How to Make the Most of Salesforce Events

AppExchange How to Make the Most of Salesforce Events Events can be a great source of leads, but they also require investment. Investment not only in sponsorship dollars, but also in time and energy. You need to create a solid pre- and post-event strategy. Leverage this playbook to make sure you get the most out of that investment by spending time before, during, and after to capture as much attention and as many leads as possible. Content developed in partnership with InVisory. How to Make the Most of Salesforce Events Make a big impact with booths and sessions. 1

Make a big impact with booths and sessions. Before you go, make sure you think through what your goals are for the event. Goal Setting Booth • Non-booth attendees — these could be your key sales reps for an It’s important to have a clear goal for the event and an BEFORE THE EVENT industry (if the event is industry specific), your sales leader, or your understanding of what success looks like. Success could be partner marketing/partner lead. They can help fill booth spots but many things, but below are a few areas to explore: Plan for a Successful Sponsorship also should be free to join customer/prospect sessions, attend • Brand awareness — you want to get your name out there and Your booth is your official home for the event and is the preset meetings, and network. show Salesforce (or whoever the host is) that you are invested visual representation of your company and your brand. Create Create a Schedule in the partnerships. visuals that grab attention and people who are friendly and able Create a booth schedule so everyone knows where to be and when. • Leads — ideally your investment in a booth or in sending reps to speak to your value proposition. More details below on each. Ensure your team knows to get there early and give yourself plenty to an event results in leads for prospects that fall within your Choose Your Staff of time to check in, get through security, pick up any scanners, and target market (right buyers, right industry, right use cases). Staff your booth with polished, professional, and friendly set up your booth before the event floor is open to the general • Relationship building — you want to meet with important (approachable) people who are passionate about your company, public. prospects, customers, or partners. Having all of these people products, and services and not afraid to make conversation with Prepare Your Team in one place at one time makes it easier to have many quick strangers. Ideally you will have the below in your lineup: You should plan to host one or more prep meetings with your entire conversations face to face. • Someone to demo — an SE or product manager is great event team prior to the event to get everyone up to speed on the • Deal acceleration — do you have significant opportunities in your here. Someone who can show a value-based demo on the fly goals, messaging, and expectations. Consider going over items like: sales pipeline that have contacts attending the event? to any prospect or partner. Depending on the size of the event, • Overview of the event and prospectus information — how many This is a great opportunity to meet with buying committee consider two in this role to allow for breaks and multiple demo people, roles, industries, and personas you can expect. members and demonstrate your value. conversations at once. • 1–2 crowd pullers — just like it sounds, these folks stand at • Preferred hotel and travel arrangements. Content Review the front of your booth and pull people in. They are your most One of your goals for the event is most likely brand awareness. friendly and approachable people who have the value Before you go, ensure collateral and your AppExchange listing proposition nailed down. Marketing and SDRs are usually is up to date. Post-event, prospects, partners, and Salesforce great in this role. employees you connected with are likely to look more closely at your company. Put your best foot forward by taking time a month before the event to make sure your solution sheets and listing are refreshed. How to Make the Most of Salesforce Events Make a big impact with booths and sessions. 2

• Event goals — include scan goals, brand awareness goals, with a readable and understandable message that makes it easy • This serves as a reminder to your prospects and customers about meetings goals, and more. for someone to get what you do in a matter of seconds (and your application/integration/partnership • Clothing/uniform for the event (black pants and a branded shirt while they’re walking). If you don’t have a strong in-house design • Even if the contact is not attending the event, this opens are always easy) — ask your team members to bring a mask as team, hire professionals. If you have participated in AMP an opportunity for them to set up a meeting outside of the well and have it handy to match the comfort level of your visitors. promotions that include content, these are great assets to