Pt 3 – Following Up On Network Events

Most agencies do some form of networking either via particularly events that relate directly to their core business.

What most fail to do is the follow-up and specifically with those targets that you did not get an opportunity to talk to. I’ll also add at this point that even if you failed to go to an event the contact can still be made with the right approach.

So an example of a follow-up to an event attended – you have the list of attendees, you call up on the basis of having missed the opportunity of meeting. It could be you were sidelined by a time intensive individual that left you no room to engage with others. Pick up on this point with the target as well as adding your initial thoughts on the event itself – their thoughts, what value did they get from the event (if indeed they attended) – from these two areas you may well pick up on indirect buying signals – current pain etc.

On the event you did not attend – the same premise. You did not get an opportunity to meet but were keen to engage, similar approach re: thoughts on the event etc.

Now one other approach is the non-event. I know of one successful company who will purportedly express an interest in attending a B2B event as an example. They’ll question the organisers under the pretext of pre-qualifying the type of other attendees and 9 out of 10 times they’ll get an attendee list by the organiser, even just by name and company. They then turn around and say the event is not really relevant to them and then a few days after the event they’ll follow-up on the pre-text of having attended but missed the opportunity to meet with a relevant target. The important point here is to the homework before the call – make sure you have the insight into the key areas under discussion at the event. You only need one to throw into the initial introduction call which will either cement the call, warm it slightly or, in the event of your target having not been able to attend, even better – you’re following up having again missed them.

The important with all of these is be confident in your approach – the majority will be unaware of your attendance so you’ll need to know your facts on the event, whether you attended or not!

Thanks, as always, for reading.