Best of LinkedIn: Field Marketing CW 42/ 43

00:00:00: This episode is provided by Thomas Allgaier and Frennis, based on the most relevant LinkedIn posts about field marketing in calendar weeks forty-two and forty-three.

00:00:09: Frennis is a B to B market research company, helping enterprise field marketing teams with precise, targetless research and database-driven segmentation, as well as event attendee acquisition.

00:00:22: Welcome back to The Deep Dive.

00:00:23: We've been digging through the field marketing discussions on LinkedIn these past couple of weeks.

00:00:28: Yeah, weeks forty-two and forty-three.

00:00:29: Exactly.

00:00:30: And our mission today, let's cut through the event hype.

00:00:32: We want to get straight to the real operational strategies that seem to be driving revenue right now.

00:00:39: That's right.

00:00:40: And it's actually pretty fascinating how quickly the conversation shifted.

00:00:43: I mean, really pivoted.

00:00:45: We're not really hearing debates about booth colors or how good the coffee was.

00:00:49: Right, the superficial stuff.

00:00:50: Totally gone.

00:00:51: Now, the focus is strictly on, okay, what's the disciplined ROI?

00:00:55: How tight is that sales alignment?

00:00:57: And crucially, are you getting meetings pre-committed?

00:01:00: That seems key.

00:01:01: It is.

00:01:02: Because if you're not optimizing for an actual revenue outcome, well, let's be honest, you're just running a very expensive party.

00:01:09: Okay, so that operational shift, that's our jumping off point.

00:01:12: Let's dive into the first big theme we saw emerging.

00:01:15: the revenue shift, this idea of really treating field marketing like a revenue generator and also embracing this concept of return on relationship.

00:01:25: Yeah, ROR.

00:01:26: It feels like it had to happen, right?

00:01:28: Yeah.

00:01:28: We saw Swapnil Sawant put it really well.

00:01:30: This is a core philosophy change.

00:01:32: Okay.

00:01:32: Corporate events, trade shows.

00:01:35: They have to be treated as disciplined revenue programs.

00:01:38: They need explicit, measurable outcomes.

00:01:41: You just got to move past those feel-good metrics.

00:01:43: The

00:01:43: vanities, yeah, like booth traffic or just how many business cards you scooped up.

00:01:46: Exactly.

00:01:47: Those are out.

00:01:48: Instead, you're optimizing for things like pipeline acceleration, actual sales cycle impact, the quality of the opportunities.

00:01:54: And speaking of vanity metrics, this is where it gets really interesting.

00:01:57: I saw Horacio Rilo shared some pretty staggering data analysis.

00:02:01: Oh,

00:02:01: yeah.

00:02:02: What was that?

00:02:02: It showed that something like ninety two percent of B to B event leads.

00:02:06: They lack actual buying intent.

00:02:08: Ninety two percent.

00:02:09: Wow.

00:02:10: Yeah.

00:02:10: That's

00:02:12: that's a brutal number, honestly.

00:02:13: And it really confirms that the problem isn't just, you know, slow follow up after the event.

00:02:18: Right.

00:02:18: It starts earlier.

00:02:19: The fault starts way earlier with an initial optimization strategy.

00:02:23: If you're optimizing purely for volume, for contacts, you're basically just collecting ninety two percent noise.

00:02:31: So the immediate takeaway for a marketer listening is, focus your budget on the eight percent.

00:02:35: Pretty much.

00:02:36: Focus on the eight percent who might actually buy, not the ninety-two percent who are just, you know, walking around scanning badges for a free pen.

00:02:43: It forces you to optimize for identifying problems, not just scanning badges.

00:02:47: Exactly.

00:02:48: And that naturally leads us to rethinking ROI beyond just the financial figures.

00:02:52: Okay.

00:02:52: I saw both Sabine House and Lindsay Warren talking about this.

00:02:55: They highlighted the need to track emotional ROI.

00:02:58: alongside the traditional stuff.

00:03:01: Emotional

00:03:01: ROI.

00:03:02: Tell me more about that.

00:03:03: Well, they argue, and Marco Brasi touched on this, too, with ROR return on relationship.

