Are Events Part of Business Development? Glad You Asked!
Events can be among the most influential tools for fostering growth and building connections, especially for business development professionals in legal and accounting firms. But, unfortunately, events often fall short of their potential.
Here are ways events can fail to meet your expectations:
It’s difficult to get your senior leaders to attend because they think their time is better spent elsewhere.
You struggle to get enough people to attend the event and stay from start to finish.
Your attendees hang out with one another and don’t network.
You don’t have a networking strategy in place, like specifying who from your firm should contact whom (and what to say to them).
Once the event is over, you don’t have time to follow up with prospects.
There are no key performance indicators (KPIs), like the number of qualified leads generated, to justify the event’s expense.
Are Events a Waste of Time and Money?
They sure can be!
Legal and accounting firms spend a staggering amount of money on event sponsorships that don’t deliver the results leadership expects. Yet, many legal practices and accounting firms still sponsor events.
Here’s how to turn a blah event into a bona fide success: Planning and accountability.
For some firms, the most significant decision is to sponsor an event, rather than create a plan to drive expected results.
Your firm’s leadership needs to communicate that events are critical for business development. Events aren’t just for the firm’s junior employees or something the marketing department puts together. Everyone’s buy-in and involvement makes a difference!
First Things First: Who Internally Should Attend the Event?
Who attends events sends a loud message to others in your firm and to event attendees, signaling your firm is serious about getting results from an event sponsorship.
You need a cross-section of your firm present, including senior executives, practice group leaders, new associates (who need experience working an event) and members of your marketing team.
Facilitate Introductions and Networking at the Event
If you’re a premium-level event sponsor, you should receive information on who is attending the event. Use that list to determine targets to approach, be it new business, former clients, etc. I’d set a goal for each firm professional to connect with at least three attendees at the event.
Finding a target attendee in a hotel hallway with 250 others can be challenging. Is there a way the host organization can facilitate introductions to some of your target prospects. You can’t expect them to do the entire list, but getting in front of the most important quickly, would be ideal.
Could your marketing staff stand near the registration table? They could observe when a VIP prospect checks in to pick up their name badge. Check-in is a perfect time for your marketer to connect and mention a firm member who wants to meet them.
Events often have 30-60 minutes of networking upfront. To get value from this time, you must find your target prospects and have a strategy to quickly qualify them. That’s hard to do with lots of attendees also wanting to meet others, plus there are lots of loud conversations happening.
What’s important is that each event team member has a unified message to share with prospects. Explain why you’re sponsoring the event, describe the types of firms you want to get in front of and what they value most about doing business with you. Your goal is to determine if the prospect has strong potential or if someone in their network would be a stronger fit.
When you explain why you’re sponsoring an event, it’s somewhat of an ice breaker with a targeted prospect. For example, you might sponsor an event because the event’s subject matter aligns with an area of expertise for your firm. It could be because who the event attracts (their job titles or industries). It could be to show support to someone who is being honored at the event or a trade group that is hosting the event.
Event Accountability Means Post-Analysis Work
Being sensitive about time with the prospect, I’d ask the prospect this question before they leave the event: Will you accept a follow-up call from me next week about what we discussed today? You ask this question to get a commitment from the prospect. If the prospect is just being polite and non-committal, they probably will tell you they’re not available or make up some other excuse.
The beauty of targeting prospects and asking for follow-up meetings is that you’re creating KPIs.
Post event, ask yourself these critical questions:
How many of your 20 total targets were touched at the event?
How many of the prospects touched agreed to a follow-up conversation?
How many of those follow-up conversations took place?
How many of those conversations led to an in-person discovery meeting?
Right there you have four ways to quickly evaluate the event, without worrying about ROI, which often takes a long time to show up. (I call this ROO, return on objectives.) These metrics ultimately fuel new client acquisition and revenues, but are things that can be measured shortly after the event.
Need a Business Development Mentor?
I’ve partnered with countless business development specialists, helping them plan and execute great events that meet their firm’s objectives. If you’d love to have a mentor/coach/trainer in your corner to improve your business development event or any other sales-focused efforts, let’s schedule an in-person or Zoom meeting. Here’s how to contact me.
