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3 quick powerful tips for preparing your next presentation.

It has been a while since I last wrote giving tips for presenters. I was recently asked to share how I prepare for a presentation. So very quickly let me give you 3 quick tips as you prepare for your next presentation. Here they are.

• Know your audience. Get to know who you are speaking to. Do your homework – as in research online, ask questions of the organizers ahead of time.
• • When you get to the event site, walk the floor, get to know the people, ask questions.
     
  • Don’t isolate yourself from the crowd. Both you and the crowd will benefit from the warmth of knowing each other a bit more.
     
  • Be ready to adapt your message in a moments notice.
     
• Prepare for the unexpected. Be ready to do your presentation with or without sound, with or without a computer.
• • This also comes with asking the right questions versus assuming what the equipment will be.
     
  • If you are using a computer / PowerPoint / or audio/video – test it all well before – get there an hour early to be sure it is working.
     
  • Carry a copy of your presentation on a flash drive with you. Ensuring you also have the links there as well.
     
• Concentrate on Quality, not Quantity. It is more important what you say and how you say it versus how long you talk.
• • Your audience is smarter than you think they are. Try to bring something for the smartest person there.
     
  • Don’t waste the audience’s time.
     
  • Give them something to think about and challenge them.
     
  • Read. Do research on-line that morning to be up to date with the latest information.
     

There you are, 3 quick tips for you to use in your next presentation. I hope they help.

Will Grupo Nelson be at Expolit?

Many of my friends and colleagues in the Spanish industry have been asking me about our presence at Expolit in Miami this year. They are planning their time and want to be sure that they book their agenda correctly. The questions generally are two and sometimes they sneak in a third question.  They basically ask me:

• Are you going to be at Expolit?
• Will Grupo Nelson have a booth at Expolit?

So let me simply let you know what we as Grupo Nelson are doing by answering the questions here. Let me start with the second question first.

Q. Will Grupo Nelson have a booth at Expolit?

A. No.

Q. Are you going to be at Expolit?

A. Yes. I will be there Monday and Tuesday only. Along with me will be our marketing and publicity director, Claudia Duncan. We will be there to work with authors, media, and several booksellers from Latin America. I am also looking forward to sitting in on the SEPA meeting on Tuesday morning.

There you have it folks, I hope that answers the questions for you. I look forward to seeing you there.

Responding to the question: Where do you invest your marketing dollars in tough times?

Over the last few years I have had numerous questions sent to me or asked on trips regarding different areas of business. These questions range from inventory to sales commission rates, from advertising to publishing a book, and yes, even from tradeshows to future of publishing. And over the recent months, in the midst of downturned economies and tougher sell in and sell through, I have heard questions regarding marketing in various forms. But they all boil down to a simple question- “How, or where, do I invest my marketing dollars in tough times?”

So below are a few thoughts. Take them for what they are worth; don’t go trying to read into my answers to the question. You know me by now, and that my answers are straight forward, direct, and even sometimes wrong. But they are my opinions to the questions I am asked, they simply reflect what I think and how I implement.

First of all let me change the question. Take out the last part “in tough times”. Let’s make the question “How, or where, do I invest my marketing dollars?” You see, I believe that “how or where” is a discipline issue. The external factors should not determine the level of our discipline, though many of us do. So with that in mind let’s see how we should invest our marketing dollars. I won’t give you a “where” to spend them list - that is your job to find out based on your needs and market.

What we need to get back as a result of our investment (Return on Investment) is really one of two things:

1)      Incremental Sales: Don’t measure it based on the history or what you have sold in the past. Your investment should be based on what you believe you can do above and beyond the norm. The key word is incremental, additional, more. You are looking for marketing to help you sell more.

2)      Capture customer or consumer leads: Is your investment capturing future leads? Everything you do should help you capture names, addresses, e-mails, contacts. These are people who are interested in your type of products and have actually shown an interest. They are your target consumer or customer.

So what we need to make sure of here is that every resource that we spend on marketing should either increase sales, or it should help us gather new contacts. In a tough environment this is even more important, but it should be practiced regardless of the economy.  

So, what does return on marketing investment look like? It may be easiest to simply give a few examples here as well as show you first what it doesn’t look like.

A Change in Our Trade Show Strategy

We recently announced that we will no longer be participating in two major trade shows in our industry: ExpoCristiana (October 2008) and Expolit (May 2009).  We have been discussing this move for some time; in fact, it’s a conversation we have had over the last two years. We began to make our move as we made similar decisions two years ago when we pulled out of the Expolit Encounters and also from having a Spanish booth at CBA. We also made these decisions corporately as Thomas Nelson regarding BEA (2008) and ICRS (2008) not too long ago.

