7 Tips for Channel Partners Hosting Events
The best partner-led events started small and successfully measured return on investment.
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Hosting events might not come naturally to agent companies that often have a reputation of being small, sales-focused organizations. Historically, the business owners come from a sales background and add sales people when they're trying to expand. Marketing and events might not seem like the most logical way to build business. And the same goes for an MSP leader, who might prefer to focus on expanding technical staff and capabilities.
But partners who have cut their teeth in events say it's worth doing. Seth Marsh sees a close tie-in to the sales process. He said TMG sees direct return on investment from its events.
"Events help improve the relationships with both our existing clients and prospects. We are able to get that vital face-to-face time with clients and are able to enjoy camaraderie in a setting outside the traditional meeting," Marsh told Channel Futures. "Prospects are able to interact not only with our team but our current clients. It is such an advantage to be able to have your current clients advocate for you in a setting that feels relaxed while prospects are able to meet suppliers they will hopefully be working with. Relationships thrive in an event setting because we show all the ways we can help, and that we are more than just sales."
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C3's Matthew Toth
For Matthew Toth, founder of C3 Technology Advisors, events are essential for helping a sales organization scale. Simply multiplying sales outreach through cold-calls and emails isn't enough on its own, he said.
“Don't get me wrong; we [cold call] as well. But you're going to have to continue to increase the velocity of that. Because the amount of calls, the amount of emails, the amount of attention that people are trying to get from you is increasing. So you're battling all of that. If someone would have picked up the phone 20 years ago, one in four calls would go through. Today, one in 40 calls actually goes through. And the same thing with email. So where's the place you can get undivided attention? That's what we're going after," Toth told Channel Futures.
A clear relationship between events and sales exists. But that relationship varies depending on the size and type of the event. Some can be expected to generate an immediate lead, while others help sow a seed with the client or prospect.
For example, North Carolina-based Opkalla expects to see business opportunities emerge from its annual Tech Summit, due to the scale of the attendees.
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Opkalla's Elizabeth Davis
“We always know we're going to get good leads there because we'll have about 100 clients in the room. This year we had about 25 vendors in the room, and there's going to be overlap at a bigger event in terms of what the audience needs and what the vendors supply," said Elizabeth Davis, Opkalla's director of marketing.
For smaller events, Opkalla reframes the expectations. Davis said that clients attending an event that's more intimate or less focused on education might not be actively searching for a technology solution.
"We see it as more of a long game with those ones. We target those as smaller, more local customer appreciation events," Davis told Channel Futures. "And then when the opportunity arises, we're going to be able to bring that vendor sponsor back to the table as a solution provider that we feel really good about recommending to the customer because we know them. We vetted them. We brought them to the event for a reason to meet our people.”
Davis encouraged partners to clearly define goals for their event before planning it. What are your customers looking for? What are your vendor sponsors looking for? What are your sales goals?
“Go in knowing what the purpose of your event is and reverse-engineer it from there. If you're working with a vendor and they want to get a specific amount of opportunities from this event, work backward," Davis said. "Think about what they provide, what their strengths are and think about who you know that can benefit from that. Or if you just want to appreciate your clients. Maybe the focus isn't as much about driving immediate opportunity as it is creating more value for your clients by giving them a space to get to know each other and having that peer networking opportunity.”
Partners who want to host an event need to determine which people will lead the charge. That can be a challenge for agencies that haven't hired marketing personnel yet.
Toth said originally, he and his lone sales guy planned the C3 Tech Summit several years. The first iteration, Toth admits, lacked the attention to detail that the present-day conference has. The agenda was somewhat loose, and attendees had to search for parking. Toth said C3 each year fixed a detail, and all the while it was adding people who could focus their time on building the event.
“We've got a whole team of five people that are doing this for six months. That's the level of detail. You're talking about 60 vendors; you're talking about getting each of them to sign an agreement to sponsor this," he told Channel Futures.
Marsh said TMG has also added its own marketing department that oversees events. Furthermore, it engages with representatives and marketing staff from supplier partners to get them involved.
Other partners who employ fewer people may need to lean more heavily on their supplier or distributor partners. And many of the latter say they are willing to quarterback these events.
