's happening at these conferences. But by the end, I think you'll be able to make a pretty educated decision and at least be better planning before you hop into conferences. Okay? All right. So what are conferences? Well, you know, I'm talking to my business development people, my entrepreneurs, but if you've never been to a conference like the global energy show, which is Canada's gigantic oil and gas show, it's worldwide.

We have people from all over the world come to Calgary for this thing. They're crazy. They are absolutely nuts. There's like, there's probably 10, 000, 20, 000 or more people attend these conferences. It's absolutely nuts. This one that we have in Calgary every year. They have, you know, they have an out, they have outdoor booths, they have different pavilions.

They have the whole indoors, like multi levels filled up with companies exhibiting their, their, their services and products. So big booths, lots of business development, people attending these booths you know, essentially introducing products, talking to a lot of people they end up being a big show and they draw a lot of people.

The challenge with them is this, they don't always draw the right people. Sometimes they just draw people that are literally just there because they want something to do for that day. And we don't really think about that. I think when we're, when we're buying conference booths or when we're attending well, not, not so much on the attending side, but when we're buying conference booths, we're really thinking, okay, you know what?

Our potential customers are going to come through here. They're going to see our booth. They're going to love it. And yes, while that is true and it does happen, they are like a fraction, a very small fraction of the amount of people at these shows. Okay. So conferences can be a great opportunity to find new leads when done correctly.

And you do not need to exhibit at a conference to have effective business development. So this is a little bit of a misconception. We are technically attending conferences from a business development standpoint. I guarantee you we're charging it to advertising materials and it should be, but a conference, especially if you're attending as an exhibitor, Is more passive than an active marketing strategy.

Hear me out on this. I get that this is probably going to get a little bit of flack. It's passive because you were setting up a booth. Sure. Alongside with a lot of other companies doing the same thing. And there's a lot of people coming along, which you may say, well, I'm talking to them. It's active. Sure.

Okay. It's active. However, The amount of people walking by your booth that actually can buy your product or service or care about your product or service is probably 1%, and that might even be high, probably 1% of the amount of people attending the exhibition can buy your product or service or, or, or will potentially buy your product or service.

Okay. So. While this may be different at certain ones, at certain, maybe it's a little bit skewed a little higher in different industries. For most of the industries that I've worked in, industrial, oil, gas, that sort of thing, this is literally the truth. It's, it's such a small amount of people that could actually buy your product or service.

So, what does that mean for your business development people sitting in their booth? It means that probably 98% of the time they spend talking to people is 100% fruitless. 100% fruitless. It is, it is a advertising campaign. It is a, it is a passive strategy. It's no better than like a LinkedIn or or any other type of ad campaign, like a billboard or something like that.

It's kind of like a gigantic in person billboard. Really, which, yeah, while it's awesome, it's really great for brand recognition, it really draws interest in what you're doing. And I am not saying don't exhibit. I'm not saying that. What I'm, what I'm going to tell you later on is pick your reasons and make sure your reasons are the right reasons.

And if they're not, there's maybe a better way. Okay. Like, is a conference passive or active marketing? It's actually both. It has the ability to be both. But you have to make a deliberate decision to make it active. Okay? You have to be deliberate. So, just being there, and exhibiting, and having a booth, and handing out brochures, and goodies, and swag to every Joe Blow that walks by your booth is not active marketing.

It's not. It's just not. You're, you're basically giving away most of your swag. To people that are just there to trick or treat. I literally heard that term just this year and I laughed. I found it really funny that they were called trick or treaters. But there's a lot of people that are attending a conference for nothing more than the swag that companies are handing out.

They have no intention to buy anything. They probably don't even represent a business. They're literally there just to grab all the free shit that companies are handing out at these conferences. And when you think about that, I really want you to think about this as a business owner, okay? If this is your company, Is that how you intend to distribute your marketing material?

Is that, is that the right application? Because probably 98% of the time, that's what's happening. That is what's happening with your swag. It's not going to people who are necessarily going to buy it, or I can even buy it, or maybe even have anything to do with your industry, or maybe even have a business at all.

And you have to think about that. Okay. That's a real deal thing. These conferences are awesome. They bring lots of people. They're exciting. There's lots of stuff going on, but understand that. On the marketing side, if you're hoping to recoup your money, if your goal, if you've spent 20, 000 exhibiting at a gigantic conference, you bought a big ol booth, right?

