Put that coffee down; customer conferences are for closers..

Customer conferences are great launch pads for young companies. That's where prospects are most relaxed, open to newer ideas and with giving advice. Yet few sales teams land quality leads at conferences. It's perhaps the lack of event ownership (marketing calls the shots) that leads to the typical shotgun sales approach. Sales can do better. If they choose to "co-own" the event and assume accountability.
To maximize your chance of getting quality leads, sales has to start by selecting the right team on the floor. The common trait needed in each member on your team is ..

1. Aggression, devising unique ways to finding true prospects 
2. Focus at forging a common bonding style with prospects and 
3. Most importantly, at securing the follow on meeting at the conference or in person at prospect's office.

Note: Being well dressed, confident, and good looks are table stakes.

Pre-planning: You should start planning ~2-months in advance. By the time your team gets to the conference, you all should have the prospect hit list (memorized) by names, titles, backgrounds etc. Ideally, your team would have reached out to the hit list with targeted pitches and invites.

• Use the attendee list: To gauge the audience types, identify your target sales plays and marketing campaigns that appeal to the select audiences. Contact the attendees, invite to pre conference webinars, surveys. If you don't have the current year, use last year's list.   

Throw a private party: Most important part of a conference! Sponsor a private party in the evening. Have a theme that relates to your solution; hand deliver the invitation; use personalized videos; use pretty faces to deliver the note; make sure prospects can't say no. A partner last year held their party off the conference on a boat, called in a standup comedian and had a reference customer give a sales talk on their experiences.

Invite the prospects through all possible channels; 1:1 meeting, snail mail, emails and phone call campaigns. When they call back, qualify the prospect. The goal is to filter out the A-list of prospects, ones you'd want to have your CEO, CTO invest time with at the party.

The hook; when show time is ON: You'd have a client's attention only if you solve their immediate needs. Time matters, so stand in strategic places in your booth; from where it's easy to read names on badges. Make sure prospects can easily spot exciting goodies first (raffles, alcohol, food, water, golf balls etc ) so they are drawn in.. As they review your marketing banners,  quickly decide if further intervention is warranted. Greet prospects by their name. And if the name rings a bell on the prospect hit list, immediately start the conversation. Hand them the party invite.
Never let a prospect leave without an agreement for the next meeting.. Simple things you should get is their cell number, and a quick connect on LinkedIn via the mobile app. Then do the soft talk.. Get their purpose for attending, what they like this year about conference, relevance to your offering and most important .. something personal.. what about life makes them sizzle.. Notice there's little product talk at this point.. Let's save that for the party session in the evening or next week in their office.

Use a speaking engagement to meet prospects: Nothing builds credibility, sells better at conferences like a team member do a speaking gig. Have a catchy title, send invites to potential prospects to attend session, solicit their feedback, connect with them after the session to plan next steps. Make your prospects feel they matter. It helps build trust. I hardly see reps going around the conference room introducing themselves, getting to know attendees and their interests in attending your session. Give the attendees goodies at the session; it helps ease the process of breaking the ice.