Last January, my team participated in Jobstreet’s annual HR event where almost 500 HR professionals gathered to learn about the latest HR practices and sharings to improve their knowledge. We’ve generated tonnes of leads from this event. As a training company, networking with HR professionals is essential; enabling us to recommend our solutions to their head of sales or bosses.
We had 4 salespeople with us for the event and the way we do networking has always been the same. A marketing person will be stationed at the booth while all Sales Warriors will be out approaching and networking with the delegates. We made sure that we arrived early in the morning, as most of the delegates usually run out of name cards by lunch. My warriors were required to be actively moving around the hall area and even approaching potential prospects during tea breaks.
They were also required to do networking during lunchtime, where they are to hop from table to table after 30 minutes into lunchtime. Typically this type of event offers a buffet lunch to control the massive crowd during lunch break. Hence, we’ve estimated that 30 minutes is enough for people to queue, grab some food, get a seat, eat and so, that’s the perfect time for the Ninjas to attack.
We did some simple networking openers; “Hi, can we exchange business cards?”
Nothing fancy, no refined elevator pitch, just pure human connection.
At times, we do ask direct questions, such as; “Are you looking for any sales training?”
Too direct you may say? Well, so far it has worked for us. Some prospects instantly said yes or no and some opened up the opportunity for us to follow-up after the event.
It’s now 6 months after the event, and guess what? With our active networking and follow-ups, we have secured training from this event’s leads.
What are your #networking best practices?
