The Avito Services service organized a "roasting" for entrepreneurs
In December, Avito Services organized an event for its partners in a non-standard format. Real cases about working with the service were analyzed at the "Business Roast", and tricky questions were asked from the audience. All this was more like a stand-up than a business event, the participants gathered in the company's office, where the party was held almost at home. We tell you how we organized the "roasting", why and what new things the participants learned about themselves.
How we came up with "roasting""Avito Services" is the largest platform for searching and placing offers in the service sector in Russia. Every second performer in the country is looking for customers using the service. The company invests resources in programs to support entrepreneurs in this market, including organizing professional events. However, it turned out to be a difficult task to gather representatives of a diverse service market in one place."We did not know the formats in which people involved in logistics, construction, repair, beauty, health and education could participate at the same time," says Ksenia Demchenko, head of the organization of events of the "Work" and "Services" categories. — I would like to have not individual industries on the site, but all of them. And the event could scale up to become a regular and significant event for the services market."To do this, the Avito event marketing team decided to adapt the format of "roasting" - a comedy show in which the host and participants make fun of the invited celebrity.For example, they tell how they attract customers on the site and promote their services. Or they talk about tools that help them stand out from competitors in their category.After each speech, the word is passed to the audience — this is the "roasting": there should be as many questions as possible, and the sharper they are, the better. After the presentations, networking: Avito Services wants to help customers find new partners and contractors. And for this, live communication is best suited — between representatives of the company and the business and between the entrepreneurs themselves.
How did you prepare
This "Business roast" is already Avito Services' second. In 2021, there were 50 guests from 30 companies, this year — 120 people from 70 businesses. There are four key presentations. "Choosing the speakers, we started from the largest categories of business on the site. We needed heroes in transportation, repair of equipment, repair and construction — with cool annual indicators (for example, an increase in the number of orders) and a desire to speak publicly," says Ksenia Demchenko.
Avito — more precisely, content and event managers, as well as the company's sales team - helped the speakers prepare for potentially tricky questions from the audience.
What was in the presentations of entrepreneurs
Daria Baulina, commercial director of the Ragnar Machinery construction equipment rental service and one of the participants of the Business Roast, in her presentation told how Ragnar Machinery analyzes statistics on the effectiveness of promotion in Avito Pro and customer calls; and also why they monitor the quality and relevance of photos of equipment that they rent.
At the same time, after listening to other participants, Daria noted that Ragnar Machinery did not work enough on the company's personal brand — this task was not a priority before.
Roman Gallimullin, the creator of the Tech-Arsenal company, which repairs computers and household appliances, told in detail about how to work with reviews at the Business Roast. Tech-Arsenal has achieved that out of 300 dissatisfied customers, 299 have changed their minds for the better, and the number of orders that came from chats has increased from 10 to 30%.
This "Business roast" is already Avito Services' second. In 2021, there were 50 guests from 30 companies, this year — 120 people from 70 businesses. There are four key presentations. "Choosing the speakers, we started from the largest categories of business on the site. We needed heroes in transportation, repair of equipment, repair and construction — with cool annual indicators (for example, an increase in the number of orders) and a desire to speak publicly," says Ksenia Demchenko.
Avito — more precisely, content and event managers, as well as the company's sales team - helped the speakers prepare for potentially tricky questions from the audience.
What was in the presentations of entrepreneurs
Daria Baulina, commercial director of the Ragnar Machinery construction equipment rental service and one of the participants of the Business Roast, in her presentation told how Ragnar Machinery analyzes statistics on the effectiveness of promotion in Avito Pro and customer calls; and also why they monitor the quality and relevance of photos of equipment that they rent.
At the same time, after listening to other participants, Daria noted that Ragnar Machinery did not work enough on the company's personal brand — this task was not a priority before.
Roman Gallimullin, the creator of the Tech-Arsenal company, which repairs computers and household appliances, told in detail about how to work with reviews at the Business Roast. Tech-Arsenal has achieved that out of 300 dissatisfied customers, 299 have changed their minds for the better, and the number of orders that came from chats has increased from 10 to 30%.
