by Jim Cantrell, President & CEO, SSD
 Conferences are an excellent place to network and gather market and competitive intelligence. Where can you find a better concentration of decision makers and key players in your industry than at an industry conference? You will typically find in attendance, presidents, CEO’s, marketing directors and department managers. These are your customers, your team members, and your competitors. These company decision makers are walking the hallways! What more could you ask for except for more than the 24 hours allotted per day?
It has been our experience in our practice that the best conference networking opportunities exist in two environments: in the exhibition halls and at social events. Both of these situations offer unparalleled opportunities to meet those people who are “in the buying mood” or who are “in the selling mood” – or simply others who are looking for business opportunities as buyers or sellers.
The exhibition halls offer you an opportunity to visit the booths of various companies and interact directly with their marketing staff and often the company executives. This peer to peer environment is far superior to making new contacts than visiting individual company offices. Think of the exhibition hall as an open-house of all the exhibiting companies opening their offices on the same day. When thought of this way, the exhibits are practically a “candy store” for those in new business. When visiting booths make sure to introduce yourself, hand out your card and find out what the company is doing. You will be surprised that such conversation starters lead to items of mutual interest and people that are known to both parties. Not assuming much about the companies and asking questions of the booth personnel opens up new business leads. If you want to be successful in business development, you must become a master at working the exhibition halls.
The social events represent less structured but still highly effective networking opportunities. The largest temptation for most people in these situations will be to wander through these events looking for people they know. The experienced and successful business development professional, on the other hand, sees this environment as a way to meet new people that don’t presently exist in their network and to develop relationships on a more personal basis. These events typically result in more granular networking opportunities but occasionally develop some terrific business leads and invaluable connections.
When you are networking with other professionals, remember that all social networks have rules. It is incumbent on you to develop an understanding of what those rules are and to stick by them. In business development, several rules are common: always expect to give up information to receive information, phoniness only begets phoniness from others, and the advantage goes to the one who asks questions and listens. The last point is perhaps a very important tip that many people have not learned or forget easily. It is essential to remember that you are learning nothing when you are talking. People love to tell you all about themselves and their company; your job is to listen to them and glean the information that leads to new business opportunities.
Conferences are also a terrific place for gathering market intelligence and competitive intelligence. Again since many of your competitors and customers will be attending this conference, news of new opportunities will flow quickly as will relevant competitive intelligence that might be of value to you. In our practice, we always make a sweep of the booths to collect any literature that is available for later cataloging and assimilating into competitive intelligence databases.
Conferences are an unparalleled opportunity to meet like-minded people in your industry. If you are a business development professional, this is your “hunting ground” and attending these events will be imperative. Use these events wisely and make good on your attendance by investing as much time as available to meet new people at social events and in the exhibition halls. The dividends will be many new high quality leads and a vastly expanded professional network. |
