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I'm launching something called Fruitful 15, a 15-day pop-up series where I'll feature 15 B2B event pros sharing one tactic, framework, or playbook that has actually worked for them.

Every entry will get a dedicated post on my LinkedIn and a permanent home on my website to share with your own network. We're also partnering with another media brand with 11,000 subscribers, so your entry will reach their audience too.

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I recently landed two new clients in two very different industries, and the experience taught me something I didn't fully appreciate until it happened with both clients: the best onboarding starts long before the client ever signs.

Let me introduce them first.

The first client is in the hospitality industry. They run a culinary festival happening later this year. They produced the first edition in 2023, learned a lot, and brought me in to support the partnerships and sponsorship side this time around. They also happen to be a James Beard Award finalist for best chef in the region, which is why I'm headed to Chicago on Monday to support them at the ceremony. If you're not familiar with the James Beard Awards, think of them as the Oscars of the culinary industry. A nomination alone can change the trajectory of a chef's career and a restaurant's business, and a finalist spot puts you in the conversation with the best in the country. Getting to be in the room for that moment, as both their partner and their friend, is one of the perks of this work that no contract could capture.

The second client is in the knowledge worker industry. They help people at inflection points in their careers and help people explore the path into entrepreneurship. Last year they hosted an event for 100 people. This year they're hosting the same event and adding a second a event the month after. They brought me in to support with the full lifecycle of planning and the execution itself.

Here's the part worth studying. Neither of these were cold relationships.

The hospitality client has watched my work for years across different events. The professional client attended two of my events as a guest. After one of them, she told me she borrowed parts of my email and planning flow for an event of her own. My work left enough of an impression that she put them to use for her event(s), and I'm convinced that experience is a big part of why she hired me.

She had also seen the Scalable Summit recap microsite I posted on LinkedIn and wanted one for her event. She sent over all the testimonials from her previous event, and I built her a website that pulled them into one beautiful, interactive place.

This newsletter played a role too. Both clients could read my thinking on events every week before we ever discussed working together. By the time we got on a call, they weren't evaluating a stranger.

The first formal interaction with both clients was a kickoff call, and I structure it around three things.

First, I walk them through my process for sponsorship and partnership sales so they can see exactly how I work. Second, we audit what assets they already have: a pitch deck, a lead list, an email address they want outreach sent from. Third, we build a budget for the total event, and I include my rate as a line item inside it.

One tactic I'd encourage any consultant or event partner to steal when doing sponsorship sales on behalf of their client: before doing any real outreach, I run a mock session clients as if I’m a potential sponsors. By the end, I understood the goals of the event, the benefits of partnering with them, and the deliverables and outcomes sponsors could expect. It compressed weeks of context gathering into one session, and it meant I sounded like an insider on my very first real sponsor call.

Once onboarding wraps, the early work is unglamorous and essential. I clean the lead list, updating names, titles, and emails. The hospitality client gave me access to their partnerships inbox, so I read the history of past conversations for additional context. The knowledge worker client used Claude Cowork to dig through previous emails and surface which sponsors we should approach first.

Then we sequence the outreach. The clients cc me on outreach to the warmest leads first, and anyone who responds gets a call with both of us. That builds momentum and early commitments I can leverage when I start working the cold list.

I never formally introduced my GARDEN framework on these calls, but I was thinking through it the whole time. Clients who have already run an event have usually figured out their goals, their audience, their revenue, and most of their design. What they almost never have is nurture, a system for what happens between events. It's the least utilized letter and the one everyone is too exhausted to execute.

It's also the letter that feeds all the others. The testimonial website is proof. We built it to sell new sponsors, and then realized it doubles as a gift for the presenting sponsor: an asset they never expected that makes the renewal conversation warmer and opens the door to a bigger partnership.

I'll be honest, not every client call I take converts. Some prospects tell me it’s the wrong timing, some have the work covered in-house, and sometimes it’s a matter of budget limitations. Either way, every call still teaches me something about where my work is most valuable, and I keep notes on what I hear so I'm sharper and more prepared the next time a similar conversation comes up.