World’s 247th Richest Person: What He Taught Me About Organizing Killer Events To Grow Startup Revenue
Marc Benioff is the world’s 247th richest person.
In 1999, he started Salesforce after quitting a lucrative job at Oracle.
He revolutionized his startup’s revenue trajectory with a not-so-unique strategy:
- Organizing events
I have spent 30+ days discovering the lucrative world of event-driven growth.
Here are my learnings to take your startup to new financial heights with events.
If you don’t have time to read a 12-minute-long story. You can download this PDF where you will get just this exact post for free.
1. Use events to drive word of mouth
Entrepreneurs have a strange belief about word of mouth:
- It should start organically.
They wait for their initial customers to share their success stories with others.
If word-of-mouth is a solid way to grow your user base. Why do they keep waiting?
I had a similar belief. But Marc’s strategies changed my vague beliefs.
When Marc started Salesforce, he got his first customers through strategies like:
- Creating a strange logo
- Giving interesting stories to journalists.
- Attacking the market leader.
But as Salesforce grew, he had to find other ways to grow his startup.
He chose to host events based on his success with the Salesforce launch party.
What did he do with the Salesforce launch party?
In 1999, Software as a service and cloud computing were new concepts. When he started Salesforce, only a few people knew about both.
Not only did Marc need to launch salesforce.com, but he also needed to introduce cloud computing and SaaS.
To launch Salesforce differently, Marc decided to host a launch party.
He hired one of the famous bands for this launch party.
He divided the entire theatre into two levels.
The first level represented traditional enterprise software. He locked people into lockups and these people were yelling “Help me.” These lockups represented traditional software companies that sold software via CD-ROMs.
The second level was designed as a paradise. No one was yelling there. Everything was beautiful and people were happy on that level. It represented salesforce.com.
All the customers, journalists and people who attended the event liked it.
Many journalists talked about this event in their recent articles. As a result of this event, the Salesforce customer base grew.
What things did he do with these events?
After the success of the launch party, he had to look for new marketing strategies. He decided to start doing events.
The salesforce team started by inviting different types of people to the events.
At their first event, they invited analysts, philanthropists, journalists, their customers and potential customers. They had no idea how many people were going to attend the event.
When the event took place, out of the 50 people invited, only 15 people attended.
I had never hosted such large corporate events.
But I have seen that when people organize an event and fewer people attend, they become unhappy. People think your event is a failure when only a few people show up.
But Marc and his team were not discouraged because only a small number of people attended the event.
The number of people is far less crucial than the mix of people: seat prospects, journalists, and customers together.
Instead of being sad, they welcomed everyone and let people interact with each other. Their event turned out to be a networking event rather than a promotional event.
Because there were fewer people, Salesforce was able to take care of everyone.
If they acted like others they would never be able to fuel the word-of-mouth strategy.
If you want a successful event, you have to act like it’s a success; your attitude becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
What can we learn?
If your company has a product, people are talking about it.
If you or your company are going to create a product, people will talk about it.
Why not give these people a platform to talk? It can easily be done by organising small events where you allow them to talk to one another.
2. Not turning customers into a marketing force is a BS strategy
On social media, you’ll find entrepreneurs saying things like, “Our customers don’t have enough reach to impact our marketing.”
That’s why they never make customers their marketing force.
Yes, your customers may not have a large social media following and may only interact with you during the transaction.
But that doesn’t mean they can’t help you grow.
I’ve seen many experienced founders believe that to turn customers into a marketing force, simply collect testimonials and display them on your landing page.
But there are hundreds of other ways to make your customers part of the marketing force.
- Organising an event is one of them.
How did Salesforce’s customers help in marketing
Salesforce’s primary customers were people who worked in Sales, Marketing and Customer Service.
These people were frustrated by using old software on CD-ROM.
CD-ROM software made their lives more difficult. They couldn’t update their software. Their company have to pay the entire price of the software, just to use it for 3 or 4 months.
