Coaching Insight 2: The Conference Win That Wasn’t

The Conference Hustle

A month after her breakthrough win with the national courier referral, the young Head of Marketing I was coaching was riding high. The company had a little more budget to play with and she was determined to make a splash in the industry. This time she wanted to test another lead generation channel, sponsoring one of the UK’s biggest logistics conferences.

She threw herself into it. The stand was smart and eye catching, complete with a looping product demo, a stack of branded notebooks and a prime location by the coffee area. They had a clear pitch and a steady stream of curious operations managers stopping to chat.

The Reality Behind the Numbers

By the end of the two day event, her team had scanned over 200 delegate badges and collected a pile of business cards. But there was a sobering reality hiding behind those numbers. A scary proportion of visitors had been more interested in snagging a free notebook or tote bag than talking seriously about their workflow challenges. The good conversations they did have were scattered between long stretches of casual browsers who were there for the swag rather than the software.

On paper it still felt like a success. But when she and the sales team began following up, the pattern was familiar. Some conversations were polite but vague. Many contacts were not actively looking for a new workflow solution. Others simply could not get budget approval for another year. The energy and investment that went into the sponsorship just was not matching the return they had hoped for.

Returning to What Works: Deepening Trusted Relationships

That is when I reminded her of what we had learned the month before, the value of deepening relationships with people who already trust the company. She decided to set aside an afternoon to call her new ‘ABM clients’ for whom she had appointed herself a marketing rep, not to sell, but to check in and ask how things were going.

During one of those calls, a client mentioned they had been speaking to a counterpart at a large ecommerce fulfilment centre who was having a nightmare with order tracking and bottlenecks in dispatch. The client said, “I told him about your system and he is interested. Want me to put you in touch?”

The Power of a Warm Referral

Two days later sales were on a video call with their Head of Operations. Thanks to the endorsement, the conversation skipped past the usual early sales hurdles. They went straight into a screen share demo tailored to his team’s pain points. Within 6 weeks, they had signed up.

Comparing Results: Referrals vs. Conference Leads

When she compared the outcomes, the difference was striking. Months of conference planning and thousands of pounds in sponsorship fees had yet to produce a single signed deal. One warm referral from a trusted client closed in half the time at virtually no cost.

Why Referrals Outperform Events for Lead Quality

The lesson was not that conferences do not work. They can be great for brand awareness and meeting people face to face. But when it comes to generating high quality, ready to buy leads, referrals can deliver a level of trust and speed that events simply cannot match.

And that is where a good referral platform comes in. Instead of waiting for those golden introductions to happen by accident, you can make them happen on purpose, again and again, while rewarding the people who open those doors for you.