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UPCOMING EVENTS

March 11

• Senior Level Diversity Roundtable

March 12

• Legal Considerations for Dealing with Social Media in the Workplace

March 15

• Association Media & Publishing Chicago Educaton Program - Know Your Rights: Copyright, Permissions and Blogs

March 16

• Leveraging Member Knowledge for Retention and Recruitment
• Marketing Shared Interest Group: Increasing Web Site Traffic and Visibility

March 17

• Associations Advance Illinois Day

March 18

• CMS Demo Day
• Human Resources Shared Interest Group: Top 10 Illinois Employment Law Issues for 2010

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Committee meetings

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Map and Directions to Forum

Best Practices

Exhibiting At A Tradeshow

1. Send a special invite with the booth number to clients that you need/want to see. If you have a "giveaway" or drawing, highlight that fact. Remember to be sure and invite your customer advocates. They are a great resource!
2. Provide useful information in your booth and highlight its availability in your pre-show marketing campaign. Sales literature is great, but why not supply your contacts with the "Top 10 Tips to (fill in the blank for you industry)" or other industry white papers that your organization has written or been involved with? These "tools" allow you to become much more than a sales person trying to sell something .
3. Treat EVERYONE on the floor as a VIP! Non-planners can be highly influential and many hold veto power. Developing relationships with these influencers can pay off. Plus, attendees you ignore today could be the next CEO or director.
4. Many planners were suppliers once and vice versa. Take time to develop and nurture relationships with your peers - they could be your client one day.
5. Never eat or drink in your booth.
6. Maximize your selling time on the floor. DON'T TEAR DOWN EARLY!

Working With/Selling to Associations

1. Know the role of volunteers. Are they the decision makers or do staff have the final approval?

2. Be a player in the association world, someone who is invested; join organizations, i.e. Association Forum, PCMA, ASAE

3. Have a selling plan. Are you just establishing the relationship? Are you selling your company's service?

4. Total account management. Make sure all appropriate contacts know who you are. Do not just target the employees with the high-level titles.

5. Be able to be a referral source for your association clients. Know other supplier partners in the industry and use a collaborative approach

6. Know protocol at industry events, i.e. always be looking for ways to network, but make sure to not overstep your bounds.

Do Your Homework

1. Never approach an association without knowing their basic information: who they are, size, budget, leadership cycle, services they purchase, hotel/conference properties they use (use guidestar.com).

2. Learn the association's meeting cycle, i.e. never approach an association two weeks out from their annual meeting.

3. Learn about the association world more globally – how it's different from the for-profit world.