BtoB Seminars: Three Patterns of Results. How to Ensure Leads and Orders After Speaking?

The number of companies holding BtoB seminars for the purpose of acquiring leads is increasing rapidly. A recent trend is large-scale seminars where 10 to 20 companies co-present, lasting 5 to 7 hours.

Now, in what is being called the 'Warring States Period' of BtoB seminars, the main concern is the results gained from speaking at these events. In fact, they can be broadly categorized into three patterns.

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Hello! This is woman's BtoB. Let me introduce ourselves briefly here🙇‍♂️.

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Our service, 'BtoB Promotion Support,' includes a speaking plan for seminars planned and hosted by our company. When looking at the results each company achieves after speaking, they generally fall into three categories.

• 1. Directly leads to business negotiations and orders

• 2. Zero business negotiations and zero orders

• 3. Leads to significant results over time

Naturally, the one you want to avoid most is number 2💦. Let's take a look at this based on our client case studies! (Client names have been omitted)

1. [Immediate Effect Type] Directly leads to business negotiations and orders

Companies accustomed to BtoB marketing have high conversion rates for negotiations and orders

The first pattern is where a certain number of listeners smoothly transition into business negotiations and orders. This is achieved by companies that have already built a BtoB marketing model within their organization.

Specifically, these are companies that have organized an inside sales team and have a system in place for follow-ups and nurturing after the seminar. They are also companies that understand and implement 'modern' corporate sales (sales that utilize what is known as BtoB marketing).

What if you are new to inside sales and nurturing?

When I say this, some companies hesitate, saying, 'We don't have an inside sales team, and we've never done nurturing...' but rest assured.

To resolve such concerns, we have prepared the following article. It was created so that even companies that have never done inside sales or nurturing can smoothly proceed to business negotiations after speaking at a seminar (it can be read for free). Even companies that are beginners in BtoB marketing have used the article below to actually acquire business negotiations, so please take a look!

And one more thing. Organizing an 'inside sales team' in-house is an ideal, but in reality, it is a very high hurdle even for large companies...

It requires hiring new talent accustomed to BtoB sales and marketing / it requires an education period if you are training internal staff to become BtoB marketers / it requires systemization / it requires a budget... and so on, a storm of hurdles😓.

Therefore, it is not a realistic option for companies that say, "We need business meetings and sales right now!"

Client A: A company new to B2B marketing itself

Our client, Company A, is a large-scale enterprise with outstanding domestic brand recognition as a B2C operator. However, the newly launched B2B business division had only four staff members. Moreover, since these four were gathered from various departments, they had zero knowledge of B2B marketing. Even so, they were under orders from upper management to secure at least one order within six months...

Both the client and we ourselves thought, "This is an impossible request!" but we worked together to think through a strategy from the seminar planning stage on how to connect the seminar appearance to business meetings and sales by the deadline.

I will skip the details of the process, but as a result, we successfully achieved a 29% conversion rate to business meetings after the seminar. And within five months of the seminar appearance, it led to two orders (phew...😵‍💫). We haven't confirmed the number of orders since then, so we don't know, but considering the 29% conversion rate to meetings, I suspect it has likely continued to lead to orders.

② [The Strikeout Type] Zero meetings and zero sales...

The second is the pattern where no results are achieved at all. This mainly applies to the following companies. If you have spoken at a B2B seminar in the past but did not see results, one of the following may apply to you.

B2C companies with little experience in B2B business

Recently, more B2C companies are entering the B2B business, but they all share the point of "trying to acquire customers using the same methods and mindset as B2C marketing." B2B and B2C have completely different methods and mindsets for customer acquisition. If you push forward without understanding that, you will never get appointments. In addition, this type of company tends to have a strong "if we put it out there, it will sell" mindset, and there is a noticeable tendency to try to acquire appointments with a passive stance.

Companies that have acquired projects using old-school styles like cold calling and door-to-door sales

To acquire customers via seminars, nurturing is a must. However, they do not have that concept to begin with, and since their internal systems are not set up, they blindly send calls or emails to attendees without knowing what to do after the seminar. Because they do not perform any nurturing after that for attendees who did not book an appointment after a single call or email, it easily becomes a "one-shot deal" for every seminar appearance. Therefore, even if they speak at seminars multiple times, they tend to remain in a state where they cannot achieve results.