Maybe, maybe you only need one new customer to justify that, maybe. And if that's the case, maybe it is worth it. However, you're still rolling the dice. The odds are much greater that you never recoup your money off of this conference, okay? That's a much greater odds. So, you have to think about it. If you are going to exhibit.

At a conference, you need to think about it like a billboard. You know, you may or may not make money from it. It may or may not have a benefit to your business. It might be really great from like an advertising perspective. You might be able to get some new people, inform some new people who you are. You know, what's the big problem all companies have?

No one knows who you are. So that this is great. If you're using a conference in order to create brand recognition, which is what passive strategies are for amazing. If that's your goal when you went into this conference was, you know what? I want to educate the world about who XYZ company is. And I think this is a great way to do it.

100% do it, do it. You're, you have the right goal in mind. There may be some other, other, other avenues to get active marketing. And I'm going to teach you as we go down this line. But understand, it's very unlikely you are going to recoup your money from a conference attendance. Okay, it's just very unlikely.

It just is what it is. You may, you may not. Once again, it depends on your size of business, depends how many customers you need in order to justify that cost. But understand that probably 1% or less is the amount of people at that conference that can actually buy your product or service or that will buy your product or service.

Okay, so if it's 1%, You may or may not even talk to them that day. Like that's, that's just the truth. They may or may not even come by your booth and you don't know that. You just, you can't weigh it out. And so it's a passive marketing strategy. You're not really, you're waiting for them to come to you. And you guys know how I feel about that, right?

If we're waiting for them to come to you, you got to get them on their worst day. You know, it's, it's, there's just, there's too many variables. You're asking them for too much. And this is even true at a conference or a trade show. Okay. So understand. That if you are exhibiting and you have your BD people sitting in there, handing out brochures and talking to people and talking to everyone and introducing the company as it goes by, that's what it is.

It's passive marketing. At the end of the day, you're just informing a bunch of people who you are and what you do. It's not necessarily going to turn into any sale. And even if it does, you know what, you know, don't buy a lottery ticket that day because you probably just used all your luck for that day.

Right. All right. So, but attending can be active, depending on how you do it. Yes, okay, I'm gonna flip this around, I'm gonna make this better for you. Trust me, all these conferences you guys host are just going to, they're going to become more profitable for you, okay? So, hopefully you're hosting a conference at a place, That or, or sorry, not you're hosting a conference, but you are, you have a booth at a conference or at a trade show where you also have other customers.

This is a great Avenue. You could pick trade shows to exhibit at that, you know, a higher number of your customers will be at. Once again, this is pre planning. This is really thinking about, okay, I'm not just, I'm not just exhibiting in, in this this say like mechanical sector with a whole bunch of other mechanical companies.

Maybe I'm the only mechanical company in a sector full of customers. That's another way that you can think about this and be more strategic about how you're going to exhibit at a conference and potentially get a better return on investment. Okay. So being strategic, maybe not necessarily exhibiting in an area with a whole bunch of your competitors, but exhibiting.

in an area with a whole bunch of potential customers is actually a better, a better idea. And you know what? You see it everywhere. Whenever you go to these conferences, you have like 10 to 15 different competitors all in the same space. And it's like, okay, that's great. But how do you stand out? Right.

Okay. If you're competing for 1% of the customers in that area, and now there's 10 other competitors at that same trade show, how do you stand out? You have to really think about it that way, because. You're just not going to. It's the odds are heavy, heavy against you. And so, you know, in business and anything we do in business, we have to stack the odds in our favor.

And we can do that with some creative planning ahead of time. So what, just one thing to think about, maybe instead of exhibiting at the, at the latest mechanical services show, what we're exhibiting at is the latest oil and gas show, or or truck show, right? Where, where you could be the mechanical service person at a gigantic truck show with a whole bunch of truck exhibitors.

Now you've just set yourself up because everybody else in that area can buy your product or service and has a need for it. So you've thought about it, you've set yourself up, you're in a better place for success. What else can we do? Okay, most of the time when you're at a conference like this, you've probably put your best business development people or your best account management people in those booths, right?

You're putting people who can really talk about the product or service, they have a really good idea what it is, they can build connections, they can set up meetings after. But instead of having them just sit and man your booth, okay? Instead of just having them sit there and man your booth, send them out.

