One of the key challenges faced by a user group leader is getting good speakers for their meetings. They are really not interested in a sales pitch but are interested in technical learning. Ok seems simple enough, but then why do most vendors fail so badly in approaching and engaging with communities? By the end of this article I hope to provide you a four step process to help the community and your organization.
Step 1: Identify the need.
The first step is to figure out what is the primary motivation of the user group. Refer to article Top 7 reasons why people join a user group community. One simple way to do this is to visit the community website and see what the past meetings have been about. Are there a variety of experts who come and speak, are the meetings informal discussions, do they generally have snacks and beer post meetings to enable networking? You need to do this task. Imagine trying to make a new friend without bothering to know what her likes or dislikes are or imagine a conversation where you just barge in and make your point. Would you expect anyone to really pay attention to what you want? It is a similar situation here; you need to spend the most time on this activity of identifying the need which the community has.
Step 2: What works? Connecting via trusted sources
If the user group already has a number of 3rd party vendors come and speak to them, it might make your task of approaching them easier, as they are used to working with vendors. However, the best way to begin communication with the group is via a trusted source. Here, associations (INETA, GITCA, PASS) of which the groups are members of, would be a good starting point. Similarly, speakers who may have spoken at their meeting are good sources for an introduction.
Step 3: Deliver a relationship model, not a technology session
What do you promise to deliver to the user group? For a moment assume you’ve identified that the group has had a number of past meetings focused on UI/Design related activities, and your company creates UI tools and components. In this case what is it that you actually help to deliver? Do you say… “Our company can have an expert deliver a session covering “XYZ” UI tools and give in depth technical information on the same?” Logically it sounds quite alright; however, tactically this is inadequate. Ok, I know I need to explain this. Let’s say the leader agrees to the above, and your internal tech guru gives a superb session, you would possibly have happy members, who are quite interested in the product and would possibly show interest in engaging on the next level, maybe even enquire about the pricing etc. at which stage your technical guru, might handover those kind of questions to your sales team. All sounds good, but this is crap. Huh! I’m sure that’s what the expression on your face is. Hang on this is quite important. What you’ve done is the number one mistake most companies make. You’ve not built a relationship with the community; you’ve focused on a few attendees and hopefully closed out on a few sales as well. What you’ve lost out is the possibility of continuous ongoing engagement. To enable that you need to think through your delivery strategy in more detail. Your delivery cannot be a technical session only, but needs to enable a relationship. Take one simple example to explore how to build a relationship. What if you offered to the group an opportunity to create and support a Special Interest group focused around UI? This helps establish you firmly with the group, it provides an avenue for the user group to offer more value to a focused group of its members, and it’s one more feather in the cap of the user group and its leaders and it enables you to periodically introduce new products and offerings in a convenient manner, adding to the value and building a solid relationship with the group. Ok, that was a mouthful… (I know this particular step can cover an entire article, hmm, that’s not a bad idea, maybe later.) Some other things you could do before you actually deliver a session to a user group: facilitate the leader to do a poll, mention that you’re open to do an anonymous poll, amongst members so that you get a realistic picture of interests and needs. This will help you to know if you need to spend more dollars or find a more appropriate group.
Step 4: Give them more
One of the most important things which I’ve rarely seen vendors do is provide resources, which will be valuable in establishing great relationships. Whitepapers are one of the simplest ways to break the ice. In fact, these could be used in your initial interaction with a user group leader, especially if you don’t have a trusted source via which to connect to a user group. Additionally, it provides another opportunity to engage with the group. An industry whitepaper, discounts, further in-depth session, notification about key industry events, your online free seminars, are some ideas which provide tangible value to the group members.
Are there other things which one could do? Certainly! However, following these four steps increases your chances of being invited to user groups again and again.