00:03:07: It's kind of non-negotiable, because live events, they really thrive on that human connection, right?

00:03:11: Sure.

00:03:12: Building trust, gauging sentiment, fostering advocacy, these softer factors, they actually accelerate future deals down the line.

00:03:22: Okay, that makes sense.

00:03:22: But how do you actually capture that?

00:03:24: I mean, like you said, you can't just type trust into a spreadsheet cell.

00:03:27: Well... No, not directly.

00:03:29: But you capture it indirectly.

00:03:31: Maybe by tracking advocacy after the event, are they recommending you?

00:03:34: You measure the speed of the deal cycles for people you met there versus those you didn't.

00:03:40: Or you could use sentiment analysis on post-event surveys.

00:03:43: It's more about recognizing that the event's main job might not be closing that deal right there, but maybe building that rock solid relationship that makes closing a deal six months later much easier.

00:03:54: Got it.

00:03:55: And then on the pure financial side, Steph Pennell offered a pretty neat framework.

00:03:59: It was sort of a dual approach.

00:04:00: Oh, with that.

00:04:01: She suggested measuring ARR impact on your existing customers first.

00:04:06: So that's your retention, maybe expansion success from the event.

00:04:10: And then also, tracking the potential ARR from genuinely qualified prospects, the ones who showed real buying intent.

00:04:18: Right, both sides of the coin.

00:04:19: existing and new.

00:04:21: Exactly.

00:04:21: You need to account for both.

00:04:23: And look, if you can't map those things out, Lance Newton kind of summed it up perfectly.

00:04:27: He basically said, you're just running expensive field trips.

00:04:30: Instead of focusing on real pipeline, real revenue, real growth, and that need for accountability, it leads us right into how you stop gambling with that budget, which

00:04:40: brings us perfectly to our second major theme.

00:04:42: Pre-event motions and sales alignment.

00:04:45: This is all about the operational stuff you do before the show to de-risk that big event spend.

00:04:50: Yeah, because acting early seems to be the only real defense against, well, wasting a lot of money.

00:04:56: Area Eleven was incredibly blunt about it.

00:04:58: What

00:04:58: did she say?

00:04:59: Basically, investing, say, fifty thousand dollars in a booth without having pre-booked meetings logged in.

00:05:04: That's just gambling.

00:05:05: Hmm, rolling the dice.

00:05:07: Completely.

00:05:08: You're just hoping the right people stumble by your booth.

00:05:11: The successful strategy, she argues, is securing guaranteed conversations with your qualified ICP targets, like four to six weeks before the event even starts.

00:05:21: And with year-end approaching, Mohsen Siddiqui really drove home the urgency here, especially for Q-Four planning right now.

00:05:27: Oh yeah, clock's ticking.

00:05:29: His point was, talk doesn't grow pipelines, action does, so November.

00:05:36: It needs to be about sending those messages, getting on calls, locking in those crucial meetings before everyone checks out for the holidays.

00:05:43: But,

00:05:43: okay, to actually do that effectively, you absolutely need sales alignment.

00:05:48: And that seems to be where things often fall apart.

00:05:50: The

00:05:50: classic disconnect.

00:05:51: Totally.

00:05:52: R. Stephendiren pointed out that way too many CROs kind of let events just turn into glorified happy hours.

00:05:58: Ouch!

00:05:58: Yeah, and it's because there's a total lack of strategic pre-event planning.

00:06:02: And if there's no plan before, there's definitely no plan for driving velocity after.

00:06:07: And that friction point often comes down to the MQL versus SQL handoff, right?

00:06:11: That old chestnut.

00:06:12: Always.

00:06:13: Kayla Drake tackled that one head on.

00:06:15: She said, look, the disconnect isn't always about the lead quality itself.

00:06:19: It's often that marketing just fails to properly qualify the lead or crucially.

00:06:26: fails to provide the necessary context when they hand it over to sales.

00:06:29: Ah, the context piece.

00:06:30: So what's the fix?

00:06:32: What is procedural really?

00:06:33: First, everyone needs to agree on what qualified actually means before the event, get sales and marketing in a room.