Send them out into the show, leave one of them behind, send the rest of them out into the show, and strategically target... All the different rows and all the different companies that are there. And I'm not saying market to them, okay? This is, this is the misconception. What I'm, what I'm saying is, have them go out, find companies that you could potentially do business with, that are on your potential target list, and just have them ask, Hey, do you guys have a contact for someone I can reach out to after the show?

We do this and I think we can help. Can you guys just give me a contact and most of the time they'll say, yeah, absolutely give me your business card and I will give you a business card for our SCM director or I'll give you a business card for purchasing or I'll give you a business card for our operations director.

This is amazing and this is how you need to target trade shows. Okay, this is the way. This is the best way to target trade shows. If you are looking to grow business from a trade show, this is how you do it. I'm giving it all away. You need to get out of from your booth, or come as an attendee, right? And you need to bring some business cards of your own, and you need to walk around, and be very, very strategic, right?

Be very strategic about how you go through a conference, okay? I used to be able to go through a conference like the oil and gas show in two hours and probably do more business than 90% of the companies that we're exhibiting. I kid you not. And this is why, because what I would do, I would walk around and I would introduce myself to potential booths, drop and grab business cards, just, just give them a quick blurb.

I'm Kelly. I'm with XYZ company. We're marketing, or we, we provide this service or we sell this. I think it could be really useful to your business. Do you mind just giving me the contact information for. The SCM director, give me the contact information for the operations director. And I'll just reach out to him like next week when this conference is done.

These people are so willing to do this because they get bullshit all day long. They have people come by and ask them about their booth. When you come by and you're like, look, I'm here for a reason. I think I can help you. I don't want to waste your time. Just give me the contact for the person and I'm going to leave.

They are so likely to just give you the contact that you want. Not only that 90% of them have brought the business cards for the right people in these cases to the show. So you are actually getting the correct business card for the right person at the at the business that you're trying to target.

It's amazing. It works really well. And you do this very strategically, right? So you basically want to, you want to walk up and down all of the rows. You don't want to miss anything. So, you know, you can walk into a trade show and you can, you know, walk in some crazy fashion, however you want. They're, they're really huge usually.

And they're organized kind of wonky, but typically they have lanes. Okay. Typically they have full lanes that go the whole length of the conference show. And what you need to do. is you need to walk every single lane. So what I used to do is I'd walk all the way down one, look at all the potential businesses, see which ones meet my criteria for the company I'm working with or your company or whatever you're trying to market.

And then strike up a conversation, a really quick one with the ones that you think will be valid. You know what I mean? Just introduce yourself, introduce the company and just say, look, you know, I'm not trying to bug you today. I just, I'd like to get the right contact in your business to reach out to after the show.

If you mind giving me a card, they will either give you a name card, and they'll most likely take your card as well. These are all very beneficial things. And so we do this, we go through every single lane in the show, and believe it or not, when done strategically, you can do this in a few hours. Not a whole day, not two days, not three days, not five days.

hours, hours and get more value than most of the people exhibiting at the trade show. Think about that. It's really the, it's really the people attending that are doing it strategically, that are getting the most value from these trade shows. Okay. So another thing that you need to do at every one of these shows, right?

There's always, there's always. You know, keynote speeches going on. Typically they're, they're paid like you have to pay to attend. However, once again, if we, if we don't care about that, if what we care about is, is finding new companies to work with or, or new potential targets, heck just grab the magazine that every single one of these shows, they publish a magazine.

It usually has like the schedule of everything going on, all the keynotes, attending what times they speak at. However, it gives you all the keynotes who they are, what their position is, what company they work for. My gosh, it's like, it's like a perfect target list. That's just handed to you for free for, well, not for free, but for like the, the very cheap fee that you pay to attend the conference.

Okay. So you take these back with you as well. And now you have this gigantic target list of people that you can just do a digital introduction to. Ask them for who in the company that you may want to speak with. Once again, you're just, you're setting yourself up for the win without having to pay that gigantic fee to attend the trade show.

Do you know what I'm saying? To, to, to be a vendor or to, or to have a booth. But those are the people really getting the most value from these shows. That's really the truth. Right? So, okay. So. The magazines have great keynotes or they list the keynotes and then from there we can target them later. So make sure that you always grab the magazine whenever you go to one of these trade shows.

Grab the magazine, bring it back with you because that's going to help you down the line with other people you may want to connect with, okay? The secret obviously is to be strategic. We have to be strategic. I talk about this in everything we do in business development. You have to have a plan. You have to have a process.

