The Competitive Advantage

August 30, 2022

Networking at a Conference? You Can’t Just Show Up!

The Fall season of industry events is upon us… the ESOMAR Congress, TMRE, the Corporate Researchers Conference and others. And if you’re planning on attending any of these… ARE YOU READY? Attending a conference to learn – and, more importantly – to network, should not be taken lightly. So, to help you get the most from your investment of time and money, here are 18 conference networking tips…

February 26, 2020

Don’t Just Show Up! 19 Hacks for Conference Networking Success.

At this time of year, firms throughout our industry are gearing up for Spring conferences – Quirk’s, IIeX, Qual360, AAPOR, NEXT, plus scores of smaller regional and vertical events. They’re preparing to spend hundreds of man hours and thousands of dollars to send a couple of their key personnel to a few of these events to learn and network. Will it be worth? Often… it’s not.

So, to be sure you get maximum ROI from the conferences you’ll be attending, here are 19 hacks to help in your preparation:

July 18, 2017

The #1 Sales Activity You’re NOT Doing… or Doing Badly!

7 Ideas for Improving Your Follow-up Process

See if this sounds familiar… you attend a conference where you, once again, prove your ability as a networker. You meet a number of potential clients (a.k.a. “sales prospects”), have several solid conversations and collect a pocketful of business cards. All-in-all, not bad!

Then you return to the office and are diligent about sending out the “nice to meet you” emails as soon as you can. And then… crickets! No one responds or says they’re looking for a new vendor. At best, you get a few “nice to meet you, too” responses – but nothing more.

When that happens – and it always happens – what do you do?

May 23, 2017

How to Max Out Lead Generation for MR Firms

Fact: Not every ‘sales lead’ becomes a client.

But every client was – at one time – a sales lead. Can’t happen any other way! Sales leads are the lifeblood of growth for every MR organization. Generating (and qualifying) them should be a top-priority strategy for everyone involved in sales and marketing at your firm.

There are numerous ways to generate sales leads, but the two most effective ones in our industry are:

• Gated content
• Conference participation

March 8, 2016

Networking at a Conference… 8 Ways to be Awesome!

There are a bunch of conferences in our industry – TMRE, ESOMAR, Quirk’s, CASRO, MRA and more… not to mention all of the industry-specific ones. And even when you’re attending for just the education (not exhibiting… not sponsoring), networking at a conference can still be a remarkable marketing & sales opportunity for you and your firm.

As you get ready to attend your next event, consider these ideas to maximize your time there…

November 4, 2014

Why take that meeting? Because you never know…

I took a road trip to Atlanta last week… to make a few sales calls and spend some time with two of my remote employees. I also met with a couple of industry contacts (who I know only through LinkedIn) who would never be a client, a vendor or a partner.

So why bother? Why take a meeting and spend the time when there’s no “value” in it? Answer… because you never know!