One way to help your sales reps engage with a large amount of potential customers in a very short amount of time is at conferences. Where else will you find hundreds, if not thousands, of potential customers in one area?

Companies do go horribly wrong with conferences when they don’t conduct the appropriate amount of homework to find the right conference with the right people. Most conference organizers will (of course) tell you that you need to attend their conference (and give them lots of sponsorship money).

A better approach to researching events is to call your existing customers (and potential customers) and ask them what conferences they attend. They’ll not only tell you what they attend, but they’ll tell you which conferences are the best. A pattern will eventually emerge after you’ve talked to five customers. Send your sales reps to the number one conference that your customers recommend.

If you can work far enough ahead, have a booth presence. You don’t need the largest space available; get a space that is appropriate for the size of your company, or a little aspirational.

If this really is a last-minute strategy, you could get a sweet deal for unsold booth space. If you were planning on this conference anyway and suddenly you’re facing a lead shortfall, send more reps, or get better totschkes.

Try this:

Many conference organizers will give sponsors a list of attendees and their email addresses before the conference for the right price. Pony up for the sponsorship level that gives you contact information for all attendees.

• Reach out to those attendees with some type of offer for attending the event. It could be “come by our booth for a cupcake” or “schedule time to talk with our CEO at our booth about best practices for solving (X) problem.” Give them a reason to look you up, and make sure they know exactly where to find you at the conference.
• Draw people to your booth with great graphics or the smell of baking cookies, or… Whatever it is, it’s best if there is some logical connection to your company.
• Prep your sales reps so they are totally ready to have conversations with those prospects.
• Also, have a marketing or sales development person at the conference to take over conversations if a booth attendee is clearly not qualified. That will free your sales reps up to have great conversations.

If you picked the right conference, your sales reps will find the time investment to be worth it.