It’s impossible to be in all places at once. But if you train your team members right, it’s almost like you could be.

Last week, we attended the SaaStr conference on behalf of Bospar to network, meet with clients and learn more about why marketers in the SaaS world need our help! While we perused the Sponsors We Love hall, we encountered the same issue with many of the booths we stopped at: companies who had spent significant time and resources to exhibit on-site were sending employees who only functioned as sales leaders – they had little understanding of the full communication strategies available to them to close a deal, including PR efforts.

However, when trained correctly on the full matrix of sales, PR and marketing, sales leaders will have an easier time building brand awareness at these events.

Below is a guide on what lessons marketers can pass to their sales team to maximize event success. It will help your teams understand the value that having a grasp on their company’s marketing efforts can have on their sales efforts.

Step 1: Outline what PR is and what results it drives

PR and sales are innately intertwined. We go out and tell your stories, put forth announcements on the new products and services you launch, position your thought leaders as the go-to source for your company’s area of expertise and secure that elusive tier-1 media placement that you thought was never truly possible. Then, your sales team gets to tout that expertise to the clients they want to lock in – if they are taught to do so.

For CMOs and marketing directors, teach your sales team about PR in a way that makes sense.

Here are a few tips on how to phrase it:

• PR’s placements are earned through credibility rather than a pay-to-play advertisement marketers secure. With that in mind, the PR placement has third-party validation and instills more trust in decision-makers vetting your product or service. 
• When you read the news (The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Associated Press, NPR), the articles require credible sources so reporters can write factually correct stories. The PR team drives the connection between company spokespeople and those media outlets. Recent examples of this can be found in:
  • Entrepreneur (UVM: 2,192,861): “’Human-Capable’ AI Agents Will Change the Workforce Within 3 Years” by business news reporter Sherin Shibu. The article cites our client, Alex Zekoff, as a thought leader with expertise on the topic of AI Agents.
  • Fox News (UVM: 51,793,744): “5 myths about schizophrenia, according to a mental health expert’” by senior editor, health, Melissa Rudy. The article cites Brooke Kempf, a spokesperson for one of our clients, as an expert on schizophrenia and serious mental illness.

Step 2: Detail how this can be used to fill and propel those in your sales funnels

PR can be leveraged in a few ways to help your teams nail down the prospect they’ve been chasing for months. Inspire your sales teams with several ways to instill PR wins into their own sales conversations:

• Media coverage:
  • PR usually secures coverage for company news announcements, product launches and thought leadership on trending topics.
  • Ensure these placements are given to the sales team as a means to follow up with prospects.
  • Depending on the article, these placements can showcase that your company is leading the charge on trends, producing media-worthy product updates that have high impact on customers or can even build out a narrative around a pain point that you are solving for.
  • You can see examples of this in Bospar’s work. For example, we recently secured Fox Business coverage (reporter Daniella Genovese) of a new app launch, SONUCast, Revefi’s funding announcement in TechCrunch (reporter Kyle Wiggers) Plume’s charity cycling challenge spotlight in CNN (reporter George Ramsay) and Jitjatjo’s mention in a Forbes piece (contributor Bryan Robinson, Ph.D.) that touts the benefits of flexible work.
• Speaking engagements and awards
  • Securing speaking engagements and award wins is no easy feat, and if it is achieved, you should shout it from the rooftops! Or, more importantly, let your prospects know.
  • We deploy this tactic within our own lead funnel – we’ve won countless awards. These moments were great opportunities to re-engage with some prospects.
• Messaging development
  • Often overlooked, messaging development can drive real results. At SaaStr, it was painfully obvious that several companies in the room offered the exact same services. When asked about differentiators, some salespeople soared, while others stumbled. Equipping salespeople ahead of time with a clear mission, company goals and differentiators can be a powerful asset to drive sales. 

Studies show that, on average, a 1-point gain in brand metrics such as awareness and consideration drives a 1% increase in sales. And 78% of customers are more likely to buy from a company they know and trust. Brand awareness, driven by PR and social media, builds familiarity and trust with your audience. Your next big sales pipeline might be under your nose, and you don’t even know it.

Step 3: Rinse and repeat!

With every new hire, it’s a great idea to provide an overview of the company’s core pillars, including marketing and PR efforts, outlined as part of their onboarding process.

Marketing teams are often small, especially for startups and early-stage companies like the ones Bospar most often represents. We see you, and we hear you. We know you do the leg work when it comes to setting your organization up for success at a tradeshow.

If your representatives attending, especially your sales teams, are up to speed on what you are working on, what your goals are and why they matter, they can function as an extension of your already mighty team. It just takes a bit of time to get them prepped.

But, we promise, it’s worth it. And Bospar is here to help.