use. conference • Booth overview — what is the message, what does it look like, Clear Messaging • It gives you an opportunity to know what sort of interest there where are you located, what are you giving away and to who? Answer “what we do” clearly and simply (less text is better) before is in meeting with the team before the event so you can plan • Messaging talk track. anything else. Your most important messages should be above accordingly. Does one sales rep have more customers going than people’s heads and should be able to be read and understood others? Send them as part of your event team. • Demo talk track. while walking past your booth in a crowd. Avoid large structures • The email should promote your booth number, what you plan • Create a plan of attack for different visitors — what to do with close to the perimeter. to show/demonstrate (is there something new, or exciting upset customers wanting support, a hot prospect looking for Prioritize Demos launching?), and if there are any giveaways or incentives to visiting immediate help, a customer/prospect looking for someone Nothing sells your solution like seeing it in action. The goal the booth — think swag, drawings, etc. specific, a key partner contact visits, etc. of anyone pulling people into your booth should be to • Social media plan — do you want the team to share from their • Expectations — arrive on time, be well rested, keep the booth get that person interested enough to engage in a demo. account, share photos with the corporate social lead, etc. Create clean, stay until this time, etc. a plan for your onsite team and have a team back home ready to • Emergency plan — what happens in case of an emergency? Promote Your Attendance post, share, and assist in promotion. If you’ve invested in a booth, it will benefit you to use this as • Create a WhatsApp or Slack group for the team going to easily a chance to promote to your customers, prospects, and partners DURING THE EVENT communicate things like travel, schedules, issues, key visitors to about your investment. Not just your financial investment but Show up early, plan on staying late, and wear those comfortable the booth. your partnership investment. shoes. Preparing and Designing Your Booth • Send an email (or two) to all customers and prospects Booth Set Up announcing your sponsorship and attendance at the event. Ask if Make sure you have a team or at least one main person who is in Catch Their Eye with Strong Visuals they are attending and offer up personal demos/meetings. charge of setting up the booth before the doors open. This should • You have 10 seconds to grab attendees’ attention. include: Create a bold, inviting, interactive experience. Avoid white-only • Pick up scanner. backgrounds and colors that clash. Ensure your messaging is clear and that it is obvious to someone passing by your booth • Set up a basket of goodies for the team (in a cabinet/tucked what you do. away) — this should include mints, hand sanitizer, granola bars, • Understand the space you have to create your message on your bandages, Advil, etc. booth. Space is limited so make sure you have a design that pops • Set up swag/giveaways. How to Make the Most of Salesforce Events Make a big impact with booths and sessions. 3

• Set up screen/connect to internet and test video/demos. AFTER THE EVENT reps on key prospects/customers of theirs that stop by. • Set up iPads if you have them and make sure they are charged. Bonus, you can start a Slack channel to ask for backup, share Follow Up details (including photos), and have one place to share all onsite Capture Qualified Leads A follow-up can start before you even leave by having a team in information to the home team. Have a lead scanning strategy and if you have the option, place that is ready to act. set up your questions or personalization inside your scanner. • Create a general follow-up email for your different audiences, Post Event Follow-Up Capture notes for next steps that are detailed and clear enough including those scanned at the booth and those you had The best event team means very little if you don’t have a solid for a colleague to follow up appropriately from this connection. meetings with. Better yet, create an entire nurture campaign follow-up plan to make the most of brand awareness and leads Consider having a notebook to write down key conversations if that drips over 1–2 months. captured at the event. you don’t have note abilities in your scanner. • Create the event campaign in Salesforce so you can track success. Follow up should start shortly after the event but not so soon Call-to-Action Options • Have your ops team on standby ready to upload scanned leads after that people are still traveling and catching up. The next week If a prospect is interested, but does not want a demo, have into Salesforce. is a good place to aim. a second call to action. Can you schedule time with them on • Identify your follow-up plan — who will follow up with partners • Review your pre-event work — does