May 8, 2025 • 18 mins
From Booths to Buy-In: Aaron Peterik’s Playbook for Winning Pax8 Beyond
Episode Description:
What separates a vendor with a busy booth from one that builds a sales pipeline? Aaron Peterik, Director of Channel at Zero Networks and former Pax8 insider, joins us to share real-world strategies for dominating Pax8 Beyond. From microsegmentation to sales team alignment, Peterik unpacks what actually works for MSP vendors trying to stand out, connect authentically, and convert leads into long-term revenue. If you’re planning to exhibit—or just want to sharpen your MSP sales game—don’t miss this one.
Topics covered:
- Microsegmentation and Zero Trust: What MSPs need now
- Booth KPIs that drive revenue—not just scans
- How to prep your team two weeks before the event
- Why MSPs ignore your pitch (and how to fix it)
- The surprising value of hotel-lobby conversations
🎧 Listen now. Show up better. Sell smarter.
Carrie Richardson and Ian Richardson host the WIN Podcast - What's Important Now?
Serial entrepreneurs, life partners and business partners, they have successfully exited from multiple businesses (IT, call center, real estate, marketing) and they help other business owners create their own versions of success.
Ian is certified in Eagle Center For Leadership Making A Difference, Paterson StratOp, and LifePlan.
Carrie has helped create and execute successful outbound sales strategies for over 1200 technology-focused businesses including MSPs, manufacturers, distributors and SaaS firms.
Learn more at www.foxcrowgroup.com
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Be a guest on WIN! We host successful entrepreneurs who share advice with other entrepreneurs on how to build, grow or sell a business using examples from their own experience.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Carrie Richardson (2) (00:00):
Hi there.
Good afternoon.
My name is Carrie Richardson.
I am a partner at Fox and CrowGroup and your host of the WIN
podcast.
We're talking to people who willbe participating in Pax8, people
who have some experience doingthis and have some advice for
the people that will beattending this year.
With me today is Aaron Peterik,who is the director of Channel
(00:21):
for Zero.
Aaron Peterik (00:23):
Zero networks.
Carrie Richardson (2) (00:24):
How are you doing today, Aaron?
Aaron Peterik (00:25):
I'm great.
Carrie Richardson (2) (00:26):
I'm doing well.
Thank you.
we're in Nashville.
enjoying the, very humid weatherhere.
I forgot that it gets up to 85,in the south in the middle of
spring.
So it's been a little, warmerthan we would've liked.
Aaron Peterik (00:38):
I'm in Denver, love Nashville.
I try to get out there as muchas I can, which is not often
enough, but yeah, I loveNashville, Been in Denver for
about 10 years Denver gets thewhole gamut of weather today
it's a little chilly, it's sunnyout.
that's the beautiful thing aboutDenver we get a lot of sun
throughout the year, but younever know.
It could be, 80 degrees one dayand 30 degrees, a couple hours
later.
(00:58):
So it's all about wearing layersout here.
anyone that lives in Denver orever been to Denver, you know,
layering is very important.
Carrie Richardson (2) (01:05):
Patagonia Vest is the wardrobe essential
for everyone in the channel atPAX Zero.
Aaron Peterik (01:10):
That's right.
Carrie Richardson (2) (01:10):
Now you have some experience with PAX
Before you joined Zero, you werea member of the team over there.
tell us a little bit about whatyou think we can expect this
year at PAX 8 beyond.
Aaron Peterik (01:20):
Yeah, PAX Zero does a great job with Beyond.
been with Zero Networks for ayear now.
Prior to that I was at PAX Zero,for about five years, doing a
variety of roles.
the last couple years I was onthe vendor management side.
all the vendors that PAX 8 workswith, I was partnering with to
help them go to market and, taketheir solutions to the SMB
(01:40):
market and work with MSPs a bigpart of my role was to work with
them for beyond I was at Pax 8for the, inaugural event of
beyond.
This will be the third year ofbeyond now.
Watching it morph into what it'sbecome, has been really fun to
watch and be a part of in theearly years of being at PAX 8
and, working on the vendorsponsorship side making sure all
(02:03):
the vendors, had what theyneeded, to be successful in the
early events.
And now.
Sort of switching over and nowI'm on the vendor side has been
fun to see both sides of thatequation.
PAX Zero beyond has, has reallygrown to, to levels that are
really gonna require PAX Zero tomove.
