We've all sat in those boring sales presentations. The speakers, most often a sponsor of the event, gets up on stage and bores us with a series of detailed slides separated with a funny picture to try to try to regain our attention. And when the whole ordeal is over, up pops the speaker's LinkedIn profile with a URL, and the expectation that this boring process will generate sales leads at the conference.
This is push marketing at its worse, and yet it is still common practice around the world. It's a waste of time for the audience, speaker, and the ROI is negative. There must be a better way to build a sales funnel.
Pull, don't push, your customers
Consulting Director, Daniel Jewell, understands the challenge of creating an effective call to action at conferences. His firm, Chrome Consulting, is an Enterprise Content Management (ECM) firm focusing on supporting the digital transformation of organisations across Australia. Presentations are typically technical, involving jargon, and in terms of branding Daniel says that "it is difficult to differentiate from the competition". That was until he started using training as a sales tool.
"I might have, say, 40 or so audience members in any of my presentations at one time. The problem is, that I don't get a list of who is in attendance. They typically walk in from the exhibition floor, rather than formally enrolling. I don't know if I'm talking to customers with high buying intent, or even competitors. I'm therefore reluctant to share too much information, but at the same time, I don't want to miss an opportunity."
Daniel's conundrum is common. Excite potential customers while giving away your unique selling proposition is risky. In actual fact, all Daniel is trying to do is to trigger an initial interest, after which a more personal, and private conversation can be arranged, where needs identified and benefits discussed. "At the end of a presentation I used to 'push' my LinkedIn profile and email address onto the audience, hoping that they would reach out to me. I'd typically only get one to five percent of the audience's details. Switching to a training offer multiplied those numbers by a factor of ten!"
Now, rather than tell, tell, tell during a presentation Daniel runs a short training using the STEPE methodology. Since STEPE typically takes 60 minutes to complete, and his presentations are only 20 minutes, this requires the audience to complete the training via a self-paced learning URL link and QR code that Daniel shares at the end of his presentation. "The pulling effect of the STEPE method is awesome. I can get close to 50% of the audience registering to complete the class, even as they are still sitting in my presentation. Registration requires full name, email address and mobile number, so I've got the opportunity to follow up with these warm leads immediately."
Using reciprocity to quickly build relationships
There's no secret that using the STEPE method in what is typically a selfish presentation, can build reciprocity with the audience. And often it's more than just back scratching. The Chinese expression, 'Provide a drop, return a spring' highlights that an initial act of generosity can be returned ten fold. Such is the power of STEPE.
To learn more about how to include the STEPE method to generate sales leads at your upcoming conference reach out by clicking here.