What makes Marcus Evans Summits so productive

“Marcus Evans introduced us to organizations we had not been able to access on our own. Our first Summit led to two new clients, and we have ten RFPs in the pipeline with companies from our second Summit,” said Robert Atkins, Chief Executive Officer, Gray Associates Inc., a solution provider at two Marcus Evans University Leadership Summits. “If we close just half of those deals, that is USD 200,000 - 400,000 in business,” he added.

What business opportunities have the Summits brought your way?

Our first Summit resulted in two new clients. We were introduced to organizations we had quite a bit of trouble getting into, which was a very good experience. It encouraged us to register again. We also came very close to a huge account, one of the three largest community college systems in the country. The discussions went quite far along but did not materialize. However, we are planning to go back to them when our product matures, and we believe we can win them over.

At our second event, 20 out of our 24 one-on-one meetings were extremely high quality, genuinely interested potential buyers. Our discussions led to ten RFPs, but it is too soon to know how many of them will convert. It was a very effective event.

Were they on your radar? Had you approached those organizations before?

We had contacted a few before, but did not have a substantial relationship with any of them. The face-to-face meetings moved the discussions forward much more quickly. Around 90 percent of the companies were new to us.

We email and cold call essentially every institution in the US, but that approach does not work. The Summit was significantly more productive, and we may even bump off a few of our competitors.

The one-on-one meetings worked very well for us. There was enough time to explain what we do, address their questions, get to know them a bit, and see if there was any potential.

How would you compare the Summits with other industry events?

This was by far the most productive conference I have attended. Almost everyone we talked to had a genuine interest in what we do, and remembered us afterwards. At another conference, only two out of our 12 meetings had potential. The delegates did not even know they were there to meet us, and were not necessarily qualified. It clearly did not work. It took a lot of our time and effort to get some value out of it.

The Marcus Evans Summits were ten times more productive.

We have attended many events over the years, and a lot of times attendees were actively disinterested in talking to vendors. We felt we were imposing on them although we were technically paying for their participation.

At the University Leadership Summit, the delegates knew they were there to explore different vendor offerings, they understood they were there to potentially buy something, and were actually happy to speak to us. They had already been screened by Marcus Evans. That was the fundamental difference between this event and others. There was no need for us to flag people in the hallway to get five minutes of their time. The one-on-one meetings had already been set. It was a terrific experience for us, and we will almost certainly come back.

Find out more about the next University Leadership Summit