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What IT Pre-Sales Engineers Really Think About b2b Content Marketing.
Video 9 of 18: Tech Conferences
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An edited transcript of the conversation is provided below.
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Video 9: Edited Transcript
This question refers to lead generation and tech conferences, or vendor exhibitions.
I know (that) Matthew, from his blog, does go to quite a lot of these in the US.
I'm interested in his opinions on how useful they are to prospects.
Do they sign up and become customers or is it just another step on the way?
What do you think, Matthew?
Well, if I, or any of my peers, go to a tech conference, we're typically not doing it for lead generation of potential customers!
I'll give my card out to pretty much anyone that i talk to, whether it's a vendor or a peer.
I've had conversations where it's (say) if we can help you out with this, or we'll partner with this company or that company, here's my card; by all means feel free to reach out.
Why Matthew Goes To Tech Conferences
I tend to use tech conferences as a way to engage more with peers that I talk to on Twitter or LinkedIn etc.
There's value in meeting people in person as it allows them to talk to vendors that we partner with, or potentially partner with, to see how things are going.
We have strengthened vendor relationships through tech conferences by just getting more of a rapport going, but off the top of my head I can't think of really any major clients that we've been able to get from tech conferences.
Again, sales people tend to be driving those leads here, in the local area.
We have talked about sending people to tech conferences to sit in with vendors (who) we partner with, to talk about specific solutions but, as of yet, we haven't gone down that road.
Matthew, I suppose when the booth people realize (that) this is a potential customer, they do try to get their card, or they try to get them to sign up.
Oh, absolutely.
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