Events – More than just a Party

28 Sep 2016

When people see that we have an Events Management module in OpenCRM, they will often dismiss it, saying that they never host events themselves and so wouldn’t need it. But it can be used for so much more than planning and hosting an event.

You can, with no modifications, use the Events Module in OpenCRM to record your engagement with potential and existing customers and track the benefits.

When we think of an Event we think of a Party, a Bash or a Soiree, but of course you can use it for any kind of event. It can be used to manage courses you’re planning to attend, handle the logistics of sending your staff on some training, or your own attendance at an exhibition or seminar.

And it’s the final one I want to walk you through in this blog post.

By creating an Event to hold the information about the exhibition, you not only have a place to hold all of the necessary information about the actual expo, but you can also manage which of your customers are going to attend, make appointments to chat with them, and then, of course, collate the new contacts you meet.

Let’s start with the first step, making sure our existing customers know that we are attending and that we would like them to take the opportunity to come and see us:

Who are we going to invite?

By creating a Custom View in Contacts or Companies in OpenCRM, we can filter only those who we would like to invite, we can then Add them to the Event and email them with their invite. We can monitor their response, whether they have said they will attend, update their status from Prospect to Attending which will allow us to manage the amount of clients that we would like to see, it also gives us an opportunity to book an appointment and have a 1-2-1 meeting.

What about all of those Cold Opportunities that you don’t know what to do with? Will inviting down to a less formal environment that isn’t 1-2-1 give you the opportunity to speak to them that you haven’t had before?

By using Events you can track all correspondence, create any calls or follow up calls and arrange meetings all from one place.

What about all of the details of the Potential Clients that you collected on the day?

You know what it is like at an exhibition, you meet so many new people and take in so many business cards, it can be a little overwhelming (not to mention exhausting). You can then create Contacts in OpenCRM for everyone you meet, people on the exhibitor lists, walk-ins, referrals, etc. and add them to the Event, not only do you keep all that valuable information in one place, you can also communicate with all of them with a single click.

By sending them a personalised thank you, you can also arrange that meeting they said they would like to have after the expo. Should you win any business out of it, you can link the Opportunity, Sales Orders, and Invoices back to the Event, giving you a clear ROI for that particular exhibition.

By keeping all of the information in one place when you are deciding whether the Seminar or Exhibition was cost effective, you can look back with confidence and make an more informed decision as to whether to do it again.

I can understand why people might not think to use the Events module for things they are attending, but we find it a great way to stay on top of all the communication and opportunities that arise following each and every one of these events.