We postponed our decision until now based on our having prior commitments made for floor space at one of the shows as well as giving ourselves time to evaluate once more. As of today we do not have any of these commitments. Some will say that we are financially in trouble; on the contrary- we are growing a very healthy top and bottom line and are very profitable. We are however evaluating every marketing dollar we spend. This evaluation is not the reason for our shift in strategy, but it is the tipping point. The reality is that these trade shows provide very little return to us on a hugely significant investment. Allow me to explain a bit…

Historically, as you know, trade shows have played a crucial role in publishing and bookselling. It used to be the place you learned of new releases, sat together once a year, and made plans for the next. That is not the case anymore. Trade shows used to be about righting orders, but that is not the case anymore either. I have been attended trade shows since as long as I can remember and have always enjoyed connecting with customers, friends, and colleagues. As much as we all enjoy that part of the trade show, we can simply no longer continue to justify the enormous costs associated with these trade shows.

Today our Key Accounts get visited 2 to 4 or 5 times annually by our sales team. In some cases we are even there on a monthly and weekly basis. We define key accounts as the accounts that make up the 80% of our business. Of the 75 accounts that make up our Key Accounts, 56 of them are in the Religious Sales Channel (63% of our key account business) which makes up these two trade shows. Our Key Accounts know about our New Releases months in advance through either electronic means or personal visits. The flow of information is instantaneous now and travel has become cheaper (versus a 30 minute meeting), easier, and faster.

Let me be very clear on two things as I conclude this post:

1)      We are not withdrawing our support from the sales channel- on the contrary; we are investing more than ever in the channel- just not the trade shows. Our investments can and will continue to be seen in personnel, tools at the retail level, and training. We are simply channeling these marketing monies into what we believe will give us more profitable returns.

2)      We are not encouraging, nor will we ever encourage others to pull out of the trade shows. This is a decision for us as Grupo Nelson. It is what we see to be the correct decision and the change in an ever changing world. 

Grupo Nelson presenting 7 authors at our Booksellers Conference in Miami.

As we finish making plans and coordinating activities and shared times with 3:16 Media, I thought I would take just a few moments to let you know a little bit about what we will be doing and then about the author base we are bringing to the most sought after booksellers event during the trade show in Miami. As a reminder it is Thursday, May 15^th, and registration starts at 11:30.

We will start off by serving lunch to our invited booksellers and media at about 12:15 and then at 12:50 we will get the presentation started. And let me tell you, from what I have seen so far- you don’t want to miss a minute of it. I would get there early and get a good seat.

We will kick things off by announcing the winner of the Extreme Bookstore Makeover. This bookstore will receive some $13,000 in product and cash to remodel the store. I can’t wait to see who the winner will be. Remember, if you want to win you need to send a note of why they should receive the prize (250 words or less) to Lluvia Soto. It could be you.

Then we have a powerful line up of artists (3:16 Media) and authors coming your way. We will have for you:

1)      Stormie Omartian talking to us via video about her new Bible as well as show you the two new books including “Praying Through the Difficult Issues of Your Marriage” from her that will only be available through Grupo Nelson.

2)      Jeffrey DeLeon will tell us about his new book “When Consequences are not Enough”. Jeffrey is the president of Liderazgo Juvenil internacional as well as the popular host of “Al Punto”.

3)      Hada Maria Morales will share with you her latest book “No arugues, si no hay quien plancha” as well as a look at her next book in her return to inspiration to mothers and women of all stages of life.

4)      Camilo Cruz will tell us via video about his new book “Secretos del vendedor mas rico del mundo”. Camilo is the author of the bestselling book “La Vaca” and a much sought after motivational speaker.

5)      David Hormachea will share with us why he is excited about the new version of the Bible that Grupo nelson is launching this fall. You will begin to hear quite a bit more about the “Nueva Biblia al Dia” as we launch out three different specialty Bibles to help boost your Christmas sales.

6)      Keila Ochoa Harris will tell you why she writes fiction and share with us her latest book “Palomas” as well as maybe just a glimpse at the next story she is working on. I can’t wait for you to hear about it.

7)      Eduardo Verástegui will join us to tell us about his role in “Bella”. He is looking to give very strong support for this project as it is very near and dear to his heart and passion. This will be a strong initiative to help us drive fiction growth in your stores.

We will also have several special gifts you will not want to miss. So make sure you are signed up as space is limited, and then come early, come hungry, and come ready to learn from the authors and those artists who will be presenting during the show. Then of course, make sure that you have made your appointment with your sales representative. Contact them right away, you don’t want to miss out on the specials and on the product that will help you have a profitable 2008 for your bookstore.

Grupo Nelson makes significant changes for the Expolit Miami Book Fair

This year we at Grupo Nelson are making a few significant cutbacks for the Expolit Miami Book Fair. We want to be good stewards, and all the time still be able to meet the results we are looking for from the show. I know that for many of you it may just be a “who really cares” issue and you can go right ahead and skip this post. But for others I would like to go ahead and let you know our changes and the reasons behind them.

