One of the responsibilities of a Sales Engineer is booth duty at various conferences.  I must have 2 or 3 dozen badges hanging on the wall in my office from the past 7 years.  Yes, there are some badges in there for Sales Kickoffs and other events, but the bulk are for working conferences like QCon, Velocity, GDC and JavaOne.  A lot of people seem to dislike booth duty, but if you take it serious and leverage the experience you can up your game.  (And of course help your team crush their number!)

There is no other place like the conference floor to learn what questions potential customers will have.  And there is no better place to hone your elevator pitch.  Where else can you have 40 to 70 sales conversations in a single day?  And the feedback is much more instantaneous if you pay attention.  You’ve got one or two sentences to get someone’s attention, and then just a few minutes to create some interest and get your message across.  It is a great time to improve your skills at reading people, learn to ask the correct probing questions and keep someone locked in.

Yes, there will be people walking the floor that are just looking for swag.  And others that might be competitors or in a role where they have no interest in talking to you.  But there also will be a lot of foot traffic for you to interact with.  And they aren’t locked into a meeting where they have to be nice for 30 to 45 minutes.  Walking away is pretty easy, can you connect before they do?

If you are new to a firm, ask if you can shadow a conference early on.  While you do, watch your other teammates.  When you see one that is giving effort and having good conversations, hang close to them.  When an attendee asks a question, quickly review in your mind how you would answer.  Then pay close attention to how your coworker answers.  If it was a better answer, make a note.  (Literally have a notepad.  If you are doing it right you will be mentally burnt out when the day is done.)  If not, still write it down but when there is a lull bring up the question and ask them how your idea of an answer works.

And a minor item – so often I see booths with 4 to 6 employees in it that make it hard to approach.  They circle around the table, several of them having their backs to the walkway.  Don’t let your team do this!They are creating a wall that keeps people out of your booth.  Make sure folks fan out and make it inviting and accessibly.  There’s an old post with some other key points around doing booth duty that is a worthwhile read and reminder.

If your company is giving away some kind of swag it is perfectly reasonable to expect at least a conversation in order for someone to get the goodie.  “A t-shirt?  I have to at least have a quick conversation before I can give one out.  Do you have 2 minutes to chat quick?”  Nothing wrong with that.  Stick to your guns.  Those promotional items cost a lot of money and are there to create awareness and leads.  Everyone at the booth has to play this way.  You don’t want to ever create any appearance of favoritism or unfairness.

Compare the practice and insight you get to one conference shift to running (or even shadowing) 15 or 20 calls.  You’ll find that the booth duty gives you the biggest chance to up your game.  And the stakes are not as high compared to an inbound sales call.  It is a great time to have some fun and practice your elevator pitch multiple times in rapid succession.