I.
You know, probably to adifferent location outside of
the Gaylord, here in Denver nextyear.
(02:26):
they've really outgrown thatspace a little bit, and I'm sure
they'll be looking for a largervenue next year, given the size
and gravity that this event hasturned into.
But yeah, it's really fun event.
If you haven't been in the PACZero beyond before and you're in
MSPI highly, highly recommendit.
It is definitely one of the bestevents out there for MSPs.
lots of really good speakers,lots of really good
(02:47):
entertainment and the way thatPAXs structures the overall
event for the MSPs, is reallyimpactful and beneficial for
them.
Carrie Richardson (2) (02:58):
I understand it's about doubled in
size from the first year I wasat the inaugural event.
I didn't get to go last year, sothis is our first time
sponsoring an event.
So what advice would you havefor vendors like us who are,
budget constrained and firsttime on the floor?
What should we expect and howcan we get better results?
Aaron Peterik (03:19):
Yeah, I would say, from a vendor side, you
want to make sure that you'refully ingrained in the entire
event, right?
I see a lot of vendors.
whether it's PAX 8 Beyond, or,other MSP events go and they're
there for the vendor exhibit.
They're there for the expo.
work in their booth and thenthey're doing other things To
really maximize your time, tomaximize your ROI from these
(03:41):
events, it's important thatyou're engaging as much as you
can.
Attending.
the breakfasts, the luncheswhere all the attendees are
eating, And not just doing theexpo, going to different
sessions to see what they'relearning about and what's being
communicated so that whenthey're stopping by your booth
and the exhibit hall.
(04:02):
You can use, some of thoseconversations and other
sessions, during yourconversations with them, it's
not just about selling yoursolution, it's about learning
about their business, talking to'em about how the event's going
so you can relate to them, buildtrust, things like that.
for PAX 8 Beyond, and other MSPevents as well, just make sure
that you're fully ingrained inthe entire event and not just
(04:24):
showing up for booth time.
Carrie Richardson (2) (04:27):
how far in advance do you begin
preparing for an event likethis?
Aaron Peterik (04:33):
I would say probably, depending on what role
you're in, right?
If you're on the marketing sideand you're.
focused on the booth and, theswag items that you're gonna
hand out.
you need to, prepare for thatstuff well in advance, so you
can purchase those things and,get those things created and
shipped in time, So there's thewhole marketing aspect to it.
I would say from a general salesperspective.
(04:54):
probably two to three weeks out,anything further than that,
you're reaching out to theaudience and attendees a little
too early.
They haven't really prepped forthat.
They're work on another thingsand everything.
Two weeks out is when I reallystart to, hone in and focus on
what we're gonna do at the eventfrom a selling perspective.
What the agenda looks like, howto engage with them and if
(05:15):
possible, do some social media,reach out to say, Hey, we're
going to be attending thisevent.
If you're attending, reach outto us.
We'd love to connect with you.
Start to schedule some coffeemeetups, dinners and lunches
with, various attendees or folksthat you wanna connect with that
are gonna be there.
any kind of pre-event reach out,you can do, if you get a list
(05:36):
and know attendees prior tothat, that's obviously ideal
because you wanna try to engageand schedule time with those
folks, in advance of the event,if you can.
share where your booth is gonnabe, things like that.
a couple weeks out, you reallywanna start to invest some time
into, social media awareness.
(05:58):
driving some excitement aboutwhat you're gonna do at your
booth.
things that they can pick up andlearn from you during this
event.
Carrie Richardson (2) (06:05):
What have you done in the past that worked
well
Aaron Peterik (06:07):
Yeah, to me it's about scheduling, trying to get
actual meetings scheduled priorto the event.
one thing that I've learned iswhen you get to these events,
People are busy, they're beingpulled in a million different
directions.
There's so much informationbeing thrown.
at the attendees so when you getto these events, it's hard to,
schedule time and lock peopledown into meetings I try to do
(06:29):
as much of that as I can inadvance.
a lot of these events, the ROIreally comes from if you can do
a lot of, excitement and drivingawareness as to.
what we're gonna be sharing atthis event.
where you can find us.
why you wanna stop by and thebenefits to you and your
business, those are gonnaimpact, the amount of people
that you're gonna be able to getand traffic that you'll get at
(06:51):
your booth, as well as thetakeaways and ROI that you can
expect to get out of themeeting.
