Context
Last week the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) held the 2021 Kubernetes Conference (KubeCon) (don’t worry if you don’t know what Kubernetes is. It’s a dev tool and a complex one at that which is all you need to know for the post) in Los Angeles, California. It was a week-long affair with events before the conference which was held from Tuesday, Oct 12 to Friday, October 15. Replicated sent our whole sales team (if you felt comfortable traveling and attending. If not then there was no requirement to go.) and had a platinum booth which the events team styled as a campfire hangout theme.
Why was Sales there?
What else? Selling. Our product is built on Kubernetes and meant for companies who use Kubernetes so this was convention was filled with potential customers for us. This meant sending our entire sales team to both get customers and gain conference experience.
We have had a presence at past KubeCons and even though this year the attendance was 1/5 of the usual attendance we wanted a big presence to really make a splash. And that we did. I can’t tell you the number of times people would say that Replicated reps were everywhere they looked and they couldn’t wait to visit the booth and grab one of the free hoodies we had available. (Side note: They are amazingly soft and light hoodies with the logo only on the inside and I wear mine all the time. Well at least until Chicago weather gets too cold.)
We brought people from engineering, product, marketing, and other teams as well since we had the opportunity to host talks, visit existing customers, etc etc. This conference is a big event for the company and Sales made sure we took advantage of the opportunity.
So what did YOU do?
I haven’t even written a post on a usual day in my new tech sales job (it’s coming! I just haven’t really had one yet) and I am writing one about being at a conference. That is one thing that I really enjoyed since I was only in my second week of selling and already attending a conference with the aim of booking meetings with companies.
The first day I was on Expo Floor duty meaning I had to go around the conference and talk to the companies who had booths. This year there were fewer booths so we had the time to go to all of them more than once and really build that relationship with reps before booking a meeting. This helped in convincing companies vs feeling like a rush through to hit as many booths as we could. As well, I was able to walk around with a group of SDRs which helped me see the pitch to companies and learn from more experienced sellers before trying myself.
One of the things that I realized was that even though we had 4 weeks of training and watched a number of videos to understand the technical aspects at a high level, there was still so much to learn and understand. Many times the companies would have their pitch and much of it would go over my head. But I noted down a lot of what I didn’t understand and saved it for our Tech Talks with our engineers where they help us understand more so we can talk with our customers at their level.
The second day I spent mainly at the booth. This experience was a completely different aspect of selling. You had three types of people coming to the booth. The first are people who are interested in Replicated and want to learn more. These are the best because you don’t really have to sell them much since they are there for the product anyways. The second is people who just want free swag. These people you have to see whether they are a fit for Replicated or not first before trying to sell them. Either way, they get some swag. The third group of people are those just walking by. This is when you really have to get creative in order to pull them to the booth and see if they are any of the first two categories. Unlike going to the booths where you know what the company does, if they are a fit, and if they are a target, at the booth you just have to try to get anyone coming and see who is interested.
The third day I had to leave by 3 for my flight but before that, I spent it at the booth or walking around trying to get some last companies I had been talking to all week. The last day is weird because many of the decision-makers have left and it is hard to get people to commit to meetings but you got to keep at it. Plus it gives you some time to get into a deeper conversation with some of the companies that have stayed.
And Scene!
What a week. During the day we had conference work and in the evenings we had team events. Since we are a fully remote company this was an offsite of sorts as well. As our company is growing fast this was the first time many people had met and definitely the first time I met everyone who was there. It was great to see everyone after Zooming with them for 5 weeks but since the culture at Replicated is a video on, healthy, remote culture, I didn’t feel like it was the first time meeting everyone. It felt like just getting together with co-workers that I knew already.
Overall I had an amazing time at the conference and felt like I grew tremendously as a salesperson. I was able to hone my pitch and book a number of meetings with companies. I do want to learn more about the industry so I can understand more of what companies are pitching and better understand who is our target customer from before. Gotta always be learning. Lastly, conferences are hell on your feet. So make sure you have a good pair of shoes with a strong sole. I visited AllBirds on a whim the day I got there in Venice after lunch and picked up the running shoes on the right in the picture below. They were immensely comfortable and a talking point that I used with some companies.