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Intelisys' Mayka Rosales-Peterson
"From an Intelisys perspective, we understand the significance of these events for relationship nurturing, and upsell and cross-sell opportunities," said Mayka Rosales-Peterson, senior manager of partner marketing at Intelisys. "This is why we offer comprehensive assistance within our Intelisys partner marketing program to equip our partners with the education and resources necessary to ensure their events are not only successful, but also yield a tangible return on investment."
Even if a partner doesn't need a supplier's help planning and hosting an event, vendors are more than willing to help pay for it.
“I've never had an MDF proposal not get approved," Davis said. "It seems like if the funds are there and we're offering to bring people into the room that have the job title they want, they're going to be down."
Davis noted that she often takes a less formal approach to getting vendors involved at events.
"I'll work with the marketing contacts that I have at the vendor companies. We'll come up with an idea together, and they've got the autonomy to set that budget aside, and we'll invoice them. Or they'll just pay for the event directly," she said.
Mejeticks CEO Robert DeVita said his team looks for suppliers that want to share in both funding the event and driving attendance.
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Mejeticks' Rob DeVita
"We are not interested in events where vendors fund the entire event and we are responsible for providing all of the attendees. I believe that sharing the costs and the requirements to invite prospects is important for all parties involved," DeVita told Channel Futures.
Some partners give up on hosting events because they don't see boosts to sales. But the partners who have forged ahead with events say they've put the metrics in place to show how attendees eventually convert to new business.
"An invaluable piece of advice for partners putting together events is to have a way to track the return on investment (ROI) and have strong follow up post-event, especially in customer-facing events," Rosales-Peterson said. "The follow-up is just as crucial as the initial engagement."
Partners stressed that their peers shouldn't devalue the small events. Davis added that she actually is considering doing more small events in addition to Opkalla's large tech summit. Clients say they enjoy the chance to talk to their peers in an intimate setting.
DeVita said Mejeticks is focusing on smaller, "experience-based" events.
"We believe the days of customers attending a lunch and learn are behind us," DeVita said. "Coupling a small learning session with an experience has been very productive for us over the last 12 months."
And for the partners that want to host a large gathering, they'll want to take incremental steps scaling up. The C3 Tech Summit surpassed 230 attendees in 2023, a feat people in the company celebrated. But they say that Rome wasn't built in a day.
"If you're thinking, 'OK, I'm going to go get $70,000 and go rent out a facility and go get a speaker,' you'll find yourself just doing months and months of work, and you may or may not succeed," Toth said. "Go do something small. Go do something that you're passionate about."
Incremental improvements are the name of the game. For Toth, each annual summit offers up new areas where C3 could improve the client event experience.
“You have to go do it. Then you have to go get feedback. And then you have to iterate," he said.
Incremental improvements are the name of the game. For Toth, each annual summit offers up new areas where C3 could improve the client event experience.
“You have to go do it. Then you have to go get feedback. And then you have to iterate," he said.
Hosting events for clients can take a channel partner's business to the next level. But it will take patience, partnerships and attention to detail.
Channel partners, including technology advisors (agents), are upping their marketing game. In an industry where referrals have typically instigated the sales process, some partners are hiring and investing in marketing to expand their pipeline and build stickier client relationships. Channel Futures' latest survey of technology advisors found that cross-selling and upselling to existing customers is the highest priority go-to-market enhancement for partners. And as the pandemic-related boom of digital transformation dies down, partners are learning that they need marketing to sow the seeds for new customers.
And events are a key cog of a marketing strategy.
Hosting Events: A Worthwhile Endeavor
Seth Marsh, vice president of sales and marketing at TMG, is one of the many partners that has seen significant return on investment from hosting both an annual summit and other smaller events.
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TMG's Seth Marsh
However, partners who commit to hosting events need to commit to it 100%, he said. His tip: "Plan, plan and plan some more."
"These events take time, creative energy, and a whole lot of planning. Our large event takes about a whole year of planning while our smaller events take a couple of months to get right. To get [more than 100] people in attendance does take a lot of effort, but the real key is making sure that they see the value in coming so they want to come back the following year," Marsh told Channel Futures.
In the slideshow above, partners share key considerations for planning and hosting client-centered events.
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