00:06:39: Define it clearly.

00:06:40: Yes.

00:06:41: And second, ensure that sales gets context rich notes.

00:06:46: With that lead, not just contact info, sales needs to know what did the buyer ask?

00:06:51: What problem did they mention?

00:06:53: What's the logical next step?

00:06:54: Give them the conversation, basically.

00:06:56: That makes total sense.

00:06:57: Now, this theme of financial accountability and getting sales involved, it led to a really provocative suggestion from Elizabeth Malson.

00:07:05: Oh, yeah.

00:07:05: What was that?

00:07:06: She actually

00:07:06: suggested that, at least in some sectors, like maybe MedTech, the trade show budgets, they should actually sit under the sales department.

00:07:12: Oh, OK.

00:07:13: Under sales.

00:07:14: Yeah.

00:07:15: Her argument is that the ROI is so often measured purely by sales meetings held.

00:07:19: So putting the budget there forces better alignment of all the spend headcount, travel, training directly with those measurable sales outcomes.

00:07:29: That's a pretty huge structural shift.

00:07:31: I can already hear some marketers pushing back on that one.

00:07:33: Oh, for sure.

00:07:34: What do you think?

00:07:35: the main counter argument is, giving sales that entire budget?

00:07:39: Well, the big risk is that you might end up deprioritizing the longer term brand building.

00:07:44: Market penetration goals could get sacrificed for purely short-term meeting targets.

00:07:48: True.

00:07:49: Brand versus immediate pipeline.

00:07:50: Exactly.

00:07:52: But, Melson's point is still powerful if the event's primary measurable function is setting those meetings.

00:07:57: If that's the goal, putting the budget there enforces discipline.

00:08:00: It makes it way harder for marketing to justify spending on activities that don't directly lead to those meetings.

00:08:06: Yeah.

00:08:07: It's definitely an interesting governance model to think about.

00:08:09: It's definitely food for thought.

00:08:11: Okay, let's move on to theme three.

00:08:13: on-site execution and creating an intentional experience.

00:08:17: So you've done the prep, you've hopefully got some meetings booked.

00:08:20: How do you make those few days on the actual show floor really count?

00:08:25: Well, the advice here shifts dramatically again.

00:08:28: It moves away from volume and goes hard into quality.

00:08:32: The consensus seems to be... Design your booth entirely around those scheduled conversations.

00:08:37: Forget the theatrics aimed at just pulling in random foot traffic.

00:08:41: Quality

00:08:41: over quantity again.

00:08:42: Ashley Nelson was really hammering that home.

00:08:44: She was.

00:08:45: And Dave Child added a great point.

00:08:47: You don't need more leads, you need better filters.

00:08:50: Filters,

00:08:50: okay.

00:08:51: How?

00:08:51: Your team, the people actually in the booth, they need to be trained differently.

00:08:54: Trained to ask questions right away.

00:08:56: that filter for things like timing, budget.

00:08:58: authority.

00:08:59: Qualify quickly.

00:09:00: Don't just chat.

00:09:01: Right.

00:09:01: Get to the point faster.

00:09:03: Chris Dunn had an observation that really resonated with me.

00:09:05: He used this analogy about taking a standard architectural tour.

00:09:09: He said a really engaging tour guide can turn something potentially dry into an unforgettable, memorable experience.

00:09:16: Okay, I see where he's going.

00:09:17: And he said the exact same principle applies to boots.

00:09:21: The design might attract someone initially, but it's the experience you create that actually captivates them.

00:09:27: It has to be in intentional, maybe engage multiple senses, build some actual memory points.

00:09:32: That intentionality piece feels like the new core metric for on-site.

00:09:37: Martin Fretwell argued pretty clearly that all the ROI mechanics in the world won't work if the actual attendee experience is just

00:09:44: poor.

00:09:44: Right.

00:09:44: If it's a bad experience, who cares about the ROI cactuation?

00:09:47: Exactly.

00:09:47: You need an attendee first model.

00:09:49: And interestingly, often the value isn't even the sales pitch itself.

00:09:53: Andre Luck observed this, especially for B to B sports events.