Carrie Richardson (2) (06:56):
How do you prepare your team for
engaging with MSPs on site.
Does everyone have a differentrole to play or is everyone
doing the same thing?
Aaron Peterik (07:06):
I would say part of that depends on the booth
size if you have a big booth andare one of the premier
sponsorships where you have alot of real estate on the floor
to cover, you'll need demostations.
You'll need.
folks focused on bringing peopleinto the booth.
you might have a little tablewhere you have meetings inside
of your booth if you have areally large booth.
(07:27):
if you have a smaller booth likea 10 by 10 typically you'll have
two or three people inattendance there.
for those folks it's, moreabout, engaging with everyone
that walks by from a prepperspective on the vendor side,
leading up to this, you reallywanna understand the size of
your booth.
You wanna understand, what thegoal is Is it to get leads?
(07:47):
Is it to share a new product orsolution Is it to, get
excitement, what is the overallobjective of the meeting for
you?
make sure that you're alignedon, roles and responsibilities
as well as key messages thecoaching I would always give
vendors is.
you want to have your 30 secondelevator pitch down because a
lot of folks are gonna walk byand you want to be able to grab
(08:10):
their attention and try to pull'em over to your booth to give
more information You need to bereally crisp on, the benefits,
you can provide to them asthey're walking by so you can
hopefully pull in more people toyour booth.
Carrie Richardson (2) (08:22):
are there KPIs you hold your team
accountable to at the event?
Aaron Peterik (08:27):
So, we wanna understand, how many people we
talk to.
out of that list of people howmany demos are we scheduling?
we always try to get, demosscheduled so we can have more
one-on-one time to learn abouttheir business.
There's only so much you cancover in a booth atmosphere,
right?
in most cases partners aren'tgoing to these things to be
sold.
they're going to get educated.
(08:49):
If your messaging can be focusedon education and the problems
that you solve, as well as thebenefits to what your solution
offers, you're gonna get moreinterest there.
And so then ultimately it'sabout communicating that.
It's about trying to schedule asmany demos and then out of the
demos scheduled, what kind of.
trials can you get scheduledwith those partners, to try out
(09:11):
your solution and thenultimately, how much revenue can
we get out of that as well?
Carrie Richardson (2) (09:16):
So in your experience, what does the
drop off look like between demosscheduled at the event and demos
that people show up for onaverage?
What's the no show look like?
Aaron Peterik (09:28):
Oh, good question.
that's gonna vary depending onthe product to be honest.
But, typically we'll see about30%.
if there are a thousandattendees, we're gonna try to
get, at least 10% of thosescheduled, if not 20% of those
scheduled for demos.
we probably have, a pretty highnumber for show rates.
(09:49):
let's call it 70% roughly.
The folks that are, that aregoing outta the way to actually
book a demo Those are the folksthat you want to talk to.
they understand the need.
I see a lot of vendors offersomething for scheduling a demo,
right?
scan this QR code and you getput into a drawing for a Yeti
(10:09):
cooler or something like that.
I've never been a big fan ofthat, to be honest, because
doing that, you're nowincentivizing people to do
something that they may not wantto do just because they wanna
win a prize.
And so my coaching to vendorshas always been.
you wanna get people that areinterested in your solution so
(10:29):
that when they're schedulingdemos,'cause time is money,
right?
Not just for the partner but foryou as an organization.
if you have a lot of false leadsfalse meetings scheduled and
you're getting no show ratesthat's a waste Something else to
keep in mind if you're a vendorcoming to these events,
Carrie Richardson (2) (10:45):
What I've seen a lot of is, people getting
paid per scan and telling peopleplease, can I scan you?
I get paid for every person thatI scan.
What have you seen that worksfor encouraging people to
provide their data?
How many people are giving outGmail accounts to register for
PAX 8 beyond?
(11:06):
How many people gave theiractual email address or the
phone number?
Aaron Peterik (11:09):
There's a ton of bad practices out there, right?
There's a lot of people thatjust show up to these events to
get swag items to bring home totheir teams, I see that all the
time.
And that's why I've never been abig fan of do this and you get
this." I want real leads.
I want folks that are reallyengaged want to learn about what
we do why we do it and have areal problem.
(11:30):
I don't want to just fill ourCRM with a bunch of false leads
and junk that is gonna take awayfrom priorities that we should
be focused on from a partnerperspective.
there's a lot of bad practicesout there.
