Thanks for sharing your experience and for your thoughtful response. It generally confirms my suspicions that these events, including a bit of over-selling by the operator, unrealistic expectations of many attendees, and lack of followup result in a lot spent that could be used more effectively pursuing leads in other ways.

I do hope we hear from other readers on this, too.

Ford Harding

I have some experience with “minor junkets”. Not the big, expensive, take them on a cruise types; but conferences funded by vendors where a condition of attending for attendees is to have a number of scheduled meetings with the vendors. As described in your post, the organisers did some matchmaking based on both attendee and vendor preferences.

My experience varied.

Some attendees were really interested in talking. Although they were rarely “hot” prospects, they genuinely had issues/needs and would have been potential buyers over a 6-18 month timeframe.

Many were just going through the motions because it was a condition of their free attendance. Having said that, a couple turned out to be reasonable introductions - we found areas of commonality and interest that could have led to work eventually.

Some were actually resentful of being “forced” to meet vendors. They hadn’t expected it and it had been badly communicated to them.

Overall, out of about 15 or so meetings I (or colleagues) had, none turned into actual sales. So we didn’t go to any more of those sort of events.

Having said that, I believe we had the wrong perception and approach. We went into the meetings looking for “hot prospects” (and to be fair to us, the organisers kind of gave that impression - “lots of attendees who really want to meet you…”). Had we thought about it we’d have realised that most would be in the very early stages of buying. Instead of treating it as a sales meeting and later not following up because the attendees had no immediate needs; we’d have used it as an opportunity to start up potentially valuable relationships. We’d have explored their business and challenges more broadly and have followed up with a campaign to nurture the relationships.

Whether these early stage relationships were worth the amount we paid for the conference I’m not sure. I suspect other lead generation methods could have generated similar or better leads for a lot smaller outlay of cash & time.

Ian

Transparency helps. My concern with lead junkets is the implication that buyers are there primarily to meet sellers, as opposed to, say, an association event, where that is always portrayed as a byproduct. Do buyers at these events actually buy from those who purchase those one-on-one meetings a significant percent of the time? Though I am sure there is no promise made, the implied link seems pretty blatant. Is the probability of a reasonable return worth the cost?

Thanks for the comment.

Ford Harding

All in how it’s handled and presented, and the time. Most annual Broker-Dealer conferences are sponsored largely by the venders (mutual fund, money & tax mgrs…) who often have a part in the program somewhere as well as their booth, break-out and hospitality suite. (I suppose it could all happen on a boat!) But it’s so blantantly out in the open you know what you’re getting before the fact. Some of it’s good info/stuff. I’d object only if its disguised as something else.

David