Companies accustomed to regular order-taking sales to existing customers, but not to communication or sales for acquiring new projects

This is a trend seen in long-standing B2B companies. Since the difficulty, contact methods, and strategies for order-taking sales to customers with whom there is already a long-standing relationship are completely different from new business sales to companies with no contact at all, time passes without them knowing what to do. Eventually, they reach the conclusion that "speaking at seminars does not produce results."

In addition, the following companies also tend to fall into the strikeout type.

• Companies holding seminars with content that is heavily focused on sales pitches or advertising

• Companies talking about content that is misaligned with attendee needs

• Companies that leave attendees unattended after speaking

Client B: Crushing defeat despite being accustomed to B2B marketing

Our client, Company B, is a small-to-medium enterprise with an 80-year history in B2B business. The scheduled speaker was well-versed in B2B marketing and, while limited, was a person with name recognition in a specific field.

Perhaps because of that, even when we provided advice and held discussions in advance regarding the seminar content and post-seminar nurturing, it went in one ear and out the other, and they didn't seem to be listening at all.

In the end, they yelled at us in a confrontational manner, saying, 'I don't want you to interfere,' and our team members replied, 'Understood,' and from then on, we stopped offering to help think through the strategy together.

Then came the day of the event. Although the number of applicants exceeded 200 companies, it was a disastrous result: attendees kept leaving midway, we received numerous complaints directed at our company (as the organizer), and the survey response rate after the seminar was extremely low.

The main reasons were: 'It was a seminar with aggressive sales pitches,' 'The content was different from the announcement article (meaning it was completely misaligned with their needs),' and 'The speaker's tone was condescending and unpleasant.'

As mentioned earlier, it was a major point of reflection for us that we neglected to check the seminar content after being told by Company B not to interfere, but I was surprised that most of the seminar content turned out to be a sales pitch.

We had such assumptions, so the seminar content prepared by Company B was unexpected. What was even more surprising was that after the seminar, they only called the attendees once. And if they were refused a meeting after that one call, they ended the nurturing process—they were a company that took the unexpected approach of 'one seminar appearance equals a one-shot deal.'

Please rest assured that 'zero business negotiations or orders after speaking at a seminar' can largely be avoided through prior strategic design and planning. We, with our wealth of experience, will provide solid support.

3. [Accumulation Type] Cases that lead to significant results over time

The third pattern is one where 'business negotiations and orders occur after a certain amount of time has passed.' Even without aggressive sales, one day, an inquiry suddenly comes in from a company that once attended a seminar. This is one of the ideal forms of B2B marketing.

Someone wrote something on note that hit the nail on the head, and our company deeply empathized with it. It is a long quote, but I would like to introduce it.

Companies with multiple touchpoints have higher order rates

I truly think that is correct. Our company also providespromotion support for B2B companies, and the strongest ones are companies that have already built this 'accumulation type' model.

The atmosphere during a business negotiation is completely different when you receive an inquiry from a company that already understands your company to some extent, compared to when you finally get a negotiation after reaching out yourself, and there is a significant difference in the order rate to begin with. This makes things much easier both mentally and in terms of sales effort.

Evaluate seminars as a 'line,' not a 'point'

If you are looking for immediate deal acquisition, you will aim for the '1. Immediate Effect Type' mentioned at the beginning, but the ideal is a method where you proceed with the '3. Accumulation Type' in parallel with the '1. Immediate Effect Type' through seminar speaking.

Before you dismiss it by saying, 'This seminar didn't lead to any business negotiations,' by viewing 'customer touchpoints' from a medium- to long-term perspective, the number of business negotiations and orders will change completely.Results from seminar speaking should be viewed as a line, not a point. You will be able to design more advanced B2B marketing.

Our company holds business conferences and seminars on a regular basis. The following article summarizes the customer attraction for a business conference that mobilized 4,000 people, so please take a look if you like. If you would like to speak at a seminar hosted by our company, pleasecontact us here. We will plan and attract customers for seminars where people gather, attendees are satisfied, and it leads smoothly to business negotiations!