Have Conversations with 100% of Your Sales Prospects
Most event salespeople are transactional. Their outbound phone calls and emails, whether to sell a booth or a sponsorship, tend to approach the sale as a transaction – a one-time thing. And then they wonder when these attempts don’t generate the successes they desire. Why? One key factor is that the salesperson is choosing the time, […]
The Seven Conditions for Successful Event Sales
If you are good at it, there is nothing more satisfying than being a salesperson. You have few of the mundane tasks often required in other kinds of roles and your individual performance can have a direct and immediate impact on your (potentially unlimited) income. The sales role also rewards an entrepreneurial mindset, as the most […]
Are You Guilty for Sending Idiot Marketing Messages?
Launching an Event: How to Avoid Financial Disaster
In theory, launching an event should not be too difficult. The steps of a launch can be laid out much like a pilot’s nighttime view of an airport runway’s landing lights. If you are methodical in execution, analysis and do things in the proper order, you should be successful. That typically is how it happens, […]
Why you should replace 20% of your sales staff – NOW
I have strong opinions about sales staffs, having managed them in some shape or form since 1996. As I’ve previously written, I believe only 20% of salespeople are more than order takers. Given that assertion, I was asked recently, “What about the other 80% of our sales staff? How should I manage them so that I can […]
Have We Failed to Innovate in Our Events? An Insider’s Perspective from David Saef
I met David Saef at the recent Exhibit Sales Roundtable and was impressed both by his presentation (though not necessarily agreeing with everything) as well as his overall point of view about our industry. David is the SVP of Strategy at Freeman. In that role he helps Freeman’s many clients with their marketing strategies, including […]
Will your lack of respect for your customers come back to bite you?
A colleague advised me when I started in the business that I should “do as little as possible while trying to get the maximum out of others.” Left unsaid, but understood, was the presumption that as long as I got mine, making the minimum effort was OK.Fortunately for my bosses and my clients, I rejected that […]
How to Get More Revenue When Your Customer Budgets Are Shrinking
Times are tight. Even though ‘events are back’ your exhibitors are cutting back, as evidenced by their smaller budgets. They are returning neither your calls nor your emails. How do you reverse this trend and accelerate the process needed to increase your sales? You CAN increase sales year over year, even though times remain tough. As […]
Downturn Strategies from an Event Industry Sales Expert
One of my long-term industry friends is Dan Cole, whom I first met in 2007 at a Society of Independent Show Organizers (SISO) event. Then serving as the Vice President of Sales for the Consumer Electronics Show, Dan moderated a SISO panel about exhibit sales strategies and tactics that wowed me with its insights and recommendations. […]
Does Your Event Have a Reason for Being?
Does this sound like a quesion with an obvious answer? It’s not, and I can prove it. One clue to possible problems is the core messaging. Is the tagline for your event something along the lines of: “It’s all about networking” “It’s all about action!” “Be ingenious!” Some other similarly trite, vacuous slogan? If so, […]