Planning a trade show can be a daunting task, and there’s one trap that most trade show planners fall into without even realizing it. In this eye-opening video, trade show expert Jonathan Pritchard reveals the secret gap that can make or break your success.
From designing an attractive booth to ensuring your sales team is ready to engage visitors, there’s a crucial middle ground that often gets overlooked. How do you capture the attention of passersby and entice them to stop and talk to your sales team? It’s not just about flashy giveaways or freebies—it’s about the power of human connection.
Jonathan explains why relying solely on passive marketing tools won’t cut it. He uncovers the importance of stopping people in their tracks, captivating their attention, and delivering your company’s value proposition at scale. Learn how a professional presenter can revolutionize your trade show strategy and help you achieve remarkable results.
If you’ve experienced the disappointment of lackluster trade show leads, this video is a game-changer. Jonathan shares his proven process and system for winning big at trade shows, helping you extract two to five times more value from your next event.
Don’t miss out on the chance to supercharge your trade show success. Connect with Jonathan Pritchard, the founder of ROITradeShows.com, and discover how his expertise can transform your trade show game. Leave a comment, shoot him an email, or connect on LinkedIn to start the conversation.
Subscribe to this channel for more insightful videos on trade show mastery, and be the first to know when new content drops. Remember, if you can change your mind, you can change your life. Don’t settle for average results—elevate your trade show game today!
There’s a particular quirk (defect?) of magicians: their primary mode of communication is performing magic.
It’s the “if your only tool is a hammer, everything looks like a nail” situation, but for them it’s “pick a card.”
Doing tricks is the only way they’ve ever gotten people to like them, to talk with them, to get people interested in hanging out; as the dancing monkey.
And it’s exhausting.
On the other side there are magician friends of mine that I’ve known for 15+ years and we’ve never done a single routine for each other.
We talk about magic, sure, but we don’t ‘perform’ for each other.
We also talk about family, hobbies, the news, ideas, outer space, and anything else we find interesting (which is most of the universe).
And that brings me to sales.
Should you always be selling?
I have two answers.
If it’s the pushy kind of “Look at me! Look at me! I’m going to close you!” kind of selling?
Then, absolutely not.
In fact, I’d prefer you never do it at all. Please find another line of work.
On the other side, if your idea of selling (like mine is) is to help people find effective, efficient, and profitable solutions to their problems, then I think you should be selling every single moment of every single day.
If you are genuinely invested in helping people solve problems & be more successful, then I never want you to turn that off.
That’s why the best sales people don’t feel “salesy.” They feel like they’re a great friend who’s looking out for you, and helps keep you in the loop on stuff that might be of benefit to you.
And who wouldn’t want a trusted advisor / friend like that?
How about you, specifically? Should you always be selling?
When you start working on enterprise level opportunities, you’re probably going to be talking to more than just one person, and oftentimes that’s going to be an executive and maybe even the CEO or owner of the company.
If you don’t know how to speak the language of executives, you will literally talk your way out of huge opportunities. I wanna help you avoid that. So these are five things that you should keep in mind when you are going after giant opportunities.
Let’s get into it.
Over the past 10 years, I’ve done a lot of business to business consulting. I’ve done workshops, sales training, trade shows, you name it, I’ve done it. I’ve been brought in by BP to speak with the president and the entire executive suite. I have worked with CEOs and founders of companies to help them pitch their value to investors.
For four years, I’ve worked at one of the country’s largest marketing agencies, talking business with CEOs and executives at multimillion and billion dollar companies to negotiate very large deals.
One of my mentors was an executive at Sharp Electronics that took the company from making 📍 millions per year into📍 billions per year, and he has laid out a lot of this for me, and I want to share this with you. so that you can level up your business.
To that end here is the first thing,
which is
zoom out
as a subject matter expert. You are really, really good at managing the details that you need to manage to do your job and accomplish your goals. But that’s why you’re being hired, is to manage those details.
The people hiring. You don’t need to know those details. If you get into the nitty gritty details, well then it’s going to be too fine for somebody who isn’t a subject matter expert to understand what in the world you are talking about. They will very quickly be thinking, why do I even care about this?
So You’re talking to people who are big picture and visionaries more so than granular level KPIs and metrics and that kind of thing. Those come later, but when you are trying to explain how you’re going to help the company, getting too lost in the weeds will make sure that they lose track of why they should hire you.
The second thing that you have to nail is being confident. Business is challenging, it is difficult. It can be even brutal. And the executives, the CEOs need to know that they can depend on you when things are difficult. So when things are easy, when you are in the negotiation phase. The conversation about how you’re going to help them.
