“We have not had a big boardroom presentation yet,” said Matt Weiner, president of marketing services at law journal publisher ALM. “There’s always that desire to get back to face-to-face interaction with people, but it will still be a while.”

Jessica Keating, senior client marketing and communications manager at The Economist, predicted that formal, office-based sales meetings will not return until at least next year. Most clients are still determining policies for their own employees and aren’t yet focused on when or how they will meet with external partners.

“We are inspired to reimagine how we work with our partners,” added Claudia Malley, president and managing director of The Economist’s client solutions team. She acknowledged the “collaborative and creative benefits” of in-person meetings, but noted that the lessons learned from a year of operating remotely will have a lasting impact on its client-facing approach.

But amid rising temperatures (and a year’s worth of Zoom fatigue), publishers are adopting new tactics to gain long-missed facetime with their clients.

After leaning heavily into virtual events during the pandemic, B2B firm Questex is preparing for the imminent resumption of its U.S. live events business, starting with a three-day hosted-buyer event in Phoenix during the second week of May. It’s the first of nine in-person events the company plans to host in various locations around the country, including in Las Vegas, Miami and New York, between now and the end of June.

Like Forbes, Questex has not yet fully reopened its three U.S. offices yet — it hopes to do so by June, according to CMO Kate Spellman — but it’s using its upcoming events as an opportunity to get its own salespeople back in the same rooms as their clients.

Similar to the appointments arranged between attendees and suppliers at the event, meetings will be held in conference room suites with plexiglass installations, and participants will be screened with temperature checks. Spellman acknowledged that salespeople may feel pressure to get back into the field, but insisted that safety comes first and that no one is being encouraged to attend if they aren’t comfortable. But she said the company is sending a larger sales contingent to its own events than it did before the pandemic.

“As we roll out conference by conference, as an executive group, we aren’t going to mandate that you have to be there,” she said. “Some are just jumping on the bandwagon, and you have others that have reservations, but it’s not a 50/50 split. I would say more people are anxious to get back to business.”

Sales al fresco
ALM’s Midtown New York office never officially closed, …read more

Source:: Digiday

Author: Aaron