Are you spending big at your events but not achieving the return on investment you were after? There’s tons of pressure riding on the Mobile World Congress as the biggest Telco event of the year, with over 100,000 attendees and hundreds of exhibitors – but how do you make sure you get the most out of the week, don’t disappoint your management team, and generate quality new leads that you see through to revenue?

Hope is not a strategy. To maximise your time at events like the MWC, you need to be booking the right meetings, asking the right questions, capturing, segmenting and nurturing your leads in the right way. Otherwise what’s the point in investing valuable time and resources in the first place?

At such a big event:

• How do you find the proverbial needle in a haystack and identify which attendees are truly the right target personas for you?
• Then, how do you cut beyond the noise and make sure these attendees hear your message above the rest?
• Once you meet relevant prospects, are your sales team asking the right questions and documenting actionable next steps?
• Buyers have so many meetings during the event and get so many follow up calls afterwards – Be the vendor that stands out, excites them and makes them keen to continue the engagement!

If you’re struggling to convert deals from the MWC, having unproductive conversations and failing to convert leads after the event, then you need to read on to discover how to tackle the MWC pre, during and post the big date.

And don’t forget, download our MWC cheat sheets now to make sure your next big opportunity doesn’t slip through the net.

Pre event

Firstly, is the MWC for you? For bigger brands your presence is naturally expected, but for smaller Telco and tech businesses there is a lot on the line sending your team over to Barcelona, and it’s got to pay off. You need to find out if the people there have the types of problems that you solve to ensure you are targeting the right businesses in the first place. Check the exhibitor list and weigh up the risk. Do you need to pay to exhibit yourself? Do you need to send your entire sales team? Could you send team members to walk around rather than paying for a stand? You want to make an impact, but you’ve got to make an impact on the right people – otherwise it’s all for nothing, right?

So you’ve established that there are people worth talking to at the MWC. But don’t just go for the sake of it, and hope you’ll bump into your ideal prospect and win them over. You need to go with strategic objectives and a plan in mind, with the right kind of meetings booked and a solution-led approach. Ideally, you need to get to work on this outbound campaign 3 months before the event, and get appointment setting 4-6 weeks in advance – these people are important and their diaries fill up quickly!

Put time into sourcing your prospect’s contact details, ring them up and explain to them the value of a meeting and the problems that you solve for them in a unique way – don’t give them the generic hard sell. Explain to them that they have a problem that they can’t afford not to discuss it with you, then lock the meeting it in, or, arrange one post event when they’ll probably be much more focused and receptive to what you have to say.

We have been attending the MWC for 15 years, and know all the key contacts that will be going to give you a headstart. If you’re unsure whether it is the right event for you, CTO has the inside industry knowledge to help you make that informed decision. 

At the event

Your top prospect walks into the exhibition hall, best suit on. Every exhibitor’s banner says the same thing, they speak to a sales team who don’t seem quite clear on what they’re talking about and what they can offer. Their next meeting is all the way down the 2km long hall. And all they really want to do is have a beer with their friends.

This is how your top buyers are likely to be feeling at the MWC. So how do you make sure you stand out from the rest and capture their attention? Our first tip, book your meetings at quarter past the hour. That way, they physically have time to get there and won’t sack it off just because they’re running late. Next, send a reminder for the meeting with a compelling agenda … before. And that’s a reminder saying ‘looking forward to our meeting at 11am, here is a brief agenda for our meeting’ rather than a get out of jail free card for them to cancel. Lay out a couple of points around how you understand their situation, can solve their problems and show them the value in meeting you.

Now you’ve got your meetings arranged with people you know you can help, you need to ask the right questions. Send your sales representative that really knows their stuff. Be their trusted advisor. You shouldn’t be pitching or selling to them, but instead talking about them and listening. Demonstrate your knowledge and expertise. Ask them ‘what are your main problems? What has been the best meeting you’ve had here? What has brought you to the MWC? What is your involvement in trying to solve these problems? Is the company actively trying to solve it now? What is the urgency?’ Really tap into their pain points and capture their responses. For an easy way to make sure you get everything down, you can download this template to help you remember all the questions and record all the important details. Emphasise the value that you can bring, not empty promises or claims of being better than everyone else.

Just think, you shouldn’t need 100 meetings at the MWC, just 5 good ones. Agencies will promise you quantity, but remember that it is quality that will really make a difference. Our CEO Bruce will be at MWC, so if you want to change the odds for how much you get out of these events today and in the future, come and speak to us there or book an appointment now via <INSERT LINK>

So you’ve had your meetings, you’re a bit hungover and on your flight back home. The work doesn’t stop here. The art of the follow up is absolutely crucial. Don’t make excuses or get caught up catching up on work and emails that have built up whilst you were away from the office. Your first priority is getting all of your leads into your CRM and tagging them with a lead source so you can properly log and track them through the pipeline. You’ll thank yourself later too as you can analyse the success and value of the event for next year. Whilst doing this, make sure to triage your lists of names and stacks of business cards, as a lot of these people will be the wrong audience, and you don’t want to waste time following up with them if you don’t know who they are or why they were there. Or worse still, damage your brand reputation by spamming the wrong people with thoughtless sales messages. Filter your leads, focus on the top priority ones and delete the wrong type of people. 

After the event

Now you’ve selected your top opportunities, don’t just put them into an automated marketing queue. Make sure your messaging is personal and relevant. No one wants those generic emails from people they can’t remember. And don’t be afraid of picking up the phone to lock in your next meeting.

CTO can help with the follow up to maximise the time and money you have spent at the event. This is only the tip of the iceberg, and as industry experts we specialise in helping businesses sell complex and high value technology every day. 

Get in touch now to find out the people you should talk to at the event, how to present better and what to do when you get home to maximise your chance of sales success. Let our conversion rates do the talking! And to really maximise your objectives for the MBW 2024 and event strategy, we have a couple of openings to work with us.