The bigger you are, the bigger your tradeshows could be. Whether these are events you organize yourself or you’re a high-profile regular of major industry conferences, it can harder to simplify your participation.
This can make a tall order out of your telemarketing campaign if it’s still been your primary means of business communication all these years. That’s not to say telemarketing is dead (when integrated in a larger multi-channel strategy, it hardly is). It’s just that the events themselves could be far more complicated to discuss in a single phone call/conversation.
One obvious indicator is the fact that the event itself has its own work-life balance.
Take Dreamforce for example. On one hand, you’ve got keynotes featuring the C.E.O. Marc Benioff and another with Hillary Clinton. But on the other hand, you’ve got Bruno Mars and Will.i.am. It’s easy to see that this event is not just about a Silicon Valley superstar nor is it just about the other guest stars. It incorporates both and more. All of which, they do for one very obvious reason: Attendees are people.
You can have the most relevant sales pitch and a powerful keynote presentation. But if you ignore the humanity of your target audience, none of that will ever matter. The work-life balance really has a way of getting you to reflect on the human side of business. Events only magnify this and your telemarketing campaign needs to tackle this before anything else:
- What is the main draw of your value proposition? - Don’t think that every pain point your product addresses is ‘just business.’There’s always a personal element hiding behind their reasons for working with you. A prospect wants a promotion or to improve bottom line. These might sound ambitious (selfish even) but it can guide you on making a more authentic pitch.
- What else is there? – The second step to acknowledging the humanity of your prospects is to go beyond the main agenda. Everything from the city you’re in or what kind of venue can be like icing to you main event. Use them. ( Case in point: Modern Marketing Experience Europe just put up this handy blog on London attractions because that’s where the conference is.)
- What else can you accommodate? – You don’t exactly have to pay for your attendees hotel expenses. However, the main point here is that you have to be more accommodating beyond just what your business provides. If you’re going to mention food, don’t try to set it aside as something trivial. Have some class! If you want your audience to be most receptive to whatever you want to present, you’ve got to set the mood for it!
The work-life balance is just one way to understand the multi-faceted subject of event marketing. However, if you’re telemarketing campaign struggles to pack it all into one script, don’t. Break it down. If your prospects ask about the venue, make that the subject. If they ask about a keynote speaker, focus on that. Like any telemarketing strategy, you handle it best by remembering that you’re talking to a person.