You have to have a strategy. If you sit and think about what is the outcome. Most people attend trade shows like this. Hey, John, do you want to come attend the trade show with us? We have a booth set up. Would you mind just like manning it with us? Yeah, that'd be awesome. That sounds great. It sounds like a vacation.

That's literally what they're thinking. They're thinking, great. I'm going to get two or three days off work and I'm to sit in this booth and just talk to people and drink coffee and shoot the shit. And that's going to be that. But there's no strategy in that. They're not thinking the real value here is all the other exhibitors and potential customers for your business that are there, and they're not necessarily going to just walk by your booth.

So if you were going to be strategic about it, you need to actively target all of the potential customers. At the trade show at the conference, you have to actually go and connect with them. Like I said, I'm not saying sell there. Absolutely not. Absolutely not. The conference is not the place. It is not the place.

You know what? Like it's really a waste of your time, in my opinion, to really try to build a connection there because most likely. The people that are attending are just other business development people. They're not people that are really going to be able to help you all that much. And even if they are, their mind is somewhere else.

They're not in the game at the trade show. They're not there. They're thinking about like, Oh my gosh, I got to talk to like 1000 people today. Like they just want the day to be over. Okay, they really do. The people attending the booths at these conferences, just like by the time the day is done, they just want to be out.

It's a lot of work. It's mentally draining. There's a million people. It's, it's a tough situation. And so what I want you to do is don't sell. Don't do your pitch. Just introduce yourself. Introduce the company. Say, look, I think, I think, you know, I may have something good for you guys later. Do you mind if I just grab a business card and reach out after the show?

Yeah, they're going to give you the business card. They're going to let you reach out after the show. And if you were being strategic like this. It's going to work. What we want to do before we get to the show is we want to really think about what do we want from this conference, right? Is it to identify new players?

Is it to learn about the industry? Is it brand recognition? Is it new contacts? Is it potential sales? What, what do we want? And if there's certain things that we want, we have to sit down and put down a game plan on how we're going to get them because they're not going to walk to your booth. Mark my words.

They are not going to walk to your booth, throw down their money and say, I want everything you got. It's just not what happens. It isn't what happens. Okay. If you want success from a trade show or a conference, you need to go get it. You know what I mean? This is, this is no different than anything else I teach you guys in business development.

If you want something to happen, you need to make it happen. If you want, if you want a meeting, you got to ask for it. If you want a business card, you got to ask for it. If you want a new, a new opportunity at the end of this conference, you need to ask for it. For it's not going to just present itself to your doorstep.

That's not how they work. Okay. If the goal is brand recognition and brand recognition is the main thing that you're hoping for, you know, maybe that is, and that is a valid reason. Okay. That is a valid reason to attend a trade show. That is a valid reason. To to host a big booth and spend 20 grand at a trade show.

Okay. Because heck, maybe you are a new company and you're trying to break in with these big dogs and they got all the money in the world to attend these trade shows. And maybe you don't, but maybe being at that trade show gives future customers or other people a perspective. Oh, there's a new player in town.

Yeah. That's a good reason. That's a really good reason. Understand you're probably not going to recoup your 20, 000. However, that 20, 000 was allocated to advertising. You did what you needed to do. You advertised and believe me, that is a great reason to attend a trade show. But if the goal is to hopefully milk a whole bunch of new business from it.

It's, it doesn't tend to go that way unless you are being active about it. Unless your strategy is to go around and find potential customers, find potential customers at the show. You need to go find them because they're not, it's very unlikely. They're going to just walk by your booth and be psyched to buy your product.

Okay. That's just, it's not how it tends to work. Okay. So if you are exhibiting, know a few things, okay. This is a passive brand recognition play. It is unlikely to recoup the costs. Many of the people. will have nothing to do with the products or service you sell. Okay? Many, many, many people attending the conference cannot buy your product or service, or have zero need for your product or service, or may or may not even have a business at all.

They might just be trick or treating, grabbing some product some, you know, some, some swag, right? So, understand that it's very unlikely. Make sure that you ask for business cards from all potential leads. So in the event that somebody does come by your booth and they're like, yeah, Hey, you know what? I think we have a need for this.

Yeah, they're there. That's your 1%. He showed up, she showed up, right? If they show up, don't just let them walk away. Introduce yourself, pitch your product, give them a business card, ask them for a business card. And please. Please, please follow up with these people. Once again, they're doing a job. They're there, they're, they're on business and they're probably talking to, if they are actually there buying things at this conference, very likely they're talking to 20 other competitors, 5, 10 other competitors and probably like 20 or 30 other companies.