I would encourage, vendors tonot do that unless they wanna
waste their time and build falseleads in CRM.
as a CEO of these vendors,everyone is always asking for
(11:52):
what's the ROI coming outtathese events, right?
And yeah, you may be able to puta thousand leads into your CRM
and that might look good.
It might feel good.
But then how many demos are youscheduling, how many of those
are ordering a POC or some kindof trial, And then how many of
those are actually converting torevenue?
the more leads you put into yourCRM, the more things you need to
(12:14):
manage, the more noise you'remaking and sending out into the
market with different emailcampaigns and so forth.
there's just a lot of waste thathappens with that.
Carrie Richardson (2) (12:23):
Is there a process that brings the data
into your CRM automatically, ordo you do something to vet what
you bring into the CRM After theevent, are you auditing the list
of scans or do you use a formthat pulls it directly into
HubSpot or Salesforce?
Aaron Peterik (12:41):
you can upload, Excel files into your CRM pretty
easily.
a lot of these events, includingbeyond, vendors will get a lead
scanner.
So depending on the, the levelof sponsorship you have.
Your sponsorship, will eithercome with a lead scanner or you
may have to purchase that.
on the side, I would highlyrecommend if you're a vendor
attending PAX Zero.
(13:02):
you have a lead scanner.
if it doesn't come with yoursponsorship, it is well worth
the investment And so with thatlead scanner you know who's
coming by your booth.
you don't wanna just get a fulllist of all the attendees, at
the event, because that's a lotof noise you're putting into
your CRM potentially.
You wanna know, you wannaunderstand who actually came by
(13:23):
and who you talked to, You canthen input some notes about that
conversation.
who did you talk to?
Where are they from?
Why did they stop by?
what kind of problem are theylooking to solve that your
solution might be able to fill?
What are they using today forthis?
That can go into your CRM.
utilize a lead scan if you can,that can get auto-populated into
your CRM, HubSpot, Salesforce.
(13:45):
You can create, differentcampaigns and cadences to reach
out after the event as wellusing this information.
But those are gonna be theinformation that really
determines what kind of ROI youget out of this, the event is
one thing, but the real workstarts after the event.
It's in the follow-ups, inthose, communications that you
send out, as well as thosemeetings that you're able to get
(14:06):
scheduled afterwards.
the more notes and details youcan get on each of those
interactions, the better successyou'll have after the event.
Carrie Richardson (2) (14:13):
So for Zero at PAX 8 beyond this year,
who should be coming up to thebooth to talk to you?
What problems are they trying tosolve?
Tell us a little bit about whatyou're gonna be talking about
and the best fit MSP for yourservices.
Aaron Peterik (14:28):
zero Networks is in a unique spot for managed
service providers.
we do, network segmentation.
we are the only vendor,offering, what we call
microsegmentation to the MSPchannel and the SMB market There
aren't any other vendors in theworld offering microsegmentation
in an automated way, to thechannel.
(14:48):
We're gonna use beyond as a wayto highlight and educate MSPs
that in most cases, don't reallydo segmentation.
A lot of MSPs utilize, VLANs todo segmentation today, which is
not a secure method.
we use these events.
especially here to, highlight,the challenges in network
segmentation and the overall,issue that all MSPs and
(15:13):
businesses have lateralmovement.
breaches are happening everysingle day, We see reports on
ransomware and the number ofbreaches almost every single
hour it seems like these days.
The question is, when someonebreaches your network, what
security, measures do you havein place to prevent them from
moving laterally and accessingall of that sensitive
(15:34):
information that we need to,lock down.
there's a lot of money beingspent on perimeter defenses,
trying to prevent threat actorsfrom getting inside the network.
we play inside the network.
we segment that network.
so that if one machine or oneuser is compromised and
breached, we prevent that breachfrom spreading across the rest
(15:57):
of the network.
which is then gonna hopefullyprevent ransomware.
It's gonna protect your data.
we're gonna be spreading theword on microsegmentation, how
we do it in an automated way.
It's agentless.
we have a patent on how we applyMFA at the port level so no one
else in the world can do thisexcept for zero networks.
(16:17):
we allow.
customers to put MFA on anyconnection inside of a network.
if you wanna stop, Julie, inyour organization from accessing
this server, you can do that.
And you can require Julie inthis example, to MFA before she
gets access to that.
