One of my clients has had great success attracting new clients by attending industry conferences and trade shows. These give him a chance to get his company’s services out there in a short time period, thereby enabling him to attract new clients. (He can also check out his competitors, which is a bonus!)

My client lets me know when there is a big industry conference coming up that he wants to attend. I then check out whether it is financially worth it for him to go as an attendee, speaker, or exhibitor.

To answer the question, “What are the potential returns?”, I delve into previous year’s exhibitor lists – these can be obtained from the conference organizers and can also usually be found online. The conference would normally charge a few hundred dollars for the list around the time of a conference, but a year later, they are happy to pass it on. This list contains a lot of valuable information.

I scroll through list, which can be as long as 2,000 attendees, and I pick out those companies with whom we are already working. These are the companies my client will definitely want to “catch up” with at the conference. I also look for companies that my client would love to make initial contact with.

If there is a lot of potential (meaning if there are a lot of companies we want to meet with), my client then considers taking a small space – even just a table and a chair. Also, my client considers taking a colleague, so while he mans the stall, getting people’s reactions to our service and taking down contact details, my client can do the critical networking, taking on the important initial ‘chat’ and following up with current clients to see if there are ‘any other business’ needs they may have.

Since my client is confident, we offer him to be a speaker. The speakers get wonderful advertising and can talk to a large audience in one go, getting the company message across to the ‘masses’. (But be sure if you go this route, you can speak well, your presentation looks great (get your VA to work on this with you!), it is interesting, captivating and you have rehearsed it well!!).

Further pre-conference preparation includes prioritizing prospects and pre-arranging networking opportunities through meetings, breakfast, lunches and dinners. The more meetings set up in advance I can do, the happier my client is, knowing he has secured face to face time with some great potential customers.

During the conference, my client can go on to collect 100+ new contacts which he faxes to me. I then create a spreadsheet and database with these contacts. I then follow up with each customer by email, sending over a copy of our company materials and asking to make a short appointment with the contact and my client. This gets the ball rolling ‘while the iron is still hot’ and works very well, as it has lead to some wonderful new business opportunities.

By working closely together throughout the year and knowing about my client’s business, current customers and potential customers, I’m able to take a lot of the preparation and follow-up workload off him. This helps him to free his time up for his sales pitches which then ensures that his conference opportunities result in new clients!

MORE ABOUT JACKI

Jacki has been a top-level executive assistant for 20 years. She spent nearly 6 years working for the top lawyer at Goldman Sachs and has since worked for a variety of businesses, both in-person and virtually.