The Secret of Running a Successful BI Seminar and Generating Lots of Leads!

When I first joined DSCallards, we didn’t run seminars.  We didn’t do social media (it hadn’t been invented) and we didn’t do a lot of email marketing.  “So what did you do?” I hear you ask.  Well, we relied quite heavily on Google Ads (which we still do), leads generated by our partners and traditional networking techniques.

Things have changed a lot in the five years I’ve been here at DSCallards.

We now use all of the B2B channels available to us to shout about our Business Intelligence products and services.  And – without sounding too big headed – I think that we’re pretty good at getting our message out to our targeted audience.  We now produce videos, run webinars, write blogs, tweet, send out regular email newsletters and have over ten websites that promote the Business Intelligence products and services that we offer.

However, what we are very, very good at is running face-to-face seminars where we regularly attract in excess of one hundred delegate registrations.  Registrations which are converted by our sales team into lucrative sales opportunities.  Webinars are a great way to nurture prospects however face-to-face seminars provide an excellent opportunity to network as well as extol the virtues of the services you have to offer.  What’s more – people buy from people.

My background as a Marketer had involved running many seminars, masterclasses, workshops, management briefings and events (in IT and defence manufacturing).  So when I joined DSCallards in 2007 and looked around, I was delighted by the amount of knowledge and experience that our consultants held in their heads.  They really were experts in Business Intelligence and, what’s more, absolutely loved their subject.  I had to harness this enthusiasm and talent.  What better way than to get them on the stage and run seminars!

So, for a company of our size to create such a buzz and meet with such success, what’s our secret?

Here are my top ten tips:

1.    Sit down and really think about the group you need to target.  Think of the product/service you’re promoting, business pains you’re trying to address and technology advances (software releases, etc).

2.    Piece the jigsaw together and match it up with a compelling reason for them to take a day out of their busy schedules to come along to a venue to sit down and hear about what you have to say.  (After a HUGE amount of effort you may become a thought leader in your area of expertise.  Once this becomes apparent (as DSCallards has in the area of SAP Crystal Reports and Dashboard Design) it is easier to use this authority to encourage delegates to attend).

3.    Put together a professional looking invitation and email it out to your database.  Send it out about two months before the event, then a month before and then weekly leading up to the event.

4.    To succeed, you need to make sure that your database is nurtured (home grown) as opposed to off-the-shelf and bought-in.  This is critical.

5.    An obvious tip is to pick a prestigious venue that is situated at a location which is central to your target market.  Don’t pick somewhere in the middle of nowhere which will cause a problem for your delegates to reach.

6.    Organise the event on a Wednesday or a Thursday.  These are the most popular days for delegates to leave the office for an event. Makes sure your event doesn’t fall on a Bank Holiday and/or school holiday.

7.    Brief your sales and technical team on the content.  You need to be vigilant that they meet regularly before the event to work out the agenda and get their content together.  You can then use this content to ‘drip feed’ to your delegates prior to the event taking place.

8.    Tell the team who are going to present how wonderful they are.  Make them feel good and inspired to do a good job on the day.  Make sure the content is lively, different and entertaining.

9.    Feedback, feedback, feedback.  Put together a simple feedback form for the delegates to complete.  I find that making it anonymous is a good tactic.  That encourages more honest feedback on what they really thought of the content and delivery of the presentations.

10. Follow-up, follow-up, follow-up.  Make sure you have a ‘wash up’ meeting in the office the day after the event has taken place.  Thereafter, run lead follow up sessions for around two months following the event to ensure that the sales team follow up those leads. 

So, in summary, as a Marketer I’m very lucky as I have such talent to work with.  Our BI consultants really do know their subject and aren’t afraid to get up on stage and talk about it.  So, as long as we follow the top ten tips listed above, there should be no reason why we can’t continue to run successful events into 2020 and beyond! 

Written by:  Adriane Gillies, Marketing Manager, DSCallards. 

For information on our events, visit www.dscallards.com.