Dreamforce 2015: What the largest software conference on the planet can do for your small business

Last week, Salesforce’s Dan Ross (Commercial Sales AVP for emerging and small businesses) hosted a webinar for those in the private sector considering going to Dreamforce this September. The Idealist Consulting team will be there, and we encourage all of our clients (in both private and nonprofit sectors) to attend. If you need some convincing or want a few tips on how to prepare and what to expect, here are some highlights from the webinar.

Who Presented
Dan Ross - Salesforce
Matt Behrent - DemoChimp - 35 employees, B2B SaaS, creates and automates product demos
Dave Will - Peach New Media - 40 employees, B2B continuing ed solution and learning platform

After giving an overview of last year’s conference (150,000 registered attendees, 14,865 SMB attendees, and over 1500 breakout sessions), Dan gave a rundown of what’s new for this year. This included a new venue, the featured band, and a dedicated experience for small and medium business that includes specialized keynotes, a dedicated small and midsize business (SMB) zone in the expo, an exclusive SMB party, tailored sessions with customers, and 1-on-1 discussion with experts.

Dan then asked Matt and Dave about their experience as small business CEOs and what they’ve gleaned from years at Dreamforce.

Pre Dreamforce

Inspiration

Dreamforce facilitates one of the largest gatherings of sales and marketing professionals, clients, potential customers, and industry peers. Matt explains that in an age where most business is done remotely, facetime is incredibly valuable:

“Incredible serendipity happens when you have that many people together sharing ideas and energy. We wanted leads, and we knew that our customers were going to be there, so we put together a specific plan on how to get leads.”

In such a large group, it’s inevitable that you’ll come across situations you didn’t plan for. To prepare, come with well-defined goals but don’t get into the weeds on how you’re going to accomplish them, as your solution might be unexpected. Opportunities often come from running into the right person at the right time and being open to the connection.

Dave also spoke to the motivational aspect of Dreamforce. He explained that his company plans retreats to “get out of the tactical and into the strategic,” and that Dreamforce is the greatest conductor of this type of in-house inspiration. Aside from learning and networking, Peach New Media focuses on having “a different and strategically inspiring experience with our executive team.”

Justifying the investment

For many small businesses, price is a big hurdle (Salesforce provides an ROI calculator and letter-share to help convince your boss). Travel, hotel, and miscellaneous expenses do add up, but the opportunity to observe and interact with the thought leaders and industry experts is invaluable. You will be absorbing best practices from the biggest players in the game. When it comes to pitching the spending, the potential for every role in a company to gain intelligence and see success stories in action is a major selling point.

You can also expect to generate leads; even if you’re not a vendor,you’ll constantly be surrounded by prospects. If this is especially important to you, determine how many leads you need to break even on the cost of the conference and deliberately create a plan surrounding lead generation.

Tools

Both CEOs cited their Account Executives or reps as incredibly helpful assets. AEs can help you navigate the sessions, refine your schedule, and come up with a strategy. Behrent and Will also suggested taking advantage of the Dreamforce mobile app, the Dreamforce website, forums on the hub, and dividing your team up according to department to cover as many sessions as possible. Read up on blog posts and connect with people in your network who have attended Dreamforce in the past.

During Dreamforce

Can Dreamforce cater to small businesses?

One listener asked if Dreamforce had enough to offer small and medium businesses when so much of what they do is geared toward nonprofits and large corporations. Matt pointed out that the SMB market makes up a significant portion of Salesforce revenue, so they pay special attention to caring for that customer base. He added that the presence of larger companies is not a downside, but rather an opportunity for learning from and courting large clients and partners. You get to connect with executives from big companies you wouldn’t have otherwise had access to. Matt said, “That’s the biggest reason why it’s an opportunity for SMBs; meeting with clients and customers and potential customers from larger companies.” If you’ve been in business for a while, it’s a good chance that some of your clients, customers, or prospects are going to be there and you’ll have a unique opportunity to nurture those relationships.

Study your market

Because Peach New Media sells to salespeople, they were able to observe their target audience in action: they learned what resonated with their prospects and saw how successful companies were wooing them. By observing the best of the best, attendees also learn how to approach trade shows and panel discussions, facilitate community outreach experiences, communicate with customers and provide content for them. If these things are part of what you do, being there to participate means you’ll be learning from the best.

After Dreamforce

Small business challenges Dreamforce helped solve

Like many organizations, Peach New Media’s biggest challenge was the combination and cajoling of many disparate applications. They tried to find the most inexpensive tools to get the job done, but ended up spending time and money trying to get the solutions to sync and communicate smoothly. When they met with their reps at Dreamforce, they realized that this could be done seamlessly with a couple of higher-powered tools available through the AppExchange. Now their data is held in one place so they can access and refer to it efficiently.

Because of what he saw at Dreamforce, Matt redesigned the inner workings of DemoChimp to provide their team with full attribution. They established systems to track how different lead sources fuel revenue, enabling themselves to make informed decisions that directly impact growth (for DemoChimp, integrating Pardot was the biggest step in this journey).

The value added by standardizing actions and activities and being able to track and report on those activities is the key behind growing a team. Dave explains that:

“If you can learn to act, track, manage, and measure in the same way then you’ve got a really well automated sales platform. For me, especially in a company where we’re merging with a much bigger sales team, it's incredibly important to match those up consistently.”

Take home inspiration and put it into action

Keep track of your insights throughout the week and schedule a meeting after the conference to go over goals with your team. If you have a running list of action items, it's important to take clear notes to ensure that you remember details as you reflect after the fact. Matt narrows down his list to three action items he’s completely dedicated to, “Keep it small! Make [it a list of] things that will be completely different based on the conference; achievable goals.”

Dave suggests going to Dreamforce with a knowledge of your weak points and singling out sessions that address them. Before and after these pain-point specific sessions, network with those in attendance and identify allies. Also, know that speakers are often willing to talk with you and give specific answers after their presentations; you could potentially gain thousands of dollars of consulting advice in a ten minute chat.  

Go with questions and look for answers. Observe what the others are doing. Learn from the best and apply it to your market.

When you register for dreamforce, you should have access to the SMB landing page (live soon) that gives you the list of all the sessions, and provides you with an agenda-builder. Reach out to your Account Executive and tell them your objectives so they can recommend a breakout session for you.