By Max Klietmann, VP of Marketing, LSN
September marks the beginning of the life science industry conference season. Conferences can be a phenomenal way to generate customer leads, source investor prospects, and discover strategic partners. However, oftentimes these events are heavily underutilized from a marketer’s perspective, minimizing the potential value of participating. This article is intended to serve as a primer, highlighting some strategies that will increase the value to be drawn from the conference and make these events worth your while.
Do your homework – It is never wise to go in blind – Weeks in advance, you should invest some time and energy in finding out exactly who is going to be attending the event and identifying your top targets. This will help you navigate networking sessions more effectively, and will help you cut through the noise.
Begin your networking before the conference – A well-executed outbound marketing campaign in the weeks leading up to the event will allow you to start a dialogue and “come in warm.” Follow up with your hottest prospects on the phone as well, so that they already know you when you see them at the event. This is especially true for partnering conferences, where your meetings are under time pressure. Having started a dialogue beforehand allows the meeting to start with “As we discussed last time…” rather than “Hello, allow me to introduce my firm…”
Stay organized – Collect as many business cards as possible and take diligent notes. Things will begin to blur in your mind around meeting 25, but being able to recall that your meeting partner’s kids just started second grade in your follow-up emails and calls will keep you personable and will help to build a relationship quickly. Make sure you have a quality CRM to get this information logged as soon as you are back in the office.
Follow-up – The end of the conference marks the beginning of the most important task – follow-up, follow-up, follow-up. No matter how well you did your legwork or how many meetings you scheduled, it is all for naught unless you invest in diligent follow-up. An excellent dialogue can go cold quickly if it isn’t maintained. The most important question to ask at the end of every conversation is “what’s the next step & how do we get there fastest?”
These guidelines should help you be more productive in your conferences this season, and increase the value-per-dollar of participating in these events. Remember, a one day conference requires three weeks of pre-planning and over a month of follow-up, so plan accordingly. Now get out there!
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