Event Focused ABM Program With Pre-Event Outreach and After Hours Meetings (with Erika White Crutchlow from Resolver) | Ep. 233

Scrappy ABM brings together host Mason Cosby and Erika White Crutchlow from Resolver to walk through an event-focused ABM program that runs on tight alignment with customer success and sales, bold booth visuals, and simple giveaways like branded socks. Mason and Erika revisit a conversation that started at B2BMX in October and trace how a heavy event season turned into a structured approach to account selection, pre-event outreach, and on-site execution.

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Erika explains how Resolver builds event-based target account lists, crawls LinkedIn, and uses historical lists to reach high-value customers and prospects before anyone steps on the trade show floor. She shares how tailored email, LinkedIn, and phone outreach, SDR calls two weeks before the show, and “after-hours” breakfasts, activities, and dinners with customers and prospects create real relationships, qualified accounts, and long-term brand awareness that show up in Salesforce long after the event ends.

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👤 Guest Bio

Erika White Crutchlow from Resolver builds and runs event-focused ABM programs across multiple divisions. She works very closely with customer success and sales to identify high-value customer accounts and prospect accounts, map them to the right events, and align on pre-event outreach, booth strategy, meetings, and after-hours activities. Erika tracks results through Salesforce, leans on historical event lists, and partners with local vendors for “cheap and cheerful” giveaways like popcorn, branded cookies, and socks that keep people coming back to the booth and to Resolver’s team year after year.

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📌 What We Cover

• Building an event-focused ABM program that starts with high-value customer accounts and prospect accounts from customer success and sales.
• Deciding whether to go to events for specific accounts or use events to reach an existing target account list, and leaving room for “moments of serendipity.”
• Using LinkedIn crawling, hashtags, session topics, and historical lists to see which accounts will be attending and to fuel pre-event outreach.
• Running tailored, personalized outreach through email, LinkedIn, and phone calls that invite people to on-site meetings and custom demos tied to new features or products.
• Offering simple incentives like branded socks instead of expensive headphones, and using cost per opportunity and meetings per opportunity to guide budget and meeting targets.
• Training the booth team to ask qualifying questions, filter out swag-only visitors, and focus on people who are ready for a real conversation and demo.
• Comparing sponsored speaking sessions and thought leadership abstracts with booth investments, and why Resolver often prefers the booth over expensive sponsored slots.
• Designing after-hours breakfasts, activities, and dinners that pair target accounts with customers so they can talk about shared problems, risk, and tools without pressure.
• Tracking meetings, follow-up meetings, new leads, qualified accounts, and pipeline in Salesforce, while recognizing that many event touches pay off one or two years later.
• Testing two-week pre-event SDR calls to confirm meetings, ask pre-qualifying questions, and improve show rates with a simple “are we still good” follow-up.
• Partnering with local vendors for popcorn, branded cookies, and city-specific giveaways that reduce shipping costs and create a local connection.
• The ongoing importance of alignment between sales and marketing, rowing in the same direction, and not underestimating the ROI of those off-site, after-hours events.

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🔗 Resources Mentioned

• Resolver
• B2BMX
• Salesforce
• Scrappy ABM: Visit for more ABM tips and strategies.
• Connect with Mason Cosby on LinkedIn for a conversation about ABM.

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