It should be easy. All your prospects wrangled together in one place. All looking for a solution like yours. Only problem – you can’t get a hold of them.
You put in all this effort. Dedicated a sizable chunk of your budget. Sent out your best company reps. Maybe you even went as far as to book a booth and print a banner. All to leave with many more leads to be desired.
You know you can do better, and we do too. In fact, you have to do better to make the impact you want.
That’s why we put together these three tips to help you stand out and really connect with your prospects at conferences. In this blog, we’ll take you through how to research your fellow environmental conference goers, how to successfully arrange 1:1s with them, and how to put your best foot forward with your handout materials.
Start incorporating these habits, and you’ll be sending off winning carbon credit project proposals in no time.
Three tips to connect with carbon credit buyers at conferences
If you feel like something hasn’t been clicking at conferences, try doing the following:
1. Research attendees
If you’re not already doing this, rest assured, that others are going to beat you to the punch.
Reach out to the attendance host and see if you can get the attendee list.
From there, it’s time to do what you do best — research. Look attendees up on relevant platforms like LinkedIn to gauge and reach out to your most likely buyers (as well as just to put a face to a name).
Take note of information like:
- Job title
- Company name and size
- Years in the role
- HQ location
- Industry
- Company’s ESG and climate goals
- Company’s prior impact claims
Let these factors determine the level of project relevance you have and drive what details you share.
Not only will simply researching attendees allow you to best spend your limited time and budget when it comes to outreach, but it can also help personalize your interactions. If you deliver information that’s actually useful to your prospect, you get that much more memorable.
When you can’t get the attendee list
If you can’t get your hands on the attendee list, that doesn’t mean you can’t figure out who will be attending.
One trick for finding conference-goers is to look up the conference’s event speakers as those are always publicly available. If they’re attending, there’s a good chance their colleagues are attending too. You can reach out and ask to set up meetings with them.
Another opportunity to have meaningful conversations is to reach out to prospects located in that area. They’re likely to be attending anyway, and even if they’re not, you can still meet with them in person before or after the event.
2. Arrange meetings ahead of time
Everyone is booked and busy – likely yourself included. It’s incredibly difficult to grab people’s time in a meaningful way for your business during the conference itself.
Conferences and summits with a carbon market presence are intense because companies are racing to understand evolving regulations, secure high-quality credits, and align with net-zero commitments. With growing corporate sustainability targets, these events are prime opportunities to connect with major buyers seeking credible offsets. Maximizing time to find corporate buyers is critical, as demand for verified credits is continuing to rise, and forging strong partnerships now ensures long-term success in the market.
Get yourself on your prospect’s calendar early or someone else will — especially when it comes to corporate buyers. Go ahead and schedule 1:1 meetings and coffee chats with those prospects you’ve already identified.
You want to make these emails or LinkedIn messages quick to read, but still full of relevant information that can help you stand out from the crowd. The way to do that is to keep it short but personalize each one to your prospect. The more you do this, the more you set yourself apart from the mass AI outreach that your prospects are used to getting.
We drafted up an email template that you can copy, paste, and customize as you see fit. Feel free to save it and send it to your prospects.
Email template to connect with buyers ahead of the conference
Below is an example of an email that can catch a buyer’s eye:
Subject line: Discuss your ESG goals with [Business Name] at [convention acronym]
Hello [Prospect’s First and Last Name],
I saw you were attending [Name of Event] where I’ll be representing [Name of your Business], a [short description of what you do].
I’d like to arrange a 20-minute meeting to discuss your company’s ESG goals and how my carbon project can help you achieve objectives like
- [tailored specific benefit]
- [tailored specific benefit]
- [tailored specific co-benefit]
- [tailored specific co-benefit]
How’s [3:00PM]?
Attached are a few handouts with further information about our projects.
Looking forward,
[Name]
[Job title]
[Business name]
Make sure to tailor this appropriately to each prospect.