And so our services can do that.
(16:38):
It locks down networks.
it is true zero trust.
Then we also have, a remoteaccess solution called Connect,
which is A VPN replacement.
it's the speed of A VPN, buthas, added layers of security
utilizing MFA that I just talkedabout as well.
Carrie Richardson (2) (16:55):
thank you very much for joining us today,
giving us advice on how to takeadvantage, of an event the size
of PAX 8 beyond, we will publishyour booth number so people can
find you and talk about the onlysolution for microsegmentation
in the MSP space.
Thanks a lot, Aaron.
Aaron Peterik (17:12):
thank you.
Carrie Richardson (2) (17:13):
see you
Aaron Peterik (17:13):
Looking forward to it.
Carrie Richardson (2) (17:14):
Take care.
Aaron Peterik (17:15):
Bye.
Hi there.
Good afternoon.
My name is Carrie Richardson.
I am a partner at Fox and CrowGroup and your host of the WIN
podcast.
We're talking to people who willbe participating in Pax8, people
who have some experience doingthis and have some advice for
the people that will beattending this year.
With me today is Aaron Peterik,who is the director of Channel
(00:21):
for Zero.
Aaron Peterik (00:23):
Zero networks.
Carrie Richardson (2) (00:24):
How are you doing today, Aaron?
Aaron Peterik (00:25):
I'm great.
Carrie Richardson (2) (00:26):
I'm doing well.
Thank you.
we're in Nashville.
enjoying the, very humid weatherhere.
I forgot that it gets up to 85,in the south in the middle of
spring.
So it's been a little, warmerthan we would've liked.
Aaron Peterik (00:38):
I'm in Denver, love Nashville.
I try to get out there as muchas I can, which is not often
enough, but yeah, I loveNashville, Been in Denver for
about 10 years Denver gets thewhole gamut of weather today
it's a little chilly, it's sunnyout.
that's the beautiful thing aboutDenver we get a lot of sun
throughout the year, but younever know.
It could be, 80 degrees one dayand 30 degrees, a couple hours
later.
(00:58):
So it's all about wearing layersout here.
anyone that lives in Denver orever been to Denver, you know,
layering is very important.
Carrie Richardson (2) (01:05):
Patagonia Vest is the wardrobe essential
for everyone in the channel atPAX Zero.
Aaron Peterik (01:10):
That's right.
Carrie Richardson (2) (01:10):
Now you have some experience with PAX
Before you joined Zero, you werea member of the team over there.
tell us a little bit about whatyou think we can expect this
year at PAX 8 beyond.
Aaron Peterik (01:20):
Yeah, PAX Zero does a great job with Beyond.
been with Zero Networks for ayear now.
Prior to that I was at PAX Zero,for about five years, doing a
variety of roles.
the last couple years I was onthe vendor management side.
all the vendors that PAX 8 workswith, I was partnering with to
help them go to market and, taketheir solutions to the SMB
(01:40):
market and work with MSPs a bigpart of my role was to work with
them for beyond I was at Pax 8for the, inaugural event of
beyond.
This will be the third year ofbeyond now.
Watching it morph into what it'sbecome, has been really fun to
watch and be a part of in theearly years of being at PAX 8
and, working on the vendorsponsorship side making sure all
(02:03):
the vendors, had what theyneeded, to be successful in the
early events.
And now.
Sort of switching over and nowI'm on the vendor side has been
fun to see both sides of thatequation.
PAX Zero beyond has, has reallygrown to, to levels that are
really gonna require PAX Zero tomove.
I.
You know, probably to adifferent location outside of
the Gaylord, here in Denver nextyear.
(02:26):
they've really outgrown thatspace a little bit, and I'm sure
they'll be looking for a largervenue next year, given the size
and gravity that this event hasturned into.
But yeah, it's really fun event.
If you haven't been in the PACZero beyond before and you're in
MSPI highly, highly recommendit.
It is definitely one of the bestevents out there for MSPs.
lots of really good speakers,lots of really good
(02:47):
entertainment and the way thatPAXs structures the overall
event for the MSPs, is reallyimpactful and beneficial for
them.
Carrie Richardson (2) (02:58):
I understand it's about doubled in
size from the first year I wasat the inaugural event.
I didn't get to go last year, sothis is our first time
sponsoring an event.
So what advice would you havefor vendors like us who are,
budget constrained and firsttime on the floor?
