Remove the idea of exchange – and simply offer your lead the information and data he/she seeks. Once you build a repertoire with the lead you will be able to garner the information you want because you will have built the credibility to earn it.
MozCon is a digital marketing conference that takes place in Seattle, WA every year. It draws in a large crowd of eager-to-learn marketing and business enthusiasts to witness speakers share new trends within the digital industry, help us remain abreast of digital technologies, and share new, actionable strategies.
The machine revved, my pupils grew larger, and my finger pushed that big red button. The whirling claw dropped to the bottom of the plush filled glass penitentiary and I finally secured the Roger (MozCon’s robot mascot) plushy that would unfortunately, have remains scattered across the dog park just a few weeks later. Little did I know that this very act of playing the claw machine was a true foreshadowing of the entire conference’s main idea: changing the methods in which we relate to our audience in order to connect in ways that resonate.
As MozCon anticipated, many attendees were eager to play the vintage claw game, often times coming in early before the conference, skipping sessions to get in line before it got out of control, or staying late to get one last chance of clamp victory. To play the game, we needed special tokens that were only available by networking with the sponsors. I had talked to many of the sponsors before attending MozCon so I was fairly informed and uninterested in the idea at the time.
While mustering up the courage to take a handful of tokens in a very sly*-mannered way, the individual at the sponsorship booth said to me “go ahead and take as many as you want.” With that, I took a handful and ran to feed my new claw-addiction.
But something stuck with me. The sponsor of that booth was MozLocal. I didn’t need to hear MozLocal’s sales pitch, I didn’t need to understand the product, and I didn’t even need to shake the hand of the individual at the booth to know that I already had a favorable impression of MozLocal in mind because of that action.
Our exchange was seamless, frictionless, and made the user experience (mine) smooth.
