Three Ways to Get A Good Seat
Salesopedia is featuring my article Three Ways to Get A Good Seat on their home page this week.
We’ve all done it. We’ve gone to a networking event to rub elbows with prospective clients. When it comes time to sit down for the meal, we know we will be spending at least an hour with the people to our left and right at the table. This is more time than we will spend with anyone else, and we want them to be worthwhile contacts, in other words, prospective clients. But there are a lot of hangers on in attendance, all trying to get the coveted seats next to these same clients. If we leave it to chance, there is a strong probability that instead of a prospective client we will be sitting with hangers on.
March 12th, 2008 at 9:09 pm
Some other basic strategies:
- Review the attendee list as soon as you get it, and identify your top targets; pick a realistic number that you can meet during the conference, and develop a strategy to meet all of them
- Research those targets, particularly as it relates to timely (and positive!) events: alliance signing, big client wins, involvement in associations, etc…execs will probably be involved in some if not all of those issues.
- Seek out the conference organizer or director early in the conference and schmooze him or her….get them to point out the key speakers and panelists for you early on, so you can make a beeline for them during the lunch, or hopefully in the halls during networking periods.
- Notice people who seem to be working on presentations in the halls, at tables, or even in the conference sessions themselves. Pay particular attention just before the keynote session, or when the plenary panel convenes; these speakers (and their peers) are often executives and are hard pressed to fit the conference (and prep for their presentations) into their schedules (I have met a number of keynote speakers this way; just before they were going on stage).
And finally….not a lot of people enjoy the rubber chicken dinners at most conferences, so if you are discouraged, head to the hotel’s restaurant or a well known restaurant nearby and take your chances….there will probably be a like-minded conference attendee and potential contact that will welcome a lunch mate….
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March 14th, 2008 at 9:08 pm
Thank you, Scott. These are all good suggestions.
Ford