What should we expect and howcan we get better results?
Aaron Peterik (03:19):
Yeah, I would say, from a vendor side, you
want to make sure that you'refully ingrained in the entire
event, right?
I see a lot of vendors.
whether it's PAX 8 Beyond, or,other MSP events go and they're
there for the vendor exhibit.
They're there for the expo.
work in their booth and thenthey're doing other things To
really maximize your time, tomaximize your ROI from these
(03:41):
events, it's important thatyou're engaging as much as you
can.
Attending.
the breakfasts, the luncheswhere all the attendees are
eating, And not just doing theexpo, going to different
sessions to see what they'relearning about and what's being
communicated so that whenthey're stopping by your booth
and the exhibit hall.
(04:02):
You can use, some of thoseconversations and other
sessions, during yourconversations with them, it's
not just about selling yoursolution, it's about learning
about their business, talking to'em about how the event's going
so you can relate to them, buildtrust, things like that.
for PAX 8 Beyond, and other MSPevents as well, just make sure
that you're fully ingrained inthe entire event and not just
(04:24):
showing up for booth time.
Carrie Richardson (2) (04:27):
how far in advance do you begin
preparing for an event likethis?
Aaron Peterik (04:33):
I would say probably, depending on what role
you're in, right?
If you're on the marketing sideand you're.
focused on the booth and, theswag items that you're gonna
hand out.
you need to, prepare for thatstuff well in advance, so you
can purchase those things and,get those things created and
shipped in time, So there's thewhole marketing aspect to it.
I would say from a general salesperspective.
(04:54):
probably two to three weeks out,anything further than that,
you're reaching out to theaudience and attendees a little
too early.
They haven't really prepped forthat.
They're work on another thingsand everything.
Two weeks out is when I reallystart to, hone in and focus on
what we're gonna do at the eventfrom a selling perspective.
What the agenda looks like, howto engage with them and if
(05:15):
possible, do some social media,reach out to say, Hey, we're
going to be attending thisevent.
If you're attending, reach outto us.
We'd love to connect with you.
Start to schedule some coffeemeetups, dinners and lunches
with, various attendees or folksthat you wanna connect with that
are gonna be there.
any kind of pre-event reach out,you can do, if you get a list
(05:36):
and know attendees prior tothat, that's obviously ideal
because you wanna try to engageand schedule time with those
folks, in advance of the event,if you can.
share where your booth is gonnabe, things like that.
a couple weeks out, you reallywanna start to invest some time
into, social media awareness.
(05:58):
driving some excitement aboutwhat you're gonna do at your
booth.
things that they can pick up andlearn from you during this
event.
Carrie Richardson (2) (06:05):
What have you done in the past that worked
well
Aaron Peterik (06:07):
Yeah, to me it's about scheduling, trying to get
actual meetings scheduled priorto the event.
one thing that I've learned iswhen you get to these events,
People are busy, they're beingpulled in a million different
directions.
There's so much informationbeing thrown.
at the attendees so when you getto these events, it's hard to,
schedule time and lock peopledown into meetings I try to do
(06:29):
as much of that as I can inadvance.
a lot of these events, the ROIreally comes from if you can do
a lot of, excitement and drivingawareness as to.
what we're gonna be sharing atthis event.
where you can find us.
why you wanna stop by and thebenefits to you and your
business, those are gonnaimpact, the amount of people
that you're gonna be able to getand traffic that you'll get at
(06:51):
your booth, as well as thetakeaways and ROI that you can
expect to get out of themeeting.
Carrie Richardson (2) (06:56):
How do you prepare your team for
engaging with MSPs on site.
Does everyone have a differentrole to play or is everyone
doing the same thing?
Aaron Peterik (07:06):
I would say part of that depends on the booth
size if you have a big booth andare one of the premier
sponsorships where you have alot of real estate on the floor
to cover, you'll need demostations.
You'll need.
folks focused on bringing peopleinto the booth.
you might have a little tablewhere you have meetings inside
of your booth if you have areally large booth.
(07:27):
if you have a smaller booth likea 10 by 10 typically you'll have
two or three people inattendance there.
for those folks it's, moreabout, engaging with everyone
that walks by from a prepperspective on the vendor side,
leading up to this, you reallywanna understand the size of
your booth.
You wanna understand, what thegoal is Is it to get leads?