the general email still work the spot with an iPad? Can you have them scan a QR code so (probably alliance team), customers (AEs), prospects (BDR/SDR or do you want to adjust based on something that happened at they can access collateral and content after the show? team), and Salesforce employees (alliances) met with. the event? Take Time to Look Around • Upload leads and start assigning to the right people — SDR follow- Take time to walk the floor and see how competitors and others Create a Home Tiger Team up vs. AE vs. partner. are positioning themselves — what messages are they using, which Not everyone can attend the event, but everyone can participate. • Send your general email/start of the nurture campaign. booths stand out, etc. If you have customers, prospects, or partners • Engage your sales and CS/AM teams early to help promote • If anyone attended customer/prospect sessions, you should send speaking, try to have someone from your team sit in on the session, your attendance. that speaker a personal note on what you learned/loved about take notes, and stay after to meet and engage with the speaker. • Engage your marketing/social team. their session. Bonus points if someone can take pictures and notes. They can tag • Ask your whole company to share your early social posts the speaker, the company, and Salesforce on their social media • Create an event wrap-up email to share with all involved parties. account. Share the notes, quotes, and highlights with the AE who promoting your attendance. • Include number of booth visitors vs. goal. owns the account so they can do a personal follow-up. Stay after t • Create a social media plan for your onsite shares. Should people • Hot leads you met with/marquee accounts who stopped by. o introduce yourself and tell the speaker what you loved about the post from personal accounts, tag the company, then the session. Introduce yourself to the person with the speaker — company share? Do you want to provide photos directly to the • Highlight any sessions you saw. Salesforce AE, partner, etc. — this person is connected to your social media contact to share from the corporate site? Make sure • Send an email to any meeting no-shows asking for new time. person of interest. you have a team on deck for these posts and there is space in your social media calendar for the day of activities. Walk the Walk • Have your AEs on standby for immediate follow-up with hot leads Use your own products in the booth, if applicable. — you can send pictures of badges, notes, and more to your sales How to Make the Most of Salesforce Events Make a big impact with booths and sessions. 4

• Send an email to any expected booth visits that didn’t stop by: Keep It Fun with engaging the crowd before and after. These people are “Sorry we missed you – we’d still love to show you what’s new.” Use an engaging speaker. Keep it interactive. Pause for moments of interested in your topic. Have your team ask what brought them • Write a blog post with the event highlights (call out those audience engagement. Tell stories and make it relatable. No one is there, and ask them to visit the booth to learn more. customer/prospect speakers). coming to your session for a product demo — they could get that at Thank the Audience and Your Hosts your booth. They came to your session to learn more about a topic SESSIONS and engage with a subject matter expert. Make sure you thank those who attended for taking time out of their schedule and make sure they have a way to follow up. BEFORE THE EVENT Build Excitement Think about including your speakers’ LinkedIn or Twitter handle Promote your session ahead of time through marketing campaigns on a slide or a QR code to follow up. Chose Your Speaker Wisely and in your booth. Do a roundup in the expo 20 minutes before Your session speaker(s) should be an expert in the topic and your session starts, tease your session on social media, and make AFTER THE EVENT feel comfortable talking in front of a crowd. Choose someone with sure your sales team is telling prospects and customers who are Get the Most Out of Your Content something interesting to share and who is passionate about the attending the event about the session. Share your session deck in the content section of your topic. High energy and engagement will resonate with an audience AppExchange listing and share as a follow-up touchpoint for leads. who is listening to people talk at them all day. Make It Actionable The best sessions make you glad you attended and give you Talk About What You Know something you can take away to use in your day to day. Make sure Choose a topic that your speaker and your company is an your session title is accurate and obvious to the topic, provide expert on. Think about what you can teach or share that not clear takeaways for the audience, and include a call to action at everyone in the room would know. How can your session the end, such as visiting your booth or a QR code on a slide to benefit this audience? access more information. Make