Move faster this SaaStr Annual

SaaStr Annual is just a week away - are you making the most of the time you have left?

As regular readers of this blog would know, we wanted to give back to the SaaS community this year, and therefore, set up SaaStrdocs, an exclusive marketplace for SaaStr Annual 2018, that would help showcase SaaS providers on a single platform, and help them connect with relevant seekers. That way, they can better utilize their time at the event, and make sure to get the most out of it.

(See for yourself >>)

But we wanted to make sure that you cover your bases at the event. That's why we’ve put our heads together and come up with a little list of what you need to pay attention to make sure that your event goes smoothly.

(While we put this together for SaaStr Annual, this checklist would hold good for any major B2B event you attend in the future as well.)

Here’s our 5-point checklist:

1. Engage effectively pre-event

Make sure that you already start connecting with other attendees and identify potential customers that you can meet up with during the event. What we encourage our clients to do is to highlight any special offers or activities that you’ll be arranging for the event, or even letting  them know who will be at the event. 

That’s why we built SaaStrdocs. If you still haven’t registered (which, by the way, is shameful!), you should - as a marketplace exclusively for SaaStr Annual attendees, it’s an excellent opportunity to make sure that you showcase your product and offers in a single platform. Engage with each other, discover new solutions, and, above all else, start making connections pre-event, so that your three days in San Francisco are super-productive!

2. Get your act together for the big day

At an event of this scale, there are a lot of moving parts. So you need to make sure that you have a handle on everything - especially if you’re manning a stall on site. Maintain a thorough checklist of everything you’re going to need, and distribute responsibilities across the team. That way, you can guarantee that all logistical aspects of the event are taken care of, and your staff are prepped and ready to deal with inquisitive prospects.

3. Make every interaction count

Interactions at these events are always frenetic and fast-paced. Your staff needs to be thoroughly prepped on the material, and they should be ready to field multiple questions from multiple participants. But that’s not enough. Using a platform such as SaaStr Annual to simply pitch your product is really not leveraging its full potential. Make sure to also ask questions, and learn more about the other participants. Maybe there’re other synergies that can be explored, or you might be able to get better insight into what really motivates your customers. It will also help cement the connection you’ve made, and make sure that you stand out from the horde of attendees.

4. Test out new features

This is a bit of a gamble, but we’ve had some success with it, so I thought I’d toss it in there, and let you decide for yourself. You’re going to be able to put your solution in thousands of hands for brief bursts of  time. That could be a golden opportunity to test out new user experiences, or do some A/B testing. This can be especially effective if you’re looking at rolling out new features soon, and you’d like to have a mini-beta test to see how consumers experience the feature. 

Of course, this could easily backfire - if the new feature fails, it could create a negative impression that you may not be able to easily bounce back from. Therefore, while it might be useful, it needs to be done in a controlled manner, and only after making sure that you’ve done enough internal testing. Like I said, this one can be a bit dicey, but it’s worked for us on occasion! 

5. Follow up, follow up, follow up

The biggest problem with every event - especially a B2B event like SaaStr Annual - is that there are just too many other participants. Therefore, while you might engage with a prospect successfully during the five minutes you share, there’s only a slim chance that he’ll remember you days later. 

So how do you make sure that you cement that connection in the limited time you have?

We used to face this issue all the time too, and that’s why we built our flagship product, Paperflite. Paperflite allows you to instantly share content with your prospect while you engage with them at the event. What’s more, you can track exactly how they engage with your content in real-time, allowing you to effectively gauge interest, and know exactly when to follow up. What’s more. your prospect has access to their own unique microsite, customized for them by you, and showcasing both your brand and your profile, so as to make sure that they are able to make the connection even days later. (Learn more about Paperflite here.)

So those are our 5 tips for making the most of SaaStr Annual 2018. Since you’ve got a week to go, you should really already be knee-deep in pre-engagement activities! But it’s not too late - get on over to SaaStrdocs.com, and set up your product showcase right now. You can then promote that showcase in all your communications with other attendees, giving them a chance to see exactly what you have to offer during this event, and encourage them to connect with you before the event even begins!