Traditional software companies focused on impressing all the top executives at these companies.
But Marc took a different strategy. He targeted end users rather than executives.
When these end users started using their products and saw the benefits. They were impressed. They don’t have to wait long to update their software and pay monthly.
Enterprise software companies target the executives who control the budget. To us that seemed nonsensical, so we targeted the end users instead and found that they were grateful to finally be given a voice.
These people pushed Salesforce products within their company. As a result, Salesforce began to grow.
What did the Salesforce team do for their customers?
At events, the Salesforce team began to recognize customers who were going against the traditional software system.
- They began to celebrate those users.
They put up large photographs and posted them at events.
When Salesforce recognized these employees, the companies where they worked began to recognize them too. That resulted in getting a promotion within the company.
We referred to our users as ‘‘customer heroes,’’ and blew up giant pictures of them posted them at events and included them on our materials.
These things pushed more people to use their product.
Discovered something strange
People weren’t just coming to the event to listen to the Salesforce team. They also wanted to meet other people who used the product.
Once the team noticed this pattern, they started encouraging customers to talk and share their stories about the product.
When customers said how happy they were with the product, others were also inspired to use it.
Networking is a vital part of every event. Help attendees meet each other, exchange contact information, join your community, and learn from one another.
This also helped in their growth.
What can we learn?
Host small events.
Target end users.
Let the customers talk.
Acknowledge the happy customers. Celebrate them.
3. Don’t be cheap — even if you want to save money
Businesses need cash.
They don’t want to waste their profits.
I have found that most companies try to save money when it comes to hosting events. They want to invest as little as possible but expect to earn as much as possible.
Just to save some money, the senior executives of these companies ruin the entire event.
How not to ruin an event
Let’s take an example to understand this.
Suppose I run a software company which helps entrepreneurs to host their websites.
I want to invite some of my customers, potential customers and content creators to an event.
All of the customers are already doing business with me and I want to impress the potential customers.
The invite email
If I sent an email like this:
Hey,
I’m organizing an event next week. You should come. It’s going to have some speakers and stuff. Let me know if you can make it.
Sanjay Priyadarshi
I’m not showing any enthusiasm for my event.
After reading this email, my customers will have mixed feelings about this event. There is no detailed information in this email. Things like what will be the theme of my event, how many people will attend, and who will be the speaker at this event.
Now, let’s take another email:
Dear [name],
I would like to personally invite you to our upcoming Entrepreneur and Developer Conference on Saturday, December 10th from 8 am to 5 pm at the Hyatt Regency Tech Forum.
We have an exciting lineup of speakers, panels and breakout sessions covering the most important topics for startups today:
Keynote Speakers:
1. Abc, CEO & Co-Founder of Xyz, former exec at Xyz & Xyz
2. Abc, Partner at Xyz Ventures, prolific startup blogger & entrepreneur coach
Fireside Chats:
1. Fundraising: Sequoia Capital partner Abc will discuss the VC pitching process
2. Leadership: Xyz CEO Abc will share lessons on building teams
Breakout Sessions:
1. “Leveraging AI & Automation” led by Abc, SVP of Product at Xyz
2. “Security & Privacy for Startups” led by encryption expert Abc of Xyz
Plus dedicated networking hours with food, drinks, and connection opportunities. You’ll make valuable new business contacts and walk away with actionable insights to apply to your ventures.
Tickets are $75, including all activities & meals. Space is limited given the interactive nature of panels and breakouts. Purchase by December 10th.
I sincerely hope you can make it to this year’s convention. As a leader in the tech community, your perspective would add tremendously to the conversation. Plus I think you’d find great value in the connections and learnings.
Please let me know if you have any other questions!
Best regards,
Sanjay Priyadarshi
[Contact info]
I’m looking forward to seeing you at the Entrepreneur & Developer Conference!
What do you think of the above email?