It Professional DURING THE EVENT If you are sharing slides, take the time to make them professional. Enlist your marketing team or an agency to create Use Social Media something beautiful and easy to read. Remember that there Use social media to promote before but also during/after. could be dozens of people trying to read the screen, so use more Take pictures of the speaker and of the crowd. Highlighting images/fewer words. a product or Salesforce team in your session? Mention them on social. Speaking with a customer? Mention them on social Practice Makes Perfect as well. Time yourself and practice more than you think you need to (this includes AV testing) and practice in front of others. Ask for Include Your Team feedback, and test out the stories and reactions. And make sure If you can have a few members of your team there, it can help you leave enough time for Q&A at the end. Also build in time after your session to meet with engaged individuals. How to Make the Most of Salesforce Events Make a big impact with booths and sessions. 5

Connect with prospects and customers outside of the expo. Alliances Brief Execs Study Up BEFORE THE EVENT If you are inviting execs to meetings, pair the invite with See what your key customers and technology partners are doing a briefing doc. Make sure they know who they are meeting with, at Salesforce events. Know if they are speaking or hosting events. Nail Down Your Prospect List key initiatives, and goals of the meeting. Include titles, where Set aside time to attend the sessions and engage with the speaker Our strategic sales and co-marketing teams recommend they are in their customer or prospect journey, and what you after their session. agreeing on a GTM plan for Salesforce events with your key would like the meeting to accomplish. stakeholders, mapping each account with an AE, inviting Have Experts On Hand those folks to activities you are running, promoting these Another best practice among our sales team is to always include efforts to broader relevant sales teams, and not forgetting someone with a technical background for high-potential meetings. to track opportunity influence along the way. Now is the time to reach out if you would like someone from the Don’t Forget About SI Partners TE team to join meetings in person or virtually. If you are an alliance lead, the audience you’ll want to meet Book Meeting Space Early with could include customers, prospects, Salesforce employees, Meeting room space is a limited resource. Make sure you are and partners. Make sure you know which SI partners are attending famililar with how to book meetings during the event or set up and where they are speaking, and look to set up time with your your own process. Don’t forget to make restaurant reservations top current SIs and any new SIs you would like to partner with. ahead of time, too. If your organization has local office space, Fifty Is Nifty that’s also a good option to take advantage of. The AppExchange sales team recommends 50 customer and/or Get Your Marketing Materials Ready prospect meetings for a successful event. Challenge your teams Proactively work with your marketing team to drive interest prior to do the same. Leverage the relationship with your PAM to help to each event. This includes sales scripts and follow-up materials. with internal Salesforce invites to meetings. Leverage your SI list for partners attending the event and your sales team for any Maximize In-Person Time customers and prospects attending. To make the best use of face-to-face time, use qualifying questions when setting meetings. Keep meetings to 30 minutes, if possible, and make sure you give time between meetings so you have a 15-minute buffer if a meeting runs over. How to Make the Most of Salesforce Events Connect with prospects and customers outside of the expo. 6

Spruce Up Your Listing DURING THE EVENT Marketing Your AppExchange listing is a channel. Update your graphics Invite AEs and SEs BEFORE THE EVENT and text to highlight your event news and presence. If you have strong working relationships with a Salesforce AE/SE, ask if they would join a dinner, event, or a meeting scheduled at Define Goals and Set Metrics Look Your Best your booth. For example, your focus could be products and services, Hire professionals for event materials and communications if you partnerships, customer appreciation, or lead maturation. It’s also don’t have a strong in-house design team. Share That VIP Feeling a good idea to refresh and clean your email lists at this stage. Invite customers and prospects to attend a keynote, inspirational Stay Up to Date speaking session, or live music event to build relationships around Make a Plan Follow Salesforce news so you can align your message (following cornerstone-planned event activities. Finding time is hard and Plan activities (e.g., blogging) by channel (e.g., Medium, your influencers on social media is part of this). Be aware of what your areas around the event space are often crowded, so don’t