So many of us get our teams ready to go to ISTE each year but do you have your goal and reason you are going in mind and is it shared throughout your whole team? Our goal is very clear, to meet our existing clients and to meet with potential new ones. For companies that sell into the district, school or state level in education it is a huge opportunity to get in front of your customers and prospects. However, not preparing properly can dramatically decrease your ROI for attending this event.
- Set goals for the event: There are generally 3 reasons to attend ISTE; meet existing customers, meet potential future customers and learn more about the EdTech market. Setting goals such as meeting 5 existing customers, 6 potential new customers (actual decision makers) and attending 2 hot new topic discussions will ensure you are using your time and investment wisely. These goals should be set for each member of your team, not as a whole. For instance, if you have 4 people attending each person should have these goals met and meetings set prior to going.
- Set your schedule early on: If you are like us, your ISTE schedule has been getting filled for months already. Take the time to contact everyone up front that you are planning on meeting with and have a preliminary conversation prior to the in-person meeting. You want to use your time effectively while you are there not for an introductory meeting. Make sure your sales people know where your prospects are in the sales process and brief everyone who is at your booth, so if a hot prospect shows up your team is well informed of the stage of that prospect.
- Don’t go if you don’t meet your goals: If you have not met your meeting goals or if you have team members who don’t have a set number of qualified meetings set up, don’t go. It’s too big of an event to meet people by chance or to “hope” to run into the right prospects. Pulling out of an event at the last minute to make better use of your time and building your sales pipeline is nothing to be ashamed about.
We are heading to ISTE in San Antonio this year to meet clients, prospects, and candidates. If you are interested in meeting us and we don’t yet have an appointment please contact us, we look forward to meeting you.
