TRSA Launches Legislative Conf. with Supplier Workshop

TRSA kicked off the 14th Annual Legislative Conference with a workshop designed for supplier partners on April 9 at the Madison Hotel in Washington, DC. Ben Kniffen, CEO of LinkedSelling, led the session with over 50 attendees and offered skills and tools that enable placing the right message in front of the right person through the right channels, and how to develop a sales process that ties everything together.

Kniffen walked attendees through his client acquisition playbook, unveiling how top suppliers use LinkedIn to generate predictable opportunities and sales. “B2B is a niche market,” Kniffen said, “and we need to be niche service providers.” Kniffen went on to explain that most buyers are future buyers, not ready to buy now, but those future buyers become the source of future cash flow and thus the importance of various messaging touchpoints.

A successful formula includes reaching the right person via prospect profiles or buyer personas, with the right pain-based messaging strategy and the right delivery with appropriate touch point cadence. Using the sales funnel model, the top-of-the-funnel sales approach includes a mix of LinkedIn ads, content and outreach to gather potential leads. Re-targeting and pumping content at the middle of the sales funnel begins to qualify those potential leads, and the bottom of the sales funnel uses CRM and the sales development process to combine for the best new business opportunities.

Kniffen also shared strategies for industry executives to establish thought leadership using LinkedIn content:

• Consistent Posting: Aim for four short posts (50-100 words) and one long post (200-500 words) per week.
• Engagement Matters: Respond to comments on your posts and actively engage with your clients’ content.

Kevin Schwalb, TRSA’s vice president of government relations, provided the group an update on legislative matters impacting the industry and previewed the talking points for those attending the Hill Day issue briefing the next day.

Two months into the industry and her new marketing manager position at MIP USA, Carmella Cadusale, attended the Supplier Partner Workshop as her first TRSA event. “As a marketer, it is a great way for me to know who is in the industry, what products they are advocating for, what messages they are pushing in the field and also getting to know who the major players are, and discussing what it is that we can all focus on to push the industry forward,” Cadusale said.

The next supplier-only event planned is the Supplier Council meeting scheduled for TRSA’s 111th Annual Conference & Exchange, Sept. 24-26 at The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs, CO.