So we’ve been doing SaaStr Annuals for a stunning ten years (!) and we have a ton of data.
One thing I can tell you is sponsors and partners who staff their booths with junior folks that just stare at their phones all day typically don’t see the ROI of their peers that … well … do more.
Now if events are a sales function budgeted by marketing, then at first this seems to make sense. Sales wants to use SDRs in their boots to qualify leads. Just like they do with digital leads.
But so many times, this is a waste. What you want in the booth is a true subject matter expert. Ideally, sure, an AE that knows the product cold. But a product leader, an SE, etc. are all great too.
Sometimes we forget why expensive, time-consuming booths at top industry events still work, even today.
It’s fairly simple: a subset of the best in every industry attend the top one or two events in that industry each year. The leaders in security have been going to RSA for decades. Even if you are deep on AWS, you go to Reinvent. The top Salesforce users go to Dreamforce. Etc. And SaaStr Annual itself attracts the highest concentration of founders and CEOs, there to learn and meet their peers.
And … a lot of them really do go to explore vendors IRL that they have interest in but haven’t purchased from yet.
A lot of buyers do:
- To meet ones vendors are thinking of buying from.
- To meet a second choice, qualify another vendor (which is why you 100% absolutely should sponsor any leading event your competition does).
- To confirm a vendor they are thinking of using is actually the right choice.
- To get comfortable with a vendor they’ve interacted with online aren’t 100% sure about you.
This is a service for the buyers. They value it. They intentionally go to that expo at top events to do exact this. It saves them time gonig to top events and meeting IRL with the top vendors they might buy from — and renew from — this year or next. You’ll see many taking notes for just this reason.
100s and 1000s of true buyers attend top industry events to decide which vendors they want to partner with.
Is an SDR that just started 8 weeks ago and is on Instagram the whole time really the right ambassador here?
You know the answer …
A Pretty Good Line-Up From Prismatic
Better to have fewer folks in your booth, even without sales experience, that know the product cold. Anyone can do a lead scan. Yes, sales execs are better at follow-up.
But what you want is that buyer that comes to that big event, to confirm a decision … to talk with the best you have to offer.
They could just get on a Zoom with an SDR if that’s what they wanted.
And finally, a ton of your existing customers will come to your booth at top industry events.
Do you want them talking to a deep product expert, than they can bond with? Or an SDR still learning the basic script? You know the answer here, too.
A related post here:
Paddle’s Top AE’s Top Tips to Crush SaaStr Annual — and Other Events
The post Should You Really Be Sending SDRs to “Man” Your Booths at Events? appeared first on SaaStr.
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Jason Lemkin, Khareem Sudlow
