When B2B companies evaluate the success of an event, the conversation often revolves around attendees, brand visibility, or net new leads. But here's what most teams overlook:
Your sales team’s excitement is the first signal that your event will actually work.
According to Anaïs Rebuffet, Head of Events at Mytraffic, a successful event isn’t just a well-planned experience—it’s a cross-functional collaboration between marketing, sales, customer success, and event teams. And if that collaboration isn’t locked in from the start, you’re not building an event. You’re setting up a silo.
The Real Problem: Events Are Still Treated Like a Marketing-Only Job
Let’s be honest—many teams still treat event planning like a marketing checklist:
Send invites
Set up booths
Print the roll-up banner
Hope sales follows up
📌 But in reality, the event’s success isn’t in the hands of the marketers.
It lives and dies with the team that builds the pipeline and closes the deals.
“Marketing is the foundation, but sales builds the walls.” – Anaïs Rebuffet, Head of Events at Mytraffic
Anaïs puts it plainly: marketing can’t drive pipeline alone. Sales is the portfolio expert. The person who understands the accounts. The one who knows which 10 clients actually matter at this conference—and how to get them to show up.
And when the event team and sales operate in silos?
💥 Guest lists fall flat.
💥 Follow-ups get delayed.
💥 Hot leads go cold.
Events become just... expensive branding exercises.
Building the House Together: A Real Invitation Strategy
Anaïs compares event planning to building a house—and the metaphor holds up:
Marketing lays the foundation: messaging, targeting, logistics
Sales builds the structure: bringing in strategic guests, connecting event goals to pipeline goals
Events & CX paint the house: curating the on-site experience, making it unforgettable
Customer Success becomes the face of the home: welcoming key clients, reinforcing retention
🎯 And the key? Everyone’s building the same house, not separate extensions.
What Happens When Sales Is on Board
When sales is aligned with the event strategy, here’s what changes:
✔ Personalized outreach starts before the invite goes out
✔ Reps push high-value clients to attend, not just who’s available
✔ Follow-ups post-event are warm, not cold
✔ Sales trusts the event team—and shows up excited
✔ Pipeline attribution improves because reps actually log meaningful convos
Summary
✔ Most events fail because they’re treated as a marketing-only initiative.
✔ Anaïs Rebuffet says it best: sales builds the walls—without them, the house falls.
✔ A strong invitation strategy starts with shared ownership across sales, marketing, events, and customer success.
✔ Your sales team’s enthusiasm is a top signal of whether your event will convert.
✔ If the sales team isn’t on board before the event, you’ll be chasing follow-ups that go nowhere.
Final Thoughts
Want to know if your event will drive pipeline? Don’t just count registrations. Check your sales team’s Slack channel. If they’re not talking about who’s coming, what to say, and who to follow up with—something’s broken.
At Localista, we make it easier to bridge that gap—so marketing, sales, and CX can plan smarter, track better, and follow up like a team. Because events don’t succeed in isolation. They succeed when your whole house is built on alignment.
