A PDH event is a webinar, lunch & learn or seminar where you present an educational topic related to the products you sell, and award professional development hours (PDH) to the engineers in attendance.

In 2016, I was facilitating a 2-day seminar for NoonPi’s sister company, Professional Development Seminars, in St Louis, MO where I witnessed the incredible results that a PDH event can deliver for an industrial manufacturer:

Holiday Inn, South County Center, St Louis, MO

I thanked the speaker and dismissed the audience of professional engineers for a 10-minute break. Mark, a salesperson for Indeeco, had just finished a presentation on shell and tube heat exchangers.

As I walked to the back of the room to get a cup of coffee, I overheard a discussion between Mark and one of the Dupont engineers in attendance:

“Great presentation, Mark. Listen, we have an application right now for a shell and tube heat exchanger at our plant.”

As I walked past the two, the details of the conversation faded away. After quickly gulping down a cup of coffee, I introduced the next speaker, then I stepped out of the meeting room. Mark walked towards me with briefcase in hand.

“It was good seeing you again, Eddie. Thanks for the opportunity to speak. I’ve got a plane to catch in a couple of hours, so I need to head to the airport. But I got a great lead from one of the engineers in the audience. He has a need in his plant that I think is a good fit for our heat exchangers.”

I wrapped up the 2-day St Louis seminar the next day and moved on to the next city. I didn’t give Mark’s new lead another thought until I ran into him again a few weeks later in Nashville, where he was scheduled to do another presentation.

“Hey Eddie. You remember that engineer from Dupont that I was talking to in St Louis? Well, Dupont just sent us a $250,000 purchase order for two heat exchangers.”

Prior to attending Mark’s presentation in St Louis, the Dupont engineer was unfamiliar with Indeeco. A mere six weeks later, Mark had a $250,000 purchase order on his desk from Dupont.

Mark’s experience is a bit extraordinary.  Whether you host webinars or in-person PDH events, only a fraction of attendees will go on to specify your product or convert into a buyer. And those that do will likely need to be nurtured for longer than 6 weeks, since most big-ticket industrial purchases have long sales cycles.

Nevertheless, this example illustrates the enormous potential of hosting PDH events.

A PDH event is a demand marketing tool that allows you to connect with engineers who may be good prospects to specify your products sometime in the future. The goal is to get in front of them and gain their trust BEFORE they have a need for your product.

Many engineers have problems you can help solve, but they aren’t currently in a buy cycle. Only about 1% of potential buyers are actively seeking solutions at any given time. If your marketing is only geared towards buyers who are ready right now, you’re missing out on all the prospects who could be buying from you in 6 months or a year from now.

Most industrial companies aren’t doing demand marketing. Hosting PDH events, such as educational webinars, gives you an edge that your competitors may not be taking advantage of.

If you’d like to chat with an expert to learn more about how to use PDH events to connect with engineers, book a free consultation.

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