They might test you, they might push back, they might press in on some particular detail that you wish they wouldn’t, and they’re going to see how you hold up to the smallest bit of pressure. You might think that that was unnecessary and unreasonable, or they were being mean. They were basically just testing how confident you were in, how well you can execute at this level.
So if you fold, when they give you the slightest bit of pressure, they know for sure that they cannot trust you with the full weight of the success of their business. And that is one way that you can lose the opportunity is if you get flustered or you snap at them when they’re testing your resolve. So the right thing to do is to remain confident,
support your claims and to stand by your work and to weather that pressure. And then you might find out that, uh, you passed the test.
The third thing to keep in mind is to focus on value. Companies are a creature that live on profits and are hurt by liabilities. Not just making money and losing money, but employees can be liabilities. Debt can be liabilities. There are all sorts of liabilities that a company is facing, and the CEO is the partner of the company who wants the business as happy as possible with as few liabilities as possible because their payday is tied into the value of the company, not just their paycheck.
So the CEO and the executives are tied into how comfortable and happy the business is. That means that at every stage of the conversation, every detail that you are explaining, you should be able to then say, and that helps improve the profits or lowers the liabilities because this, this, and this.
So you should be able to say that if we run more effective Facebook ads, then we will be able to increase your exposure for the same ad spend. So that is more results with the same investment, which is more profitable, right? So when you speak the language of value, you’re speaking the language of executives.
The fourth thing is to extend your time horizon, focus on the long term. You might want to talk about the immediate wins, and we’re gonna do this tomorrow, but. CEOs are in it for the long haul. They have a long-term vision for what they want the business to be, where they want it to go and what they want to do.
Maybe that is to make it as profitable as possible and sell to investors in three years. Or maybe it is to retire by the time that they are 40, or maybe it is, they’re building this business to provide for the next three generations of their family. That’s how long term that they are thinking, and you can figure out how to fit into that vision by helping focus on, I’m helping you today.
For tomorrow’s benefit into perpetuity. So when you extend your time horizon, you are helping them envision a longer and longer partnership instead of, here’s what I’m doing today. It’s more of we’re going to work together for the long term because we both have the same goal, which is helping make your business successful.
The fifth detail is know how your puzzle piece fits into the company. Another way of saying this is:📍 know your place
now, I mean that to say. See how you fit into the whole picture. Not to stay quiet because if you understand branding and marketing and sales and onboarding and delivery and client retention and business systems, you are bringing a lot more value to the table when you are still talking about your particular area of expertise.
When you can think strategically at a long-term vision, you’re a consultant who is a business expert with a, with a focus in your area of expertise. So that is how you’re going to be in. incredibly valuable to that company beyond just the level of skills that you’re bringing to the table for the thing you want to be paid to do.
So when you know how you fit in, you can be even more valuable to the company and that translates to higher pay.
So those are the five things. Zoom out, be more confident, speak the language of value, extend your time horizon, and know how you fit into the whole picture. When you bring all of those together, your sales conversations are gonna go much more smoothly and you’ll land many more opportunities.
Now, if you want more insights like this, I strongly suggest that you join my almost daily email society. I call it the secret email society because nobody else can see what happens inside of it. And I share tips, tricks, techniques, and strategies for, uh, landing more business of bigger and better quality. Uh, you can do that at I can read minds.com. And again, I’m Jonathan Pritchard, and remember, if you can change your mind, you can change your life.
I’m up early this morning to tell you about this video because it’s suuuuuuuper valuable to anyone working with large companies & large opportunities.
For the past 4 years I’ve been working with one of the country’s #1 digital marketing agencies.
Every day I talk with several business owners & CEOs about their goals for the company, and I get to hear their concerns about whether or not digital marketing will even work.
This video isn’t about digital marketing at all; it’s 100% focused on the 5 most important lessons I’ve learned after selling, pitching, and negotiating hundreds of multi-million dollar opportunities.
If you try to “sell” a CEO the same way you would with a middle manager, then you’re going to talk your way out of the deal.
Give it a watch, let me know what you think, and we’ll dive back into how & why the internet sucks.
If you’re going into conversations without a firm script or outline (at minimum) what is you even doing?!
Write down questions you think they’re going to ask you.
Then answer them.
Write down the reasons they will give for not signing up.
Then address them.
Write down how you make your clients more money.
Then explain it.
Write down what you do that nobody else does.
Then charge money for it.
Writing is sales. Sales is writing.
Abracadabra the hell out of your sales conversations and you’ll pull money from thin air.
Yet another fantastic demonstration that magic perfected thousands of years before anyone thought to put two and two twogether.
