"Randal L. Schwartz" wrote: > Speaking at conferences is necessary to establish a reputation and to > practice your craft, but it's not really a great market for new > customers, unless you make sure you're *really* visible during the > rest of the conference.
I often get involved behind the scenes, and that helps with name recognition. I was a track chair at the last conference I went to, and I'm on the board of the next one. I've been known to organize dinners, like when many of the people on my swtest-discuss mailing list are going to be at the same conference. > Yeah, everything I loathed about sales when I was a simple grunt > technician, I now find I must do to sell Stonehenge. Schmooze. Throw > parties. Have an exhibit booth. Network with past associates. Yup. :-) There's a bit of a difference selling a company and selling an independent consultant. As an individual, I don't think it makes sense for me to have a booth. I spend my time at conferences meeting people, and maintaining contacts with my peers who are a rich source of referrals. It's more about having a few meaningful contacts than blanketing the market. I find this approach much more rewarding than when I was doing technical sales support for a consulting firm. > It's not enough to simply give a brilliant talk at a conference. The > people that hang around afterward are mostly just tech-heads, usually. I'm told that doing a full-day tutorial is much better than a track session talk. Only for a longer format do they get a sense of your ability as a trainer. I agree that it's not sufficient. I figure that people have to run across my work along at least two or three independent paths before they'll start to trust me. I've left bread crumbs on lots of different paths to facilitate this. :-) -- Danny Faught Tejas Software Consulting http://www.tejasconsulting.com