Okay. So very, very critical that you are following up with them after the show and quickly, if the show ends on a Friday, make sure you're following up on Monday. Okay. All right. Go explore the show. And do some active marketing, right? Do some active marketing for later follow up. You need to, even if you're exhibiting at the show, you need to take yourself away from the booth.

You need to walk the lines, just like I've said to all the people that are attending. And do the same thing, and find the companies that are relevant, find the ones that can work, introduce yourself, give them a business card, ask them for someone that you can follow up with, tell them what you do, and make sure that you're following up with them later.

Add them to your new leads and your pipe drives, and away we go. But remember, you're not, they're not typically going to just come to your booth and give you their card and say, I can't wait to talk to you, you need to go find them. So even if you're exhibiting, even if you're paying for a booth, leave the booth.

Make sure you do the whole round. Talk to everybody at the conference that could potentially buy your product or service. Get the right contacts, and follow up with them after the show. Take great photos and videos for future marketing needs, okay? Okay, you've spent 20, 000, okay? You've spent 20 grand, maybe.

Doing this gigantic booth setup at the largest show for your industry. My god, don't waste that. Please don't waste that. Take videos. Take pictures. You know, have little interviews with your staff, use it, use it. How often are you in a situation like that? That's just packed full of people that you can use for a great, a great video, a great picture, a great post.

Use the crap out of it. Do not waste that opportunity. Take lots of photos, take lots of videos. You can always edit them later. You can collage them later. You can do all sorts of crap. Just make sure that you're taking lots of media during this day. Maybe even interview some, some potential customers, if you can like find ways to make the most of this, because remember, you're probably not going to recoup that money.

So if you can't recoup that money, find the added benefit that you can get from this. Find the added benefit. It's there. Be creative. You'll find it. Use socials to drive attendance to your booth. Okay. So this is the other side. If you're, if you're going to be exhibiting at a booth, you need to draw as many potential customers as you can.

You should be paying for a passive marketing strategy. This is one of the cases that I 100% advocate for a passive marketing strategy. If you are going to be attending a trade show, you should be boosting posts for probably two to three weeks before the show to really Garner interest attention, shoot a wide net out to let people know you're going to be there and they can come see you.

They can come talk to you in person. They can learn more about your product or service. We can increase those odds. You know, maybe it's 2% or 3% of people because of that work, but maybe that two or 3% is that customer that you need to pay this whole thing off. And that's the other side of it, right? There are ways that we can increase attendance.

And socials are a great way to try to do this. Okay, so let's make sure that we are using our socials to the best effect that we can. And this is a really great use for them. Okay. All right. If you are attending, if you are just attending the show, you're not exhibiting. You're just coming as a visitor. Or a guest, okay?

But you're, you're coming as a BD person. You're going to do some marketing. Great, great, great. This is probably the best way to attend any trade show and I really mean this. If, if, if you are having sending BD people to trade shows, this is what they need to be doing. They, it's not a, it's not a relaxed day and I'm sorry.

I, I know I'm speaking to my BD and marketing people who are like, damn it, Kelly. Damn it. Guys, it's not a relaxed day. It's not. Okay. This is a work day. It's a work day. Okay. And I know, I know it can seem like, Oh, like this could be fun. And it can be, don't get me wrong. It can be. We can, we can find ways to incorporate some fun into this day.

But remember, first and foremost, we're there to generate leads. We're there to learn. We're there to find potentially new prospects. Okay, so let's be strategic. Let's be strategic, right? Let's have a plan. Let's decide. Okay, I'm going to, I'm going to walk through every single booth. I'm going to find all of them.

I'm going to talk to all the people and I'm going to leave here with hopefully 15 to 20 new business cards. Let's be strategic. Let's set some goals. Let's try to figure out how to do it. Okay. So strategize your walkthrough. So you don't miss anything. That's number one. You don't want to miss anything. So, you know, understand the layout of this place.

Understand if there's, if there's exhibits in different halls. If there's exhibits outside, if there's maybe another building, try to understand the layout so you don't miss anything and then strategize your walkthrough so that we are, we are, we're checking out every single business opportunity because you just don't know which one or where the ones you need are going to be laid out.

