As the biggest and, in my opinion, best sales and marketing event of the year, Salesforce’s Dreamforce conference attracts some of the most talented sales, marketing, and tech leaders from around the world for a week of discussion, insights, product announcements, and networking.
The ecosystem of Salesforce products and integration partners showcased during Dreamforce represents the best in sales and marketing tools and automation technology. However, the conference itself illustrates why the human, in-person element of sales is what really wins deals and drives business.
Top brands at Dreamforce, including Salesforce, hosted events around the conference to facilitate these in-person interactions with their prospects and clients. I’d be remiss to not mention that Splash was incredibly proud to have powered hundreds of events at Dreamforce. One of these events, The Closers Club, put together by Salesforce’s Sales Cloud team, demonstrates the power of innovative in-person marketing for both nurturing existing relationships and driving new business.
The Sales Cloud team rented B Restaurant and Bar (excellent food and cocktails) on the Dreamforce campus to use as a meeting space where they could connect with clients and prospects. The event was invite-only, which created a feeling of exclusivity and provided the privacy needed to have meaningful conversations with high-priority contacts (and a respite from the 200,000 person conference).
Admittedly, renting a restaurant space during a conference isn’t a new idea. What set the Sales Cloud team’s strategy apart was how they operationalized it, seamlessly executing a ton of moving parts to ensure that their account executives had a full slate of meetings booked with relevant prospects while automatically tracking those engagements (and revenue outcomes) in Salesforce.
Before the event
1. Design - They built a stunning white-labeled Splash page.
2. Sales enablement - The marketing team shared the page with their sales team so they could personally invite prospects and clients to select a time to meet at the event. Invites went out via personalized email and, notably, text messages with a hyperlink to the landing page.
3. Custom RSVP form - The Splash form displayed a limited number of available meetings at specific time slots each day to create a feeling of exclusivity for those invited. This also helped keep the guest list manageable and prevented the space from getting too crowded. The RSVP form also included unique questions about product usage, which allowed the Sales Cloud team to understand what products their attendees were most interested in learning more about during their meetings.
4. Automated RSVP tracking - Once a meeting was booked, it was automatically added to the calendars of both the Account Executive and the person who requested the meeting.
5. Integrated with Salesforce - The Splash-powered event page and form were integrated with a corresponding Salesforce campaign, each person who received an invitation had their campaign status automatically changed to “Invited” and each RSVP was changed to “Attending”.
During the event
1. Mobile check-in - When attendees arrived, the Salesforce team used Splash’s mobile app to quickly check them in. This changed their status within the SFDC campaign to “Checked In”, which was crucial for tailoring post-event follow ups and tracking the impact of the event.
2. Real-time intelligence - The team took advantage of Splash text message alerts, an incredibly powerful feature that enabled their account executives to receive a text message when their clients checked in so that they could greet them with a drink, snack or coffee.
After the event
1. Measuring impact - Because the event synced directly with a Salesforce campaign, the marketing team was able to easily report on the value of opportunities that were "in the room" on a daily basis. In the coming months, the Sales Cloud team will re-run the campaign report to understand how the event impacted their sales funnel, including existing opportunities influenced by the event and new opportunities generated from it.
1. Take advantage of Splash’s integration with Salesforce.
2. Find the perfect space for your event - Choose a location that people will actually want to visit, and then deck it out with your best signage and swag. Salesforce gave out branded, and really nice, duffle bags. Free food and drinks are always appreciated, too. Try to create a space that speaks to your brand and feels intimate and exclusive. If you pump in music, keep the volume low enough to allow for conversation.
3. Make your space look as great online as it does in person - Build a spectacular landing page that relays the vibe of the space. If you’re setting up meeting times in advance, offer a limited selection of available time slots to create a sense of urgency, eliminate overcrowding, and keep the calendar manageable.
4. Fill the room with the right people - Enable your sales team with the right intel and motivation well in advance of the event (at least a month out), and send personalized invites to your most valuable customers and prospects.
5. Measure results in your CRM - Track each check-in with a timestamp so that you know exactly who came, when they came, and who invited them. This enables you to measure the ROI of your event and make data driven decisions in the future.
6. Follow up after the event - The people who came to your event (attendees) should receive a different follow up message than those who said they were coming (no shows). No shows are just as important as attendees, so you might consider sharing an event recap with photos, and letting them know about upcoming opportunities to connect.
Want event more tips?
Here are 18 ways to get more sales opportunities from conferences and tradeshows.
