The International Christian Retail Show (ICRS) yearly convention for the CBA industry was held a couple of weeks ago in St Louis and I still find myself reflecting on how different this show was when viewed from a publisher’s perspective versus a sales perspective. To follow are a few of my take-aways about each role:
Sales: Key retail account meetings to discuss sales numbers and partnerships are the #1 priority.
Publishing: Key retail account meetings are focused on painting a vision for and increasing awareness of upcoming products and promotions.
Sales: Check out the sales promotions and discounts of other publishers.
Publishing: Check out the promotions, campaigns, and products of other publishers.
Sales: Meetings are held with industry leaders to discuss sales initiatives.
Publishing: Meetings are held with other publishers to discuss how we can work together to increase Bible product awareness.
Although there is always much to learn from convention experiences, these reflections are just a handful of what I observed when comparing the similarities and differences of these two unique roles. To be honest… it was difficult at first to approach the conference from this new perspective having attended ICRS for so many years while on the sales side. But after a few days of viewing this event through a publisher’s eyes, an exciting world of opportunities for both publishing and sales was revealed to me. I’m sure it will become even clearer as I continue down this path, and I welcome the new discoveries and chance to impact the future of the overall publishing industry.
What new perspectives have you gleamed from your personal ICRS or other trade show experiences?
