Another week another vegan event. This time we headed to the Sheffield Vegan Festival to support the local vegan businesses there. My one-year old daughter Awen was instantly drawn to this tombstone (pictured above) that one of the stalls had on display. ‘RIP MEAT’ it read. It was a great prop, and had people stopping to take photos. It also gave the stall-owner the chance to engage and have a conversation with me about what they did.
But, a week later, and I’m struggling to remember exactly which stall that was. And that’s little to do with my memory (although I am getting to that age!) it’s because I’ve visited eight or nine vegan markets already this year. I’ve bought from many stall-holders and had conversations with hundreds more, but hardly any have attempted to capture my details so that they could continue to build a relationship with me after the event.
For example: I also tried some of the best vegan chocolate I’d ever had at the same event, we even bought a couple of bars to take home with us. But for the life of me, I can’t tell you the company’s name a week later. Had the lovely couple instead asked if I wanted to sign-up to their mailing list to find out what show they were going to be at next, or to receive a discount on my first order from their website, I’d have probably said yes. Or had the vegan campervan company I chatted with asked me for my email address so that they could send me their digital brochure, or had the doughnut lady asked me to follow them on social media to get a discount on my next doughnut, I’d have likely said yes to them too.
And this is important. Because I’ll tell you who were collecting the name and email addresses of everyone who stopped on their stalls: The Woodland Trust, The WWF, and all the ‘branded’ charities who had stands there. Their staff were stood, iPads in hand, ready to get you into the top of their funnell.
So next time you have a stall at an event, or are going networking, or are giving a talk or lecture, know that the minute someone walks out of the door they will forget who you are. Regardless of if they seemed to be really interested, took a leaflet or even bought from you, if you don’t capture those people’s details then you will likely never hear from them again. If you had, they might have gone on to become one of your best new customers or biggest champions.
David 💚🌱🐷
David’s thoughts from the week, published every weekend for members only.
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