A Taxonomy for Booth Visitors
A Taxonomy for Booth Visitors
The Cast of Characters You'll Meet at Any Tech Conference
I’ve been attending a lot of conferences and manning booths on the expo floor in the last 6 months. It’s a great way to meet people, pitch your product, and learn about what others are doing in a particular industry or space. Being at the booth means that you converse with folks who show up to your booth and ask you, “So, tell me more about X” (substitute X for the name of your company). But, not everyone who shows up to your booth is a prospective customer.
So, what are the different personas of folks who show up at a booth? Below is my “Booth Visitor Taxonomy”:
The Know-it-all: this is the person who starts the conversation by telling you what your company does (they’re often wrong) and then asking you a bunch of unrelated questions. Their goal is to demonstrate how smart they think they are. Try to end these conversations as quickly as possible.
The Skeptic: this is the person who is going to tell all the ways in which what you are doing is wrong - the problem is not real, or your solution is too simplistic and won’t scale, or there is no business to be built here. I engage with Skeptics with an open mind, ask them lots of “what makes you say that” questions that often lead to left field insights, but disengage if they become too combative.
The aftermath of a tech conference, at least according to Stability Diffusion XL. Anyon want to buy some Fjutzusih? The Job Seeker: this is mostly a fresh grad, a university student looking for an internship, or someone who has just been laid off. Try to be as helpful to them as possible - connect with them on LinkedIn, give them advice on how to approach their job search and finally, if you are hiring, do a mini interview to assess whether they could be a good fit for your company. I’ve seen some amazing examples of hustle with this persona at the conferences I’ve been to recently.
The Name Dropper: my least favorite persona 😜. Suffering from an inflated sense of self, they will tell you all the ways in which they are awesome and drop names of everyone they ostensibly know. Get out of these conversations as quickly as possible!
The Reverse Pitcher: my second favorite persona 😃! Why? It’s a great example of hustle! They attend the conference because their ICP is going to be manning the booths on the conference expo floor! I engage with this persona because I always learn a thing or two from the conversations.
The Curious Learner: while not a prospect, they are genuinely curious about what your company does, what problems you solve and for whom. They listen to what you are saying and ask thoughtful questions. Engage with them because this is an opportunity for you to get feedback on various aspects of your business.
The Genuine Lead: and last but not least, there is the genuine lead! My favorite persona - obviously! This is why you attend the conference in the first place. Finding genuine leads takes patience but boy, there is no better feeling than landing a demo meeting with a lead at a conference!
Any personas I missed? Share your favorite stories in the comments below!
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ha! this is hilarious. Also add the startup looking for funding, or maybe the tangential booth looking to pitch their cert