count website) for pre-, during, and post-marketing activity. Create a clear competitors are saying. Always make sure you are in compliance on being able to sit down for coffee. Make a plan and designate theme, design, and message for each stage and audience. These with AppExchange’s brand guidelines. a space to connect. themes should dictate all elements of your campaigns. PR Tips AFTER THE EVENT Define the Customer Journey If you are planning any PR activity, review the partner PR guidelines. Create Salesforce campaigns and lead routing rules ahead of time. Always lead with customer stories or product announcements. Follow Up Assign scanned leads into a nurture journey that aligns with the You will be one of many partners at the event, so make sure your respective event experience. Webinars, ABM, and deal acceleration Keep People Engaged follow-up messaging clearly ties to the experience attendees had events can and should be part of your post-event strategy. Run paid media and/or paid search campaigns before, during, with you. Plan a personalized message that includes any promised and after to stay engaged with visitors to your website or folks follow-up items like demo videos, content, or introductions. Craft Your Message that search for your company. Leads from content Be very thoughtful about your message. It should syndication are also good to nurture Decompress Together be differentiated, and customer stories should for events. The last day can be a great time to network. Get your be inspirational. team together to go review leads in a casual environment. DURING THE EVENT And remember to celebrate your success. Book the Fun Stuff While your alliances team is setting Call-to-Action Options Track Your Success meetings and securing space to have those If a prospect is interested, but Take time for a team review of the event. Take notes on what conversations, it’s also a good idea to book isn’t able to meet at the event, have worked, where you can improve, and what actions you can take and make reservations for other meals or a second call to action. Customer to prepare for the next event. Ensure all leads are in a campaign ancillary events (happy hours, keynote viewings, stories should be used whenever you can track and that you measure your goals vs. the reality of etc.) you would like to host for customers during possible in all marketing, and could the event. the event timeline. be especially effective here. How to Make the Most of Salesforce Events Connect with prospects and customers outside of the expo. 7

Follow Up Fast Measure Success Resources Have a team and plan in place “back at the office” to follow up Let’s revisit the initial goals section: What were your goals and what Make a big impact with booths and sessions. on leads as they come in. Responding within 48 hours with measures did you establish to clearly articulate what success looks Salesforce Blog: How to Plan an Event multiple touchpoints will increase your chances of success. like. Let’s compare the initial plan to what really happened. That Drives Business Value Staff Up Your Social Media Team For example: PLC: Build Your Sales Kit For folks not attending, have a staffing plan for engaging with Goal: 50 new scanned contacts a day. Did you overachieve Trailhead: Demo Storytelling customers on social media. Your team can help drive booth or miss by a bit? What factors contributed to success and what traffic or schedule meetings even if they are not there in person. hindered it? Trailhead: Demo Delivery Essentials Brand Every Event Goal: Each executive has five meetings a day with prospects. AppExchange’s Brand Guidelines Hosting a kickback, happy hour, or exec dinner? Play AMP Evaluate over— or under achievement and collect best practices. co-branded content or any other videos you’ve created for Partner PR Guidelines the event on a large screen to create a customized feel. Goal: $3M in new pipeline generated from the event. Did you hit your number and what contributed to success? Daily Updates Collect Learnings Report on updates each day of the event, highlighting prospects that are further qualified, deals signed, and progress toward Summarize lessons learned and the most impactful activities other key business metrics. Create a dashboard to track results. to inform your strategy for future events. Our strategic co-marketing team recommends up to half of your Take advantage of these tips to make the most of your event year-end efforts are focused on deal closing. presence. AFTER THE EVENT Stay up do date with all our upcoming Salesforce events, and Share a Recap check out the sponsorships website to learn about available Summarize your big Salesforce event news in social recaps and/or opportunities across global events. a blog post to send to your email lists. Always include fun pictures or sizzle reels. Schedule a Debrief Put a post-event metrics debrief on the calendar. How to Make the Most of Salesforce Events Connect with prospects and customers outside of the expo. 8