A few weeks ago, we blogged about “1 Beer, LinkedIn, 12 Meetings”, demonstrating the success of using Social Selling to drive prospective meetings. SAP TechEd has come-and-gone, but our client’s success has only begun. Our SAP VAR client came home with 1 extremely hot multi-million dollar opportunity, 14 scheduled meetings booked, and 85 follow-ups, all from our Social Selling – Lead Generation program.
How did our client build so much buzz at SAP TechEd? What did they do differently?
1. They understood to correlation between Social Connections online and Social Connections in-person
Let’s face it, you go to a tradeshow to learn, and HAVE FUN. This is an opportunity to learn from the best, and meet the best. LinkedIn is the absolute perfect marriage between education, connection and fun. Our client understood that by using LinkedIn rather than email to drive a call-to-action, they would have a great % chance to attract the right prospects.
2. They attacked SAP TechEd with a game plan
We had a plan 3 weeks before the event. We developed a 2x touch-point pre-event messages, multiple messages during the event, and 1x post follow-up message. We used the attendee list for SAP TechEd to identified key prospects we’d like to target. Using LinkedIn Profile Organizer, we saved these prospects so we could find them again.
3. We hit the campaign trail HARD
Using the above game plan, we executed the multi-touch approach effectively. We can’t talk enough about how important multi-touch campaigns are.
4. We drove a real call-to-action, worthy of getting noticed
This was the magic sauce – the call-to-action was genius. It wasn’t to a booth to get your free t-shirt, or maybe win an iPad. The call-to-action was to grab a drink at the bar NEXT to the booth, and talk shop. This is why people attend trade shows, to learn from you WITH a beer in hand.
5. We did a daily multi-touch program throughout the week
Every day while prospects were walking the trade show floor, they were also receiving new messages from us to check out (X, Y, Z). Each prospect would take what they were seeing and relate that to their new LinkedIn message.
6. We turned #SAPTechEd Twitter Jumbotron at the event into our own personal billboard
Twitter has really found its voice at trade shows. Thousands of prospects are using the event Hashtag to communicate at the event. All messages were displayed on a massive screen on the trade show floor. We were able to push great quips and thoughtful insight onto the message board to drive traffic to the booth.
We are doing post-event Social follow-up on hot topics
During the event, our client learned valuable insight about what’s important to the market. What do you think we’ll use for our post messages as a trigger event??? You guessed it, these hot topics to drive next steps.
Looking for more information?
If you don’t want to be left behind the 8 ball – you need to start to take action. The following dozen blog posts on utilizing social selling strategies and LinkedIn can help you start but if you are looking for some hidden gems on how you can attract a very specific prospect, I recommend you check out – 42 LinkedIn Sales Tips.
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