Events – Customer, Prospect, Visitor or Host?

 

I have been fortunate enough to attend a few informal face-to-face events recently launching new offices, a new product and a new service. Such things were commonplace before the pandemic as they are a very effective way of producing business opportunities.

However, it would appear that we may have forgotten why we hold such events.

Generally, we take the time and incur the cost to put on such events because we expect to produce some business opportunities and a return on our investment.

Recognising that, we should plan these events with this in mind which means that as a minimum we should include:

1. A register of expected arrivals so that we can review this later and follow up on those that attended and those that registered but couldn’t make it.
2. Provide legible name badges, colour coded. so we can see who are existing customers, who are the prospective customers, who are visitors outside those categories e.g. suppliers, and who are co-hosts.

This enables the hosts to ensure they spend time with the right people and the guests to know who is there representing the hosts.

This used to be standard practice when informal face-to-face events were the norm but I fear best practice has been forgotten as a result of being in the doldrums of the pandemic and being compelled to use video for ‘events’.

Best practice often emerges as the solution to many of the discussions we have at Pabasso boards.

Events cost money so make sure you do your best to get a return on that investment!