(07:47):
Is it to share a new product orsolution Is it to, get
excitement, what is the overallobjective of the meeting for
you?
make sure that you're alignedon, roles and responsibilities
as well as key messages thecoaching I would always give
vendors is.
you want to have your 30 secondelevator pitch down because a
lot of folks are gonna walk byand you want to be able to grab
(08:10):
their attention and try to pull'em over to your booth to give
more information You need to bereally crisp on, the benefits,
you can provide to them asthey're walking by so you can
hopefully pull in more people toyour booth.
Carrie Richardson (2) (08:22):
are there KPIs you hold your team
accountable to at the event?
Aaron Peterik (08:27):
So, we wanna understand, how many people we
talk to.
out of that list of people howmany demos are we scheduling?
we always try to get, demosscheduled so we can have more
one-on-one time to learn abouttheir business.
There's only so much you cancover in a booth atmosphere,
right?
in most cases partners aren'tgoing to these things to be
sold.
they're going to get educated.
(08:49):
If your messaging can be focusedon education and the problems
that you solve, as well as thebenefits to what your solution
offers, you're gonna get moreinterest there.
And so then ultimately it'sabout communicating that.
It's about trying to schedule asmany demos and then out of the
demos scheduled, what kind of.
trials can you get scheduledwith those partners, to try out
(09:11):
your solution and thenultimately, how much revenue can
we get out of that as well?
Carrie Richardson (2) (09:16):
So in your experience, what does the
drop off look like between demosscheduled at the event and demos
that people show up for onaverage?
What's the no show look like?
Aaron Peterik (09:28):
Oh, good question.
that's gonna vary depending onthe product to be honest.
But, typically we'll see about30%.
if there are a thousandattendees, we're gonna try to
get, at least 10% of thosescheduled, if not 20% of those
scheduled for demos.
we probably have, a pretty highnumber for show rates.
(09:49):
let's call it 70% roughly.
The folks that are, that aregoing outta the way to actually
book a demo Those are the folksthat you want to talk to.
they understand the need.
I see a lot of vendors offersomething for scheduling a demo,
right?
scan this QR code and you getput into a drawing for a Yeti
(10:09):
cooler or something like that.
I've never been a big fan ofthat, to be honest, because
doing that, you're nowincentivizing people to do
something that they may not wantto do just because they wanna
win a prize.
And so my coaching to vendorshas always been.
you wanna get people that areinterested in your solution so
(10:29):
that when they're schedulingdemos,'cause time is money,
right?
Not just for the partner but foryou as an organization.
if you have a lot of false leadsfalse meetings scheduled and
you're getting no show ratesthat's a waste Something else to
keep in mind if you're a vendorcoming to these events,
Carrie Richardson (2) (10:45):
What I've seen a lot of is, people getting
paid per scan and telling peopleplease, can I scan you?
I get paid for every person thatI scan.
What have you seen that worksfor encouraging people to
provide their data?
How many people are giving outGmail accounts to register for
PAX 8 beyond?
(11:06):
How many people gave theiractual email address or the
phone number?
Aaron Peterik (11:09):
There's a ton of bad practices out there, right?
There's a lot of people thatjust show up to these events to
get swag items to bring home totheir teams, I see that all the
time.
And that's why I've never been abig fan of do this and you get
this." I want real leads.
I want folks that are reallyengaged want to learn about what
we do why we do it and have areal problem.
(11:30):
I don't want to just fill ourCRM with a bunch of false leads
and junk that is gonna take awayfrom priorities that we should
be focused on from a partnerperspective.
there's a lot of bad practicesout there.
I would encourage, vendors tonot do that unless they wanna
waste their time and build falseleads in CRM.
as a CEO of these vendors,everyone is always asking for
(11:52):
what's the ROI coming outtathese events, right?
And yeah, you may be able to puta thousand leads into your CRM
and that might look good.
It might feel good.
But then how many demos are youscheduling, how many of those
are ordering a POC or some kindof trial, And then how many of
those are actually converting torevenue?
the more leads you put into yourCRM, the more things you need to
(12:14):
manage, the more noise you'remaking and sending out into the
market with different emailcampaigns and so forth.
there's just a lot of waste thathappens with that.
Carrie Richardson (2) (12:23):
Is there a process that brings the data
into your CRM automatically, ordo you do something to vet what
you bring into the CRM After theevent, are you auditing the list
of scans or do you use a formthat pulls it directly into
HubSpot or Salesforce?
