Q. With the troubled economy, a lot of salespeople are having difficulties. What are your biggest challenges right now? To what do you attribute your current successes?
A. The challenge is essentially the same one as always and that’s how best to maximize booth sales. What has been different this trip has been the need to fill more space than usual as some old-line exhibitors have reduced their space commitments. Fortunately, Corcoran Expositions Inc. is very experienced at exhibit sales. We began to notice last summer during renewals on client shows that some of the larger companies were taking less space than usual. Based on this information, we understood that to be successful we’d have to concept a more aggressive marketing plan and quickly put that plan into action.

Q. What advice would you give other sales associates in the industry?
A. To spend more time building up your prospect lists, to begin with a realistic floor plan, to begin your outreach marketing earlier for new exhibitors, to make your show as visible as you possibly can through every marketing avenue available, to make every exhibitor and prospect aware that in a down economy there’s no better place to boost your business than at a trade show, and to recognize that some companies are now making the decision to exhibit later than usual, which means that you’ll have to stick with it and never stop marketing.

Q. How do you keep your salespeople motivated?
A. Money is as good a motivator as there is and we pay a commission for each sale. We also add a bonus if sales associates can exceed their biweekly sales goals. In addition, we hold regular sales meetings that include lunch, where we recognize success and do training. Our Sales Manager Thom Hoffman, each of our exhibit managers and I spend time each business day in the Calling Center with our sales team, interacting to see how we can help them be more successful.

Q. What’s the workload like for your sales associates?
A. We try to keep everyone fresh, and to do so we break up each work day into two halves. No sales associate works more than half a day on a particular show. Otherwise, we’ve found that work expands to fill the time.

Q. How do you staff your call center?
A. We have five sales associates who have been marketing booth space with us for many years. We’ve also added seven more flex-time sales associates to help us reach out farther to locate more new companies to exhibit at our customers’ trade shows.