00:09:57: Sometimes it's more about who else is in the room.

00:09:59: Ah, the networking aspect.

00:10:01: The curated peer connections.

00:10:03: That can be the main draw, more than any product demo.

00:10:05: And we're seeing some really cool tactical shifts in event formats to try and drive that intentionality.

00:10:11: Alex Adkins noted a few trends.

00:10:13: Like what?

00:10:13: Things like shorter, smarter agendas respecting people's time.

00:10:17: Wellness integrations are popping up like Seismic had a wellness lounge at an event.

00:10:22: Oh, interesting.

00:10:23: Taking care of the attendee.

00:10:25: Yeah.

00:10:25: And more curated connection opportunities replacing those

00:10:29: huge,

00:10:30: unfocused networking mixers.

00:10:32: Like Pavilion's Women's Summit was mentioned as a good example of focused connection.

00:10:36: And even the venue choice itself.

00:10:38: is now part of that experience metric.

00:10:40: Liz Cordelaglar shared something interesting there.

00:10:43: What was that?

00:10:44: That venues with really distinct, you know, Instagrammable features, they can actually see up to forty percent more social media mentions.

00:10:52: Wow, forty percent just from the venue aesthetics.

00:10:55: Apparently.

00:10:56: It directly boosts satisfaction and loyalty just by giving attendees something cool and shareable.

00:11:01: little things matter.

00:11:01: Okay, before we move off the physical space, for everyone feeling that budget squeeze, Rebecca Carmody offered a really smart tactical hack.

00:11:09: Oh, yes, the modular booth design.

00:11:11: Exactly.

00:11:11: Tell us about that.

00:11:13: Yeah, and this isn't about those cheap looking pop-up banners.

00:11:16: We're talking about properly designed booth elements that are made to be reused and reconfigured for different shows, different footprints.

00:11:23: Flexible.

00:11:24: Very.

00:11:25: She estimates this approach can actually help you achieve, like, double the market presence over a quarter, while saving maybe up to eighteen percent on your total exhibit costs.

00:11:35: Double presence, lower costs.

00:11:37: That's genuinely actionable advice for a lot of teams right now.

00:11:40: Absolutely.

00:11:41: It's a fantastic way to stretch those limited marketing dollars further.

00:11:44: Okay, great stuff.

00:11:46: Let's move to our final critical phase, post-event velocity and operationalizing knowledge.

00:11:52: This is arguably where so many field marketing efforts just lose all that built-up pipeline momentum.

00:11:58: Yeah,

00:11:58: the dreaded post-show drop-off.

00:12:00: The only thing that seems to work here is rapid, context-driven follow-up.

00:12:04: That's the mantra.

00:12:05: Rapid

00:12:05: and context-driven.

00:12:06: The goal should be triggering same day, if possible, value-led follow-up.

00:12:10: And that follow-up needs to provide relevant assets and outline a very clear next milestone.

00:12:16: So no generic, nice meeting you emails a week later.

00:12:19: Absolutely not.

00:12:20: Ideally... Follow-ups need to hit inboxes in less than forty-eight hours, and they must be context-driven, referencing the actual conversation.

00:12:28: No templates allowed.

00:12:29: Okay, but to enable that kind of speed and personalization, the operational backbone, the tech stack, it has to be absolutely rock solid, right?

00:12:38: Oh,

00:12:38: completely.

00:12:39: You have to standardize how you capture data across your CRM and your marketing automation platform, otherwise you get data leakage.

00:12:47: Let's talk about that leakage.

00:12:48: That sounds painful.

00:12:49: It is.

00:12:49: It's a massive pain point.

00:12:51: Teams are constantly struggling with manually moving contact info between, say, an event app, the CRM, and Markito or Pardo.

00:13:00: Right.

00:13:00: The manual shuffle.

00:13:01: Yeah.

00:13:02: When you standardize that flow, a couple of things happen.

00:13:05: Attribution becomes clean, which makes reporting ROI much easier.

00:13:09: And sales get that vital context almost instantly.

00:13:12: Makes sense.

