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How to Win Post-Dreamforce Sales Before the Conference Even Begins

If you’re selling a product to Salesforce users, Dreamforce is an incomparable venue for collecting contact information and intelligence on your prospects. In the days and weeks following Dreamforce — or any event really — it’s critical to stay on top of these new leads with a well-planned sales email campaign.

With Dreamforce about a month away, now’s the time to do the heavy lifting on post-event campaign planning.

Segmenting Your Leads
Start by imagining everyone you might encounter at the conference and sort them into at least five categories.

At one end of that spectrum you’ll put your hottest leads. These are people who are already asking “How much does this cost and where do I sign up?”

Next are prospects who seem interested but “need to get the team on board,” before making a commitment.

In a third category, put prospects who see themselves using your product to solve a need they’ll have next quarter. Then, have a category for people who expressed little to no interest at all. Don’t ignore this group. Things change and they may respond well to an email campaign.

Finally, you need another category for contacts you made at parties, over meals or on the street — any occasion where you may not have had an opportunity to deliver pitch but you developed enough rapport to exchange contact information.

Architecting Your Campaign
Now that you’ve rated your prospects one through five, set up an email campaign for each segment.

Each campaign should have five to seven touches. That might seem like a lot, and hopefully you’ll never send most of those emails, but write them all now. That way, if and when the time comes to send the final touch — you won’t have to think twice about it.

If you’ve been selling your product for a while, chances are good that you have an existing campaign you can modify to fit each of these five categories.

For hot leads, reach out immediately with an email spelling out all the remaining steps that need to be taken before the deal closes. Does the prospect need some paperwork? Send it. Do they need a link to your sign-up page? Include that in an email.

The response rate on this campaign should be very high. But beyond responses, make sure you’re checking your sign-up activity before each touch of the campaign goes out. You want to avoid sending that “checking in again” email to a someone who just bought your product but neglected to email you with the decision.

For colder leads, keep in mind who you’re emailing. Is the person you met really a decision maker? Or did a colleague ask them to go around the Dreamforce exhibition floor collecting information? Typically, it’s the latter.

In most cases, a referral campaign works well here. These emails should mention any interaction you had at the event but acknowledge the reality that this person can’t get your deal across the finish line. Ask for an introduction to someone who can.

The Dreamforce Experience
When Dreamforce begins, things will get crazy. Keep your prospect breakdown top of mind as move through the event. If you’re working a booth, you’ll have the benefit of a badge scanner that can be programmed in advance with these five categories. If you use Salesforce’s mobile app, put everything directly into the CRM.

In a pinch, an email draft, iOS Notes or even your phone’s camera can be good tools for taking notes. On an iPhone, I sometimes create private iCloud Photo Sharing album to gather photos of business cards. It lets you add comments to each photo, which is a great place to dump any useful information you’d want to see in your CRM later on. Just remember to transcribe it all to a better system when you have more time.

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Stay tuned for more of the latest in outbound sales best practices and methods.

This post was brought to you by PersistIQ.  Our software empowers salespeople to easily convert prospects into a qualified pipeline and create personalized outbound campaigns at scale.  See how PersistIQ can help you make your own sales efforts more effective today.

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