Aaron Peterik (12:41):
you can upload, Excel files into your CRM pretty
easily.
a lot of these events, includingbeyond, vendors will get a lead
scanner.
So depending on the, the levelof sponsorship you have.
Your sponsorship, will eithercome with a lead scanner or you
may have to purchase that.
on the side, I would highlyrecommend if you're a vendor
attending PAX Zero.
(13:02):
you have a lead scanner.
if it doesn't come with yoursponsorship, it is well worth
the investment And so with thatlead scanner you know who's
coming by your booth.
you don't wanna just get a fulllist of all the attendees, at
the event, because that's a lotof noise you're putting into
your CRM potentially.
You wanna know, you wannaunderstand who actually came by
(13:23):
and who you talked to, You canthen input some notes about that
conversation.
who did you talk to?
Where are they from?
Why did they stop by?
what kind of problem are theylooking to solve that your
solution might be able to fill?
What are they using today forthis?
That can go into your CRM.
utilize a lead scan if you can,that can get auto-populated into
your CRM, HubSpot, Salesforce.
(13:45):
You can create, differentcampaigns and cadences to reach
out after the event as wellusing this information.
But those are gonna be theinformation that really
determines what kind of ROI youget out of this, the event is
one thing, but the real workstarts after the event.
It's in the follow-ups, inthose, communications that you
send out, as well as thosemeetings that you're able to get
(14:06):
scheduled afterwards.
the more notes and details youcan get on each of those
interactions, the better successyou'll have after the event.
Carrie Richardson (2) (14:13):
So for Zero at PAX 8 beyond this year,
who should be coming up to thebooth to talk to you?
What problems are they trying tosolve?
Tell us a little bit about whatyou're gonna be talking about
and the best fit MSP for yourservices.
Aaron Peterik (14:28):
zero Networks is in a unique spot for managed
service providers.
we do, network segmentation.
we are the only vendor,offering, what we call
microsegmentation to the MSPchannel and the SMB market There
aren't any other vendors in theworld offering microsegmentation
in an automated way, to thechannel.
(14:48):
We're gonna use beyond as a wayto highlight and educate MSPs
that in most cases, don't reallydo segmentation.
A lot of MSPs utilize, VLANs todo segmentation today, which is
not a secure method.
we use these events.
especially here to, highlight,the challenges in network
segmentation and the overall,issue that all MSPs and
(15:13):
businesses have lateralmovement.
breaches are happening everysingle day, We see reports on
ransomware and the number ofbreaches almost every single
hour it seems like these days.
The question is, when someonebreaches your network, what
security, measures do you havein place to prevent them from
moving laterally and accessingall of that sensitive
(15:34):
information that we need to,lock down.
there's a lot of money beingspent on perimeter defenses,
trying to prevent threat actorsfrom getting inside the network.
we play inside the network.
we segment that network.
so that if one machine or oneuser is compromised and
breached, we prevent that breachfrom spreading across the rest
(15:57):
of the network.
which is then gonna hopefullyprevent ransomware.
It's gonna protect your data.
we're gonna be spreading theword on microsegmentation, how
we do it in an automated way.
It's agentless.
we have a patent on how we applyMFA at the port level so no one
else in the world can do thisexcept for zero networks.
(16:17):
we allow.
customers to put MFA on anyconnection inside of a network.
if you wanna stop, Julie, inyour organization from accessing
this server, you can do that.
And you can require Julie inthis example, to MFA before she
gets access to that.
And so our services can do that.
(16:38):
It locks down networks.
it is true zero trust.
Then we also have, a remoteaccess solution called Connect,
which is A VPN replacement.
it's the speed of A VPN, buthas, added layers of security
utilizing MFA that I just talkedabout as well.
Carrie Richardson (2) (16:55):
thank you very much for joining us today,
giving us advice on how to takeadvantage, of an event the size
of PAX 8 beyond, we will publishyour booth number so people can
find you and talk about the onlysolution for microsegmentation
in the MSP space.
Thanks a lot, Aaron.
Aaron Peterik (17:12):
thank you.
Carrie Richardson (2) (17:13):
see you
Aaron Peterik (17:13):
Looking forward to it.
Carrie Richardson (2) (17:14):
Take care.
Aaron Peterik (17:15):
Bye.
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