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9 What Ifs: A Wholesaler’s Approach To Working Conferences

We frequently speak to wholesalers about their effectiveness at advisor conferences.

And we have written about it too.

Here.

And here.

Recently, it has us asking what if?

What if you worked your booth like a political candidate working a room full of moms and babies?

What if at your next conference you attended more speaking sessions/attendee events than you skipped?

What if you sought out your best clients or prospects and intentionally planted yourself next to them at one of those sessions?

What if that session together gave you an additional piece of “connective tissue” that helped solidify the advisor relationship –  at the conference and at their office, which you undoubtedly will get access to visit?

What if you had a synopsis of your thoughts and observations about the conference to share with your clients and prospects via email after the event was over?

What if you committed yourself to avoiding the over indulgence that often accompanies 3 days of conference attendance?

What if you relentlessly followed up on that stack of business cards/leads that the conference produced?

What if conference ‘duty’ was a gift and not a burden?

What if the $20,000 to $100,000 that your firm spent on the fee to be at the conference yielded a measurable ROI that defended the reason that the firm is even there?

What if?

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Comments

  1. From Wholesaler Masterminds LinkedIn Group:

    Hi Rob – I love your articles and felt compelled to share. I just finished an advisor association trade show. I rented an oxygen concentrator with a supply of disposable nose masks. I had 4 chairs and 4 masks and 4 egg timers. Each advisor put a fresh mask on and was told to set the timer for 6 minutes while being rejeuvenated with oxygen enriched air. Guess what happened! They all sat there for the full six minutes until their egg timer went off… while my team talked to them about our company and investment strategies. To make things better – there was a lineup behind each chair while advisors waited their turn to sit down. Wholesalers at the other booths seemed to have a lot of idle time on their hands (to work their blackberries!) Next time I will share a story about Fortune Cookies at another trade show! Best regards – al jacks, VP National Sales, Blueprint Global Partners.

    • Here’s the additional idea mentioned above: The Fortune Cookie trade show event. I just can’t seem to sit still at trade shows and I love to work them hard, “without selling”. I am always plotting ways to outdo the rest of the exhibitors and leave a positive, lasting impression with everyone who comes within eyesight of my booth. One successful event involved buying a box of 200 fortune cookies. Cost – $17. I had a wicker basket of the cookies at my booth, but they did not sit on the table, waiting to be picked up. I walked out into the aisle and asked eveyone walking by,” if they had their fortune told today?” No one snuck by and everyone took a cookie. I insisted that they had to open and read their fortune, out loud… but adding the words: “in bed” after reading the fortune. Everyone had a laugh and after breaking the ice, I invited them into the booth where my team would plastic laminate their business card into a luggage tag – “great for luggage, brief cases, computer cases, gym bags etc.” (I had a special cards with my company logo and web address printed that we laminated to the back of their business card) Needless to say, while the tag was being laminated, the visitor would wait and my team had a chance to share our corporate “elevator pitch” and how we help people to help their clients. Guess what? Many asked for extra luggage tags and “waited” in the booth while the team member made more tags and continued developing a relationship.
      It was gratifying to see our logo on luggage tags on brief cases, etc. throughout the trade show and conference – and I still see them several years afterward!

  2. This article was very much on point. Recently attended a national conference and noticed
    that many of the vendors were much more interested in networking with each other then the advisors present as potential customers. I wonder how many of these vendors walked away from the conference with a proposal, next-step game plan or business development idea with an advisor? Many of these conferences seem to have morphed into expensive industry hiring fests.