By Natalie Moore, Partner Marketing at Salesforce, and Will Wiegler, CMO, Steelbrick

SteelBrick Sponsor Success: World Tour

SteelBrick Success at the World Tour

“SteelBrick has grown and evolved a lot compared to one year ago. We used the tours to position our brand as an established global partner in the Salesforce ecosystem.” – Will Wiegler, CMO, SteelBrick

With the 2015 Salesforce World Tour starting, we’re excited to share a sponsor success story from SteelBrick, a company that has seen tremendous results from sponsoring regional Salesforce events in 2014. I had an opportunity to speak with their CMO Will Wiegler, and he gave me an inside look at their sponsorship strategy.

Set Goals, Track Results

With an ongoing campaign it’s especially critical to pay attention to your results. On the next leg of the tour, you’ll have an opportunity to refine your strategy and adjust your goals if necessary.

It’s important to set goals for your tour sponsorship, and create methods to track progress. Look at your investment and determine what kind of return you want to achieve. Some goals may be specific to an individual city, while others can be continuous throughout the entire tour. Be sure to take into account the expected number of attendees for each city, the popular industries in each region, and anything else that may affect your goal from city to city.

SteelBrick had two main goals at the 2014 World Tour: Brand and product awareness, and lead generation. The lead generation was simple to track. Prior to the tour they built a dashboard in Salesforce for each city, where leads were entered and tracked as they were converted to opportunities. Tracking awareness is less precise, but Will had a team monitoring social media during each leg of the tour as well as web traffic before, during and after each tour stop, and SteelBrick employees that were present observed onsite engagement with attendees.

SteelBrick had a standard staffing formula that is consistent from city to city, with minor changes as needed. At cities where they participated as a Gold Sponsor, they would bring all Regional Account Executives, a Sales Executive, and a member of the Marketing team to handle event logistics. In cities where SteelBrick was a Platinum Sponsor, Will scaled up their team accordingly to cover their increased booth footprint. Be sure to check the expected attendance for each city – this could influence the number of staff you’ll need to make sure you’re effectively engaging attendees.   Having a team back at your office can make a huge difference. They can track social metrics and provide real-time feedback to your onsite team. They can start following up on leads for your sales team, and kick-off any follow up campaigns you have planned.

Build Your Team

Before each event, review your playbook and flag items that should change depending on which city you’re in. Review the top regional industries, and pinpoint the drivers and messaging that resonate with each. There may be a unique compelling reason for customers to meet you in this city, such as an extra breakout session or industry-specific reception, and you’ll want to highlight this in your communications to attendees.   Although your playbook can largely remain consistent, it’s important to periodically evaluate your strategies, examine any outliers in metrics from a specific city, and measure your progress towards your goals after each regional event.

Will develops a SteelBrick World Tour Playbook before the first event that contains pre-event, onsite, and follow up strategies. It’s important to remember that each city is its own unique event, but it’s possible to streamline your planning and tailor it according to city. There are certain elements you can depend on remaining the same, regardless of location. It’s important to schedule meetings before the event. The tours only last one day, so you want to make sure your calendar is air-tight to maximize your time with prospects. You’ll want to make sure your contacts in the area are aware that the tour is a one-day free event, and they have an opportunity to come learn and grow their business, free of charge.

Develop A Playbook

Leverage Facetime

Click here for information about sponsorship at the Salesforce World Tour Events, or email the Salesforce Partner Marketing team at partnersuccess@salesforce.com.

Will stressed that one of the main benefits of sponsoring the World Tour events is the unique opportunity for in-person interaction with customers, prospects, and partners from distant territories. Participation in the World Tours signifies SteelBrick’s global expansion. Their customers are pleased to see growth and proud to have chosen to align their company with the SteelBrick brand. When speaking with prospects, Will said face-to-face conversations showcase their professionalism and expertise, helping the potential customers build confidence in their brand. And while customers and prospects are always top of mind, Will pointed out that the collaborative environment is a great place to forge new partnerships with both Salesforce and other partners in the ecosystem.

THANK YOU For questions or support please contact partnersuccess@salesforce.com