Yuri Dolmatov, founder of the Paladium company, which deals with mechanical plaster and dry screed, in the presentation spoke about the interaction of Avito with their CRM system. "People asked good questions. For example, not everyone knew that it was possible to integrate amoCRM with Avito. And I told them that the work of sales managers and their manager can be conducted in one window. All incoming calls and messages are displayed there — both from Avito and, for example, from a third-party messenger.""It was interesting for us," continues Yuri, "to find out how other companies determine the cost of leads (users who have performed any necessary action), which leads are considered working and which are not. Also, after listening to speakers from other regions of Russia, we thought that business is not so difficult to scale, having previously worked it out in one region."The speakers of the Business Roast liked the idea of gathering representatives of various categories of the service sector. Daria from Ragnar Machinery during the informal part managed to get acquainted with the company "Aurora", which is engaged in cold rental of lifts. "We have an almost identical target audience, but completely different products. We want to strengthen partnerships and have even scheduled business meetings," she says.And Andrey Kalashnikov, Marketing director of Paladium, discussed with new acquaintances the possible exchange of banners and cross-recommendations. "For example, a person who orders the transportation of goods to start repairs may need our services — plastering walls or screed ceilings. Accordingly, the company that deals with such transportation can recommend our services, and we can recommend them," says Andrey.Why "Business roast" and other events are needed by "Avito Services" Another task of the event is to connect customers and employees of "Avito Services", to get feedback from entrepreneurs. For example, for Eduard Sakhno, one of the speakers of the "Business Roast" and the head of the company "Cargo Rides", one of the advantages of the event was the opportunity to ask questions and voice their suggestions to the service managers."In addition," says Ksenia Demchenko, Event Management manager from Avito, "we wanted to show that Services is not only a platform for business development, but also a partner. That's why we invited everyone to the office for almost a house party."Right now, Avito Services has more than 2.7 million ads from performers from a variety of categories: these are construction crews, transport companies, manicure masters, and accountants.According to Dmitry Grunin, head of the sales department of Avito Services, customers and performers are increasingly choosing Avito as the main platform for the transaction: — in 2022, demand on the platform increased by 20%, supply by 14%. At the same time, demand has grown in different categories of services. For example, interest in beauty and health services has grown by 55% over the year, and in household services — by 25%.
Avito Services is looking for its own approach to different categories of services — separate managers work in each of the areas, industry partnerships are concluded, relevant tools are being introduced.
Avito organizes educational events for all categories of services. If the "Business Roast" is focused on enterprise customers, then online webinars are constantly held for small and medium-sized entrepreneurs, including in cooperation with well-known companies in the industry. For example, 1C:Bookkeeping was invited for accountants, and the <url> educational platform was invited for specialists in education. Avito Services also launched an online marathon for beauty masters dedicated to how to find clients and build a personal brand. And the organizers of the events were told how to maximize income during the New Year holidays.
Ksenia Demchenko says that webinars can be focused on specific categories of services, and on the widest audience of entrepreneurs from this field. For example, in the classroom they talk about how to promote your business more effectively, evaluate the competitive environment, maximize revenue and increase the customer base.
Many classes focus on how to use Avito tools most effectively. "There are general webinars for entrepreneurs from any category of services," says Ksenia Demchenko. — And classes dedicated to communicating with clients: starting with how to start a conversation with a client, and ending with how to ask him to leave a review and work out this review if it turned out to be negative or positive."
Avito Services is directly interested in this in order to give its customers as much knowledge as possible about working with the platform in different formats.
In the future, Avito Services will continue to invest in educational projects and events for entrepreneurs in the service sector — after all, these are effective drivers of market development.
Avito organizes educational events for all categories of services. If the "Business Roast" is focused on enterprise customers, then online webinars are constantly held for small and medium-sized entrepreneurs, including in cooperation with well-known companies in the industry. For example, 1C:Bookkeeping was invited for accountants, and the <url> educational platform was invited for specialists in education. Avito Services also launched an online marathon for beauty masters dedicated to how to find clients and build a personal brand. And the organizers of the events were told how to maximize income during the New Year holidays.
Ksenia Demchenko says that webinars can be focused on specific categories of services, and on the widest audience of entrepreneurs from this field. For example, in the classroom they talk about how to promote your business more effectively, evaluate the competitive environment, maximize revenue and increase the customer base.
Many classes focus on how to use Avito tools most effectively. "There are general webinars for entrepreneurs from any category of services," says Ksenia Demchenko. — And classes dedicated to communicating with clients: starting with how to start a conversation with a client, and ending with how to ask him to leave a review and work out this review if it turned out to be negative or positive."
Avito Services is directly interested in this in order to give its customers as much knowledge as possible about working with the platform in different formats.
In the future, Avito Services will continue to invest in educational projects and events for entrepreneurs in the service sector — after all, these are effective drivers of market development.
