How To Generate Leads From Your Business Event

In our previous blog post, we discussed how to organise a quality B2B event. Now, we’re here to talk about what should happen during and after your event to help you generate a healthy number of leads with the potential of turning them into clients eventually. It’s no easy task, but with careful planning, you’re in a position to succeed!

Plan ahead

Planning how to follow up on potential leads before your event takes place is essential. Make sure you and your team know how to carry this strategy out on the day and after. Data collection is vital so that you can further understand and therefore engage with your audience. This can be done with a brief registration form that asks for relevant information.

The key word here is relevant. You don’t want to bore event attendees with endless questions barely relevant to the business transaction you eventually wish to conduct. On the other hand, it’s a busy world we live in, so don’t waste the little time you have.

Manage that time well

Of equal importance is connecting with people both during and after the event. Potential clients are more likely to want to conduct business with you if you can engage them in ways your competitors cannot. The point here is that your actual business is only part of the deal; the rest is how you package it and how much of a connection you create with them.

That doesn’t mean spending the duration of the event getting to know one person. Manage your time effectively by asking the right questions, such as what attracted them to the event in the first place or what they would love to discuss with a particular guest speaker. Added to that, make sure you’re targeting the ones who have buying power.

Here’s the problem…

Guests at the event all have business problems; some they might be aware of, others maybe not. Your company offers the solution. So, the plan is simple; make them aware of the problem, help them understand it, and then engage in conversation about how your company can solve the issue or issues. And by engage, we mean really engage.

Bringing emotion into the fold changes you from someone looking to make a sale into a real person, a human being looking to help another human being in a manner that benefits both parties. No need for a tear-shedding tribute, but if you can show how you helped a previous client in a similar situation is always helpful. Now that you’ve set yourself apart from your rivals, it’s time for the final step.

Follow it up

Some leads might be engaged enough that they’ll need little convincing to get in touch with you; this means they either knew of you or require your services urgently. So get right into it and see about setting up a meeting. Others might need more time to get to know you and your company, so you’ll need to express the benefits and value of them having a business relationship with you. Give them time to process the information and access to set up a meeting, but don’t leave it up to them to reach out to you. Finally, get in touch if you feel the lead going cold and restart the conversation.

How can we help you?

Humble though we are, we’re also aware of our position as industry experts, so let us help you! We’ve got a wealth of experience organising events in various fields, so don’t hesitate to get in touch with us and see precisely what we can do for you.