Catering lunch & learns can get pretty expensive pretty quickly.
That’s why it’s so important to make sure you’re reaching the right people to YOUR lunch & learn.
A short story about a guy who annoyed me,
…made me apologize to 25 co-workers
…and taught me a pretty good marketing lesson I’ll pass on to you.
The insistent/persistent vendor
About 20 years ago, I scheduled Lunch & Learns for the firm I worked at.
Usually, I’d send an email inviting everyone in the office. And that’s what I did this time.
A vendor asked if he could bring in lunch & discuss how he could help our healthcare clients.
So, I sent the invite to all 100+ architects, designers & engineers in the office, saying the first 25 respondents could come.
It filled quickly, so I emailed the vendor to order lunch for 25.
Then he called to ask who’d be there. I said it would be engineers, architects, & interior designers.
“Whoever responded first…”
He interrupted, “No —That’s NOT my audience! I need project managers & principals in the room. I need to speak with the folks meeting with hospital CEOs.”
[𝘈𝘯𝘯𝘰𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨! 𝘞𝘩𝘺 𝘥𝘪𝘥𝘯’𝘵 𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘴𝘬 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘵 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦? 𝘉𝘶𝘵 𝘐 𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘥 & 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘯𝘦𝘥 𝘢 𝘨𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘰𝘯.]
He continued, “I finance hospitals to help them expand & grow. Your draftsmen & engineers will be bored, and I’ll have wasted everyone’s time.”
I guess that made sense. I should’ve asked a few more questions about his intended audience.
The architect giveth, the architect taketh away.
I sent an apologetic email to cancel the lunch to the original group.
Then I sent a new invite to a tailored, targeted list of principals & PMs. And included a better explanation of why they should come.
And everyone lived happily ever after. 🙂
I’ve had some product reps ask if it’s too presumptuous to cherry-pick and ask for only architects & designers making specification or product selection decisions to attend a lunch & learn.
My answer…
Too presumptuous? No. You can always ask.
It depends on who’s organizing for you on the firm’s side. If it’s a small office, you’ll likely get everyone.
When I worked at a large firm, I learned to like specific requests so I knew who to invite. But, if your contact is the person at the front desk, they don’t always know who fits your criteria. And they’ll still invite the whole office.
So, write an email for that person to send out that clearly says who the presentation will be best suited to.
You’ll still get some “plate lickers” who are just there for the free food. But you’ll start to get a more tailored group if you ask. *[You don’t ask, you don’t get.]*
Sound good?
My lesson in target marketing…
That was my introduction to the importance of knowing your audience & targeting your message to their needs.
So how about you? Here are some good questions to ask yourself:
Are you…
…researching your audience?
…sure you’ve got the right ones in the room?
…tracking contacts you make at presentations?
…confirming who’s reading your email invites?
…following up with attendees?
…asking for feedback?
That’s your action step for today:
Take a hard look at who you’re marketing to.
And whether you need to expand or focus that audience.
Are you sending the right messages?
And, as always, if you need help from someone who’s been there and can help you deep dive into your marketing with fresh eyes…
Reach out today. Send me a note on the Contact Form and we can set up a short chat to see if we’d be a good fit…
That’s all for now.
Make it a great marketing day!
Neil Sutton