Referrals are everything

The best buyers at hosted buyer events come from referrals — always. Not LinkedIn outreach. Not cold email. Referrals from people who already trust you and trust the buyer.

• Past attendees who had great experiences are your best recruitment channel
• Ask your top buyers and sellers who else should be in the room
• A single great referral is worth more than 50 cold outreach messages

Use RFPs to qualify intent

Referrals get people in the door. RFPs prove they're actually buying.

• Use RFPs to identify buyers with genuine, active purchasing intent
• A buyer with an active RFP is 10x more valuable than one who's "interested in learning"
• Match RFP requirements to your seller inventory — the more precise the match, the better the meeting

Know your buyers before they arrive

• The best buyer recruiters know every person's name, company, and role by heart — not from a CRM
• Know every buyer's decision-making level before the show starts
• Understand their purchasing timeline — are they buying this quarter or next year?

Quality over quantity — every time

Spend your time finding new sellers or spend your time vetting buyers. Pick your poison. You cannot do both at full speed.

• 10 perfectly matched buyers create more value than 100 unvetted ones
• Every unqualified buyer in the room degrades the experience for sellers who paid to be there
• Your retention rate is directly tied to buyer quality — bad buyers cause seller churn