If you receive such an invitation, you will think about attending it — even if you don’t want to attend in the first place.
The confirmation email
If I send this confirmation email:
You bought a ticket to my event. See you there.
Attached: E-Ticket
It’s just ok. Nothing exciting going on with this email.
Now, let’s look at a different confirmation email:
Dear [name],
Thank you for registering for the Entrepreneur & Developer Conference on December 10th! We’re excited you’ll be joining us. Here are the details for the event:
Location: Hyatt Regency Tech Forum, 825 Elm Street, San Francisco Time: 8 am — 5 pm (with registration/breakfast starting at 7:30 am)
I’ve attached your e-ticket for convenient access on your phone.
The agenda and list of speakers are available on our website: [link] Please check this in the next few days as we will be announcing additional speakers.
On the day of, proceed to the registration desk where our volunteers can answer any questions and provide your name badge.
If you have any needs such as wheelchair accessibility, food restrictions, or requests to be seated with your group, let me know as soon as possible so we can accommodate!
I look forward to meeting you at the conference! Reach out with any other questions.
Best regards,
Sanjay Priyadarshi
[Contact info]
Attached: E-Ticket
People will notice that you are putting in a lot of effort.
Things that matter
It is not just about the invite and confirmation email you send.
It’s about several other things.
- Top-notch venue — This will help your business look established. Choose world-class restaurants and highly-rated venues.
- Have enough people to manage all the doors so that people don’t have to wait too long to enter the venue.
- All employees must convey the same message.
- If possible, invite visionaries and thought leaders to your event — A thought leader does not need to be famous. If he or she speaks on a topic that overlaps with your customer’s interests, invite him or her.
- Do a practice run.
What Marc did while organizing the event
Initially, the Salesforce team made the mistake of hosting the event at a budget hotel.
Later Marc realized his mistake. They began to host their event in four or five-star hotels. Highly rated venues helped them attract attendees.
Marc proposes letting the personality of your company shine during the event.
If you are building an innovative company, your event should show the spirit of innovation. Do something fun to show others that you are an innovative company.
A top-tier venue can attract attendees and make your business look established.
What can we learn?
Don’t save money while hosting events.
Instead, spend money to attract attendees.
The customers you will get through these events will give you much more money than you are trying to save.
Make sure that each of your events will be remembered by people for a long time.
4. Exclusive after-event get-together
I have never attended an after-event get-together.
I used to think no one would stay in the venue once the event was over.
But I was wrong.
One of my friends attended a comedy event. The comedian was quite popular. Between 400–500 people attended the event.
Once the event was over, most of the people left the venue. Some people stayed back. At first, she didn’t know why these people were staying back even though the event was over.
Seeing others stay back, she also stayed there.
Once there were few people left in the venue. The comedian came back and met with everyone. Everyone who stayed got a photo with the comedian.
When I heard this story, I thought it could never be applied in a business sense. It can only be applied in a celebrity fan scene.
I was wrong.
What did Marc teach me regarding the after-event strategy?
Salesforce events were held in fantastic locations.
At an event after the presentation, more than half of the people who attended the event were hanging out at the venue.
The cleaning staff entered the place and asked everyone to leave.
That’s why Marc invited those people to a hotel bar. They all agreed to go to the hotel bar. At this later meeting, everyone did nothing but talk to each other and drink iced tea.
After the after-event get-together, many people who attended this became Salesforce customers.
Because of this experience, the salesforce team started organising a cocktail mixer at the end of every big event.
What can we learn?
If you organized an event and a total of 50 people attended the event.
After the event, most people would have left the venue.
Who remains at the venue?
People who are most interested in building a relationship with people who have attended the event. These people just want to sit back, relax, and talk to a small number of people.
You can have 1000 salespeople in a company to make sales for you.
But they could never sell more than the sales you’ll get through the organic conversations that happen at these events.
Focus on having a good relationship with your customer and the growth will take care of itself.