Does anyone have experience going to in person expos to find customers? Any advice?
Jacob Carlson
3 replies
I am working on a B2B product for HR professionals and am finding it difficult to find first customers online.
I am planning on attending some HR tech expos in the coming months to connect with people in person.
Has anyone done something similar? What lessons did you learn from this approach?
Replies
Rob Alport@rob_alport
Pwned Labs
Having done a few expos, conferences etc. here are a couple of tricks I’ve tried.
Are you planning to engage / network with people on the floor, or do you have a booth or presence?
If you’re networking on the floor, then I’d suggest getting a tee shirt printed and grab some calling cards or flyers. You should be able to walk up to people, hand them a flyer and then have a few seconds to explain what you do. Be careful though, because some places are really strict.
Also look out for the networking drinks / lunches that often take place. These are the ideal time to approach others and discuss the day. Be careful of coming on too “pitchy” otherwise you break the flow.
If you can, try and identify 10-20 people that you want to talk to and are likely to be at the expo and message them in advance. You may not get much response, but if they see you and your brand, there is a better chance to engage with them.
One word of caution - I’ve seen more expos recently becoming very vendor heavy, so you may struggle to find people who would actually be customers. One I was at recently was a 70:30 split between vendors and customers!
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@rob_alport I recently attend SHRM 2023 in Las Vegas without a booth and found it difficult to talk with people about my idea. I like your tip about identifying 10-20 people beforehand. Seems like an effective way to set yourself up for some good conversations
For future expos I am planning on reserving a booth. I think that will help with keeping the conversation focused on my idea. That is a good point about the vendor/customer distribution. I'll keep an eye out for that.
Thanks for the help!
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