E-mail template to follow up with buyers after the conference
Your prospects are likely to be overwhelmed after the information. Even if they really resonated with your carbon project’s goals, they might need a reminder of why. So, don’t shy away from follow-ups.
Try shooting an email or LinkedIn message after the conference that not only thanks them for their time, but reminds them to seriously consider partnering with you.
We drafted a template that accomplishes this below:
Subject line: Thank you from [Company Name]
Hello [Prospect’s First and Last name],
I appreciated our discussion about your team’s climate goals such as [include examples they listed here] at [include Convention Name here].
[Company name]’s benefits and cobenefits such as [concrete examples that answer their goals] seem to be a great fit.
I’d like to talk further about timeline and carbon markets strategy. How’s a 30-minute phone call this Wednesday at 3PM?
Thank you,
[Name]
[Job title]
[Business name]
3. Create relevant handouts for each project
You’ve booked the meetings. Now, it’s time to make sure you stay memorable after the conversation. The right handout for your projects can not only accomplish that but can also catch the attention of prospects you haven’t had meetings with.
So, how do you create a handout that won’t end up in the recycling bin?
1. Include all pertinent buying information
You want it to be really easy for your buyers to see the key things about your project to ensure it’s the right fit.
This includes things like:
- Price (including any volume-based, vintage-based pricing considerations)
- Volume
- Crediting period / project timeline
- Project type: Improved Forest Management, Biochar, REDD+, etc.
- Mechanism: Removal, Avoidance, Mixed
- Issuance status: Forward or Spot
- Mitigation outcome: Ex-ante or Ex-post
- Location (if relevant [e.g., forestry], include a KML file for geospatial analysis)
- Methodology (Including if that methodology is CCP-eligible or CORSIA-eligible)
- Registry (Including if that registry is ICROA-endorsed)
- Project overview (we recommend making it understandable to readers new to carbon markets)
- Co-benefits: Verifiable claims around environmental/social benefits and where you align with UN SDGs
- Additional co-benefit certifications: SDVista, CCB, etc.
- Additionality (Including evidence that the project wouldn't occur without support from carbon credit sales/revenue)
- Carbon accounting
- Permanence (Including how reversal risk is mitigated, land tenure rights are ensured, expected period of storage, and buffer pool if applicable)
- Leakage
- VVB
- Any notable buyers
- Ratings: BeZero, Sylvera, or Calyx
Buyers are always filtering projects by this information, even if they don’t know it themselves. We actually created a space to fill it all out in Catalyst, our supplier management software.
As you see here, it has fields for everything from the registry they use, to their methodology, to their impact claims, and more. Plus, all it takes is a single click to turn all that information into a simple-to-read PDF. This makes it easy to know what information to pull together and saves your already-stretched team their precious time.
2. Make it meaningful
Behind all the numbers and stats, you’re making a real difference. Tap into the emotion behind it because that’s at the heart of what you’re offering.
Highlight the significant impact you’re making to slow down climate change and the communities you’re aiding along the way.
Don’t be afraid to tell that story. Buyers want to hear it.
3. Keep it clear
This is a simple, but often overlooked, practice to get into.
You want everything you do to trace back to your work. Have your brand name and logo standardized across every handout.
This way, even if they don’t remember you, they’ll want to learn about you.
Better preparation means better leads
Whether you’re going to North American Carbon World or London Climate Action Week 25, conferences mean a lot of new names, faces, and hopefully business proposals. It’s a lot of work, but you deserve to reap the rewards.
Incorporate these three habits into your process, take advantage of the templates, and focus on getting your work out there. It’ll pay off.
You might be a biochar supplier or you might be working to preserve the rainforest, but your thing has and always will be making a significant contribution to carbon removal and reduction. If you need extra help with the business side, we’re there. And so is Catalyst, our carbon credit commerce platform for project developers and suppliers, so you can level up your business without all the extra effort.
