Conference season offers unparalleled opportunities to review the newest tech offerings in the marketplace. With IRCE 2019's vast exhibition hall, navigating the sea of choices can feel overwhelming. Here's your compass for finding the best-fit technology partners for your customer engagement strategy.
Maximizing Your Conference Experience
One of the best things about conference season is the opportunity to review the newest tech offerings in the marketplace all in one spot – the conference exhibit hall. With so many solutions on showcase, it can sometimes get overwhelming. You might find yourself wishing you had a compass for navigating the sea of choice.
Some conferences acknowledge this issue wholeheartedly and offer help to attendees in an effort to maximize their experience during the show. As an example, in addition to the expo hall at IRCE 2019, a workshop outlining best practices for choosing the right tech was hosted on June 25th.
Strategic Booth Conversations
Once you narrow down specific vendors to check out during your floor walk, it's important to also have a plan on what to talk about when you stop at a booth. Simply grabbing collateral and moving on doesn't get you the most valuable information.
Essential Questions for Vendor Evaluation
As a customer engagement vendor in the retail marketplace, we recently reflected on questions we've been asked at our past booth showcases that were of most value to us and our visitors. Here are key questions you should consider asking while walking the expo floor:
1. Is this solution's past success replicable for my business problem?
As you select vendors of interest, consider whether the problems these vendors solve for their other clients are actually applicable to your business needs. The solutions might be really cool, but may not be the right fit for your organization. Make sure to ask whether the solution showcased at the booth has at least one example the rep can talk through over and above what's on paper.
Winning Example
At a previous conference, a retail executive with an ecommerce conversion concern asked us to elaborate on how our solution converts browsers into buyers. We shared a conversion case study and identified flexible features for their situation. The retailer discovered how we created incremental orders and improved "Add to Cart" conversion rates with individualized offers.
2. What visibility does this solution give me into my business performance?
Every vendor knows you want to make intelligent, data-driven decisions about your business. Before you even put pen to paper, best-in-class teams should be able to easily talk about reporting, measurement, and data access. Get all of those questions out of the way at the conference booth.
Key Application
We arm our business development team with our approach to business modeling and reporting results. This means they can engage on measurement and business performance right at the booth. The conversation about your data and measurement should be uncomplicated, because it should be.
3. Does this solution work with my current tech stack, or will I have to replace what I already have?
Vendors on the showcase floor should be prepared to describe which solutions they can plug into and what will require additional work, if any. The right vendor will work to understand your organization's goals and will be considerate of the velocity at which your organization can make change.
Implementation Flexibility
Exchange Solutions offers solutions ranging from "plug-and-play" all the way to "rip-and-replace." Understanding a retailer's complicated ecommerce architecture, we provided a lower-touch implementation recommendation that delivered positive results after a 6-week configuration period. The retailer simply inserted a tag in Google Tag Manager to quickly initiate the program.
Making the Most of Conference Connections
Starting your information gathering process at a conference, such as IRCE 2019, is a great opportunity to learn as much as you can in a short period of time. Utilize the opportunity to connect with business development professionals in the right ways.
They are motivated to give you relevant information for your business, if you're willing to share key input to determine the best fit for both of you. You never know, the right partner may be able to guide you through their network, or even through their own solutions.
Ready to Find Your Perfect Technology Partner?
Connect with our team to explore how Exchange Solutions can support your customer engagement strategy.
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