00:13:12: And beyond just the contact follow-up, marketers also need to get better at converting all the learnings from sessions the insights picked up on the floor into usable collateral.

00:13:21: Like what kind of collateral?

00:13:22: Think short videos summarizing key takeaways.

00:13:25: Snackable assets based on common questions.

00:13:29: Things that can fuel the pipeline long after everyone's left the venue.

00:13:33: Keep the conversation going.

00:13:34: And technology, specifically AI, seems to be playing a bigger role in cleaning up that operational backbone.

00:13:41: For sure.

00:13:42: Ashley Cook mentioned an insight from Marius Milcher that AI is a real competitive advantage right now.

00:13:48: might actually be in the back office, boosting those operational efficiencies.

00:13:52: Not necessarily the fancy front end stuff yet.

00:13:54: Exactly.

00:13:55: And Huygen echoed this.

00:13:57: The idea is that AI should be removing the bulk of the manual grunt work, the data entry, the list cleaning, all that stuff, so that marketers are freed up to spend their time doing what humans do best, reading the room, having genuine conversations, providing that crucial context that AI just, well, it can't generate.

00:14:15: Let AI handle the data.

00:14:16: Humans handle the nuance.

00:14:17: That's

00:14:18: the idea.

00:14:18: Okay, one final point here.

00:14:20: Maybe a bit niche, but super important for operators and anyone managing the budget.

00:14:24: Compliance.

00:14:25: Ah, yes.

00:14:26: Don't forget the tax man.

00:14:28: Mandy Hennison posted a reminder about potential pitfalls.

00:14:32: Which should teams look out for?

00:14:34: This is critical and often gets missed.

00:14:37: Teams absolutely must monitor the per employee exemption thresholds for gifts and hospitality.

00:14:43: Explain that.

00:14:44: Well, if you give an attendee a gift or wine and dine them above a certain legal value limit, which varies by region, your company could face compliance fines.

00:14:54: Or even worse, the attendee might certainly have a tax liability for that benefit.

00:14:58: Oof,

00:14:59: definitely want to avoid that.

00:15:00: Yeah.

00:15:01: And also make sure you're including all the ancillary costs, things like tech platform fees, event agency fees in your total event spend calculation, not just the obvious booth rental cost.

00:15:11: You need the full picture for accurate ROI.

00:15:14: It's always the details that trip you up in the accounting.

00:15:16: Good reminder.

00:15:17: So wrapping all this together, Tamara Machado offered a nice holistic view, didn't she?

00:15:22: She did.

00:15:22: Basically saying the booth, the event itself, it's really just the beginning.

00:15:26: It's the post-event strategy that tight sales alignment and the rapid discipline follow-up.

00:15:33: That's what actually converts the visibility you gained into measurable revenue.

00:15:38: So thinking about all this, what's the big takeaway for you listening right now?

00:15:43: I mean, the fundamental shift we've seen across all these LinkedIn posts, it really feels like this pivot away from optimizing just for contact volume, you know, the flashy showcase towards optimizing for genuine problem identification and the quality of conversations, that disciplined execution piece.

00:16:00: Yeah, yeah, that feels

00:16:01: right.

00:16:01: And that distinction, that seems to be the difference between running a really expensive photo op and actually building a reliable revenue accelerator.

00:16:08: It means leaders, as Todd Hilton advised, need to set a really strong, measurable intention for the entire event space.

00:16:15: What do you actually want people to feel and more importantly do as a result of being

00:16:19: there?

00:16:19: That intentionality.

00:16:20: That's the new currency, it seems.

00:16:22: Exactly.

00:16:22: Intentionality is the new currency of field marketing.

00:16:25: Well said.

00:16:27: And hey, if you enjoyed this deep dive, just a reminder that new episodes drop every two weeks.

00:16:31: You can also check out our other editions covering things like account-based marketing, go-to-market strategy, channel marketing, martech, social selling, and of course, AI.

00:16:40: in B to B marketing.

00:16:42: Great stuff.

00:16:42: Thank you so much for joining us for this analysis of what's happening right now at the cutting edge of field marketing.

00:16:48: Definitely hit that subscribe button so you don't miss our next deep dive.