Okay. Bring business cards and marketing materials. So this is for my exhibitors. Okay, and and this one or sorry This is for my attendees not my exhibitors my my attendees Okay, bring business cards, but also bring marketing materials and I get this because I've been on both sides exhibitors Hate this but but I'm sorry my exhibitors that I'm speaking to as attendees us leaving brochures with you is actually a good idea.

It, I'm sorry, it's just effective. So, you can hate on me a little bit, because I know I've been on the receiving end of this. I've been on the, I've been marketed to you while I'm an exhibitor, so I get it. But understand that, like, if they want to just leave a brochure, if they're doing it politely and kindly, it's not a big deal, and fast.

Like, they're not going to take too much of your time. The secret to doing this right is to be fast. Just be deliberate. Just let them know, Hey, I'm with XYZ company. We have products or services that I think you guys might need. Do you mind if I just grab the right contact? And do you mind if I leave this business card in this brochure?

If you could just get it to them, that'd be awesome. That's it. That's that's all the conversation needs to be. It can be really fast. It doesn't have to be a crazy long interaction, but if you're doing this, right, you can talk to a lot of people. You can leave a lot of marketing material at potential prospects, and this is actually a good idea.

Okay. So make sure that if we are just attending the trade show as business development people and we're marketing to it, we bring business cards and marketing materials, not just business cards. Okay. Grab the show magazine and schedule for later. Remember, this is a follow up list. This is a list of potential potential targets for down the line.

Okay. All the people that are attending the conference, all the people that are keynote speaking. They're typically great people to reach out to and make an introduction. They're pretty high level at most of the businesses they work at. And even if they won't help you directly, you can always ask them for advice on who they, who, who they could recommend you to, and you would be surprised how many of them are more than willing to help you.

So. Make sure that you're grabbing the, the show magazine that exhibit that shows you all of the exhibitors, all the companies exhibiting, and then potentially all the keynote speakers. Very beneficial for later. Okay. So make sure that you're grabbing the show magazine and schedule. Remember to not pitch at the show.

Okay. Ask the booth for who you can reach out to regarding your product or service. Okay. Don't pitch them. Don't pitch them as a show. They don't care at the show. They don't care. They don't care. I know, they're talking to way too many people, there's too much going on. Even if they did care, they would forget you.

It doesn't matter. Don't pitch them at the show. Grab the contacts for the right people, follow up after the show, and start your process. Start your introduction process. But, you don't want to do it at the show. Take as little of the exhibitor's time as you can. That's a respect thing, guys. It's a respect thing.

Take as little of the exhibitor's time as you can. You know, thank them. Immensely for any help they provide and move on because your job there today is to collect as many new business cards that you can reach out to as possible. It's not to make new friends at the booths. Okay, just trust me. Just get it done.

Get in, get out,

market later. So right like today is about leads. Today is about leads. Market later. You can mark it at the end. But right now, just get as many business cards as you can. And reach out after the show. Okay. And remember, this is not a break. Be strategic. You are working. This is a great opportunity if you use it correctly.

If you actively market this show, you are going to come away with benefits. If you passively market this show, you're going to come away with brand recognition and hopefully not too much of a hit to your pocketbook. But understand that your goals, depending on what they are, require a different strategy.

Just attending the trade show as an exhibitor is not a good enough strategy. It's not. It's very unlikely to recoup your costs. If the goal is to get more sales, this is not the way to do it. If you are going to exhibit at the show and you want brand recognition, and you want to gain some new customers, make sure that you are sending, make sure that you're sending your BD reps out around the show to do what I'm telling and what I'm saying to do for all the attendees.

Okay. If they take the same approach, you're going to get the benefit of not only passive recognition. And brand recognition at the booth of at your booth at the show. But you're also going to get the benefits of the active marketing around the show. So, there are ways to make this work, right? There are ways to make it work.

But you need to be deliberate and make great choices regarding it. This has been... Episode 57 of the business development podcast. Thank you so much for tuning in with us today. If you've enjoyed the show, please rate, follow, subscribe on your platform of choice. And until next time, we will catch you on the flip side.

Outro: This has been The Business Development Podcast with Kelly Kennedy. Kelly has 15 years in. Sales and business development experience within the Alberta oil and gas industry and founded his own business development firm in 2020. His passion and his specialization is in customer relationship generation and business development. The show is brought to you by Capital Business Development, your business development specialists.

For more, we invite you to the website at www.capitalbd.ca. See you next time on the business development podcast.