First Convention: PCTA

This is my first Convention where I was part of the Planning and Execution (Jose Ramo and Harold did most of the Work on our Side). I want to summarize my lessons learned.

There was Market Planning was Involved. We decided to pursue a strategy where we will get into learning more about the ISPS.

ISP were a weakness of my Dad’s Company and there are 400 of them. We never got into them because of the opportunities that came with BPOs, POGOs, and Finance. Although Technology (electrical, mechanical, data centers, etc…) with BPOs is something we are good at in the past 10 years Dad’s company had a lot of set backs. ISP were very a logical partnership with Dad’s company but Businesses always focus on the Larger Targets. The timing is perfect as that we are going to work with these ISPs as we are in equal footing to form good business relations.

How to Take advantage of a Conventions Opportunities. That when there are 400 or so companies getting together there is a lot of things to Discover and Learn.

This sounds obvious but normally we allocate maybe half a manday or 2 people to check it out. There is a difference between allocating 2 man days to a Convention vs Allocating 60 man days to such an event. 80% of that was in Preparation, and 20% was in the participation.
That the amount of resources we put in yielded more than enough opportunities for the next 3 years of Quotas.
That if we prepped the sales more we would have yielded more, but the lessons learned is what we take to maybe next years or the year afters convention.
I understand there is some RISK or gambling involved. Not all business plans pan out, even logical ones like this one where Dad’s company: a System Integrator will participate in a Convention of ISPs.
This works if the Group is Heterogenous enough and Power is Distributed enough. If it was a Convention where a Relative Cartel or Duopoly hosted – this would have turned BADLY for us. If it was such a monopoly then it would have been a Prestige event for self aggrandizing. What was special about this was the Memorandum of Agreements that were signed Publicly.

That there were a lot of Opportunities and We need a plan to Scale and process these Opportunities Quickly. Within 2 weeks after the convention we should be following up and pursuing the relationship.

We should be getting our DATA organized. Leads, Opportunities, Templates, and The new sales being given a routine and process all developing actively with the team. Each operations meeting is defining our Standard Operating Procedure as we go (and Writing it Down).

The Business PLAN: the Mission Vision and the Proposition is VERY IMPORTANT.

The Market Strategy of the Company really needs to be communicated to everyone. Everyone knows the plan and can refer back to it as a GUIDING principle.
When ask WHAT DOES COMFAC DO? Everyone answers along the same lines: “We are here to help ISPS scale their Internet, Installation, Maintenance, and Customer Support with our Technology and Services”. And in each and every element the Sales Knows what Dad’s Company Does.

Wizher was our Booth Babe. Wizher giving an ISP the ability to Monetize their internet for Sari-sari store (the local informal store) by allowing people to pay for access to internet was “what got all the boys in the yard”.

I have to admit my wife criticized rightly my idea and it did not really line up with Comfac’s business value or Mission Vision. Thats the weird thing about it. I wanted Wizher to be central in our strategy because it got people through the door and talking to us. It was in the Talking and Talking that we figured out how we can help each other and grow.
You need a Hook. We had the “Gravity Booth” thanks to Jose Ramo and we had Wizher. 2 key elements that helped us and CMI grab some attention. Thats the thing about Hooks, they come out left field, they’re a curve ball, theyre novelty.

The “Son of the Owner” the “Heir” is there to do business.

When they know theyre talking to the son of the owner, the other Business Owners are more likely to respond. Meeting them and listening to them with my Compulsive Note taking helps – it also helps I’m from all the disciplines the family business is about: construction, manufacturing, project management, data centers, BPOs, software development, and Electronics manufacturing, etc…
It helps that I’m “naively friendly” and Open to a fault. So much of a fault that I get into some almost trouble a lot. Being open means being open to risk and people who will eat up a lot of my time. But I have a team that can play interference.
I will prep the sales and I am going to train them in business Value about the company. Compulsive me will write and socratically teach it.

We will do this again. We will have at least 90 days of planning and in probably 2 years from now.

The sales will be more knowledge about of the Target Industry. We will have a Audience Profile: Enterprise and the Convention Subject Matter. The Mission Vision and Pitch will be written 60 days before the convention. Marketing Profile is important.
We will probably spend 400k to 1M in a convention and probably 80mh of our staff in the floor and processing leads and events (probably 400mh of preparation). But its with the goal of Getting data to fill out our Client Database and Opportunities Database and Marketing Strategy. How we plan to fill 3 years worth of Quota in Opportunities.
I need to pass on this knowledge and future leaders know how to use such Events to their advantage.