Alright. It’s Saturday. Time to listen to WNCW radio & have a crazy good breakfast with the family.
See you bright and early Monday morning with more ideas on how to get you paid.
Best thoughts, ~Jonathan
PS:Have questions about your business, marketing, persuasion, or anything else that you’d like me to answer? Hit reply to this email, write it out, and hit send. This is my real email address and I read every single email that I get. (and I answer almost all of ’em, too!)
I wrote “[think] Like A Mind Reader” back in 2017. Since then it has helped people discover new opportunities, easier ways to accomplish huge goals, escape the spiral of self defeating mindsets, and more.
You wouldn’t believe the messages I’ve gotten from people over the years telling me how much it helped them.
Makes it all worth it!
And now, I’m ready to start those conversations in a new domain.
Sales.
Sales Training
I talk about it off and on, but I’m not sure I’ve laid it out directly before: after being a sales person at one of the country’s best digital marketing companies, I was moved into a training & planning role.
My approach to selling was so dang effective for monster deals that leadership told me that I’d be more valuable to the company teaching the rest of the team how to do what I do than do it myself.
So for the past 2 years I’ve helped seasoned pros & absolute beginners (no joke, one woman had been a missionary her whole life with zero sales experience and within a couple months she’s one of their top closers because she listened & did what I taught her to do).
So I have a proven system that works. It’s simple. It’s different from every guru who claims to understand the psychology of sales.
Not like this, you don’t, bud.
The Question For You
What questions do you have for me about sales? What do you think when you think about sales? What challenges do you have closing new business? Does it scare you?
In short, what do you want/need to know about selling?
I want to ask you now so you can get those over to me, and I can make sure I have all your bases covered by the time I finish this thing.
My goal is to help you win huge opportunities more easily without compromising a single iota of your integrity. Helping awesome people be more awesome; that’s sales to me & hopefully you too once you read this thing.
Hit reply, overwhelm me with as many questions as you can possibly think of, and we’ll make this thing the best damn book on selling that the world has ever seen.
There’s an underground Mentalist who I have respected for years. He creates experiences that are direct, powerful, and professional. They’re perfect for me.
And he’s a reclusive cat.
He can disappear for years. No email. No website. Nothing.
Then he comes back with new material to share with the community before going off grid again.
Hardly anyone in the magic world even knows about this guy.
That’s why I was so surprised this week.
The Scene
I’m in the booth at the International Franchise Association doing my thing for one of the country’s largest digital marketing agencies.
I get done entertaining an older guy who says, “That’s fantastic, really is. It reminds me of a guy, UNDERGROUND MENTALIST. You ever heard of him?”
What?!
“Yeah, he’s great. We worked together a lot over the years. Love that guy. Hard to get ahold of, though. Haven’t heard from him in years. If you ever cross paths, let him know I say hi. In the meantime, though, give me a call. I think it’s time to start doing this stuff again.”
I take his card.
He’s a VP at Bank of America.
You could have pushed me over with a feather.
Isn’t that how it always happens? You’re doing one thing that leads to another and before you know it you’re living your wildest dreams.
That’s the power of connection & relationships.
Best thoughts, ~Jonathan
PS: Did you know I created the ZAVANT Sales System? It combines powerful mentalism principles, a tiny bit of showmanship, and a whole lot of good thinking into a foolproof process for landing small-to-enterprise level opportunities? I’m about to add even more insights, which means the price goes up too. More details soon!
You have to sell yourself on the idea that your life can change.
You have to sell yourself on the idea that you can have the life you want.
You have to sell yourself on the idea that you’re worth it.
All of this has to happen, first, before anyone else can buy into your dream.
And that’s what sales is: helping someone else share the same vision as you.
Most people don’t know how to do that. They’re stuck in the same way of thinking. The same way of doing things. The same way of ‘just getting by.’
That’s why I’m so passionate about understanding the psychology of why people decide to change, how they think about doing it, why they buy, what motivates them, and more.
Once you unlock that fundamental secret, then you can help people make incredible changes.
That’s what I’m thinking about this morning as I’m waiting on my flight to Vegas.
How about you? What’s the biggest idea that you’ve sold yourself on? What’s the biggest deal you’ve closed (for yourself or with someone else; could be both!)?
Success starts in the mind & works its way out into the world from there.
That’s why I am 1000% convinced that founders, engineers, managers, introverts, extraverts, and everyone between would benefit from learning sales.
What do you think?
Best thoughts, ~Jonathan
PS:I’m thinking of dialing the emails back to twice a week. Once to let you know about the new video/topic, and the second as an article like this talking about psychology, life, & business. That means they’d be longer vs a more bite-size note like this. What do you think?