Consolidated Booth: We are transforming our floor booth into a working station. We actually increased our floor space from 4 to 6. Because the noise level is very high we have actually been given permission to build some walls that will help reduce the noise in our booth. And as a result we are putting all of our meetings directly on the floor. We have room for all the sales team to have individual meetings, as well as an extra space. This will allow us to all keep one place as our central spot. We have also decided to not sell to the public. We are there to focus on the booksellers and to work with them as we plan and create together opportunities for them in their community.

No Lounge: We decided to not have a comfortable, plush booksellers lounge like we have had in the past. We saw that we could save that money, that only rented a spot for 5 days, and give that money to help a bookstore remodel and change there community. So if you come looking for us upstairs, you are in the wrong spot, come to the floor, come to where the action is.

No Author workshops: We have opted not to sponsor workshops with our authors this year. Our authors will primarily be there to help support the bookseller’s sales conference we are sponsoring on Thursday together with 3:16 Media. We will also hold media press conferences with the authors.

No Author Book Signings: We will not have author book signings for the general public as we have in the past. Instead we will be looking to send more samples to the media and key buyers.

Fewer Days for the Staff: One of the key changes is that we are pulling staff out early. Expolit is a long trade show. Expolit runs May 15^th to the 20^th. These full six days, Thursday through Tuesday, mix professionals as well as the public together. We will be pulling editorial, marketing, and publicity out by Sunday. We believe that our office staff can get everything done that we need to get done by Sunday. Most of our sales team will stay on through Tuesday, though some will leave in the morning. We will work very hard Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.

So in a nut shell, yes we are cutting back a bit. But at the same time we do not anticipate that it will affect sales. In fact we believe it will help us focus stronger on what we are doing and why we are there. It will cut back on unnecessary distractions, save us time, money, and energy.

Getting ready for the next Ferias de Libro.

Over the next couple of months we will have several FIL’s take place. I enjoy Trade Shows, I like to see what is new, what trends are forming, encourage a friend, and visit with clients and partners. But so many times we feel that we must be at the trade shows because of tradition, because we have always done so. And when you start going because you always go, then you are in a very dangerous position. This is the floater position. It is easy to go from trade show to trade show and just float in and then float out, and then realize that you aren’t quite sure what happened.

The floater wanders in to the trade show with out a real agenda. He is very flexible because he has no appointments set until he gets there. He has not thought out how he will use his time, who he will see, or where he will go. The floater wanders the aisles again and again with out a plan and then finds himself repeating the process the next day. The floater stands around on the outside of the events, looks in but doesn’t get all the information. The floater wishes he had one more day because he didn’t quite get it all done.

Here are 5 ways to avoid being a floater.

1)      Budget how many days you will be at the show.

a.       After you set your agenda you may be able to cut a day.

b.      Remember the costs include hotel, transportation, meals, and even time away from the office.

2)      Rank in order of importance the business you need to be sure to accomplish.

a.       Who must you see?

b.      Who can you follow up with later with a phone call?

3)      Get a map of the floor so you know where you are going.

a.       Most trade show we sites will allow you to download the floor map via PDF.

b.      Know where you are making your meetings and how much time you need to get to your next appointment.

4)      Set your agenda early.

a.       Also set an agenda for each of the meetings.

b.      Give yourself time to catch up, as well as time to get through your needs.

5)      Have a follow up plan for after the event.

a.       At each meeting restate the follow up steps to be taken and by whom.

b.      Document all your notes with in a week. The more you wait the less you will complete.

Here are the next few trade shows we will be attending and the time I will spend at each.

FIL Bogota  April 23^rd to May 5^th. I will not be at this trade show, but Roberto Rivas will be attending.

FIL Buenos Aires April 24^th to May 12^th. I will be there for just a day and a half. The rest of our team will be there for 4 days.

Expolit May 15^th to 20^th. I will be there for just 2 days. The rest of our sales team will be there through the 19^th or 20^th.

So, I need to make the most of the days I will be there. I am setting my agenda, getting the appointments around, adjusting the flights, hotels, and meals. May I also challenge you to do the same, make the most of the appointments and your time at the show.

See you on the floor.

Guadalajara Book Fair grows again

I received some great news last week that just got me all excited once again about the direction we are taking as Grupo Nelson. In an era where most of the trade shows are either stagnant, maxed out, or shutting down; I received word that one trade show in particular is expanding its exhibition space, planning ahead for growth, and listening to publishers and exhibitors as they grow together. Congratulations to the Feria Internacional del Libro – Guadalajara, Mexico.

Last week Roberto Rivas and Ricardo Gomez, my colleagues from our Mexico City office, went to an event organized by FIL Guadalajara, to present the new layout for 2008. Expo Guadalajara, as you might or might not know, is being remodeled and expanded. It will grow exhibit space by about 30%. The whole Expo Guadalajara is being remodeled; there will be a total of 4 access doors, one of them directly coming to the international area and accesses directly from the parking lots beneath. A new first class restaurant will be open as well. All this will be ready by September 2008. Check this link with more info about Expo Guadalajara. www.expo-guadalajara.com Here you can watch the video of the whole remodeling--- Patience, it takes a little while to load.

Here is some great data:

 

1) FIL appears to be expanding by about 15% for the 2008 extravaganza; FIL will still have significant room for future growth.

2) FIL has expanded in the Children's section, which is now on the main floor, but conveniently located to receive children visiting but not disturbing the rest of the areas during the three professional days (Monday -Wednesday).

3) The whole floor has moved up one level, thus creating open spaces with practically no columns.

4) Will create 7 rest areas complete with restaurant and sitting space in different places around the floor which before was practically non-existent.

5) The International Section is now in front of the main National booths separated by a Services and Rest Area.

6) The guest country will be Italy.

7) The International Rights Center and the Salon del Libro will be located next to the International Area. It is open only for professional days. After that, it will become one more big area for book and author presentations.

8) Cost: The booth package will have an increase of 3.5%, coming to $198 per sq meter. I am fine with the increase as I see they are making an investment to help me sell more as well.

9) I love the fact that FIL always provides great data for a full look at the data including # of publishers, # of professionals, # of kids, and so much more click here.

 

We also saw that our sales from the FIL booth increased in 2007 about 25% by having more display space and concentrating on fewer titles. This year FIL will be the only book fair in which we increase our booth presence directly as Grupo Nelson. In most others we are either maintaining or decreasing our presence.

Congratulations to the FIL- Guadalajara as they attempt to help the publishers and booksellers interact and grow their business better by maximizing the areas and keeping three dedicated professional days. Here is an area that is growing – are you a part of it? 

Tradeshows and Grupo Nelson.

There are several practices that I appreciate about Thomas Nelson and the work environment here. Chief amongst them is advance communication to the company of important decisions. This is an area that Mike Hyatt has been doing an excellent job at. Before I came I have heard that many times if you wanted to know what was going on here, you better wait for the press release, or have a subscription to the trade magazines or even the local newspaper. This had created a somewhat fearful atmosphere of which I do not feel today. Well as I said, Mike has been very open in the communication and timeliness with us here at TNI. This is critical for the growth of a company.

Recently I was in a meeting where we learned that of our decision to pull out of CBA Advance as well as the details of “Open House” which would be announced later the same week. There was good discussion around the room as each had an opportunity to reflect and make note of the change. If you have not read Mike’s blog on our decision to host “Open House” as well as a small Q & A, let me invite you to read it. I had a couple of personal reflections on this that I just want to share with you.

1)      All trade shows are different and have their strengths and weaknesses.

a.       I had written about several of the trade shows and their differences (Click here). Know what you are doing at each trade show. What are your goals for each and how will you plan or participate at each show?

b.      As a side note: Grupo Nelson had already planned on not showing at the CBA International Retail Trade Show in Atlanta this year. Based on the costs and the actual contacts for us, we chose to fold in under our parent company Thomas Nelson.

2)      Business channels and practices are constantly changing – trade shows must as well before they become obsolete.

a.       As above- what is the primary purpose for the trade show? Is the focus in line with reality? Is it relevant to the relationship between Publisher and Distributor or Retailer?

b.      How have the buying cycles changed? How has the flow of information changed? Do you need to have big sales conferences, or should you target the center and the heart of the relationship and opportunities in the marketplace?

3)      Publishers must count the costs as well as the ROI.

a.       Each publisher runs a slightly different business model. What works for one does not necessarily mean that it will work for all publishers. Count the costs of what you are investing, are you generating the sales to compensate for the monies spent – either short term or long term.

b.      I have heard before “This show is a terrible waste, but we have to be here.” Ask yourself- do you have to be there?

c.       Last year we chose as Grupo Nelson to not participate in a few trade shows. We believed that they did not meet our needs and that we could use the monies more wisely. We did not make the decision public as we did not want to influence others. It was about what worked and didn’t work for us, not about what should work for us as an industry.

So where are we heading as Grupo Nelson, the Spanish division for Thomas Nelson Publishers? What will our trade show participation be in the future? Well the simple answer is – “It all depends.” And it really does depend. It depends on the sales channel. It depends on the costs of the event. It depends on the ROI.

This year we will review all trade shows and decide on each one as to our participation next year. We will look at the channel, look at the costs, look at the growth, and look at the declines. We will decide then what and how we will participate in the future. We want to help all of our customers, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that we need to be at all the trade shows. There are new opportunities on the horizon; each must count his own cost and investment.