Success Story: How PAI Helped ACTE Increase
Exhibit Sales by 50% in One Year
“PAI was there when I needed them. They are a strong team member, and they have a good methodology in place to support your mission of growing exhibit sales.”
–Glenda Paxton, Senior Director, Strategic Events,
Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE)
“To be able to go from no process, no plan to having almost $500,000 in exhibit sales in two and a half weeks was just amazing.”
–Glenda Paxton, Senior Director, Strategic Events,
Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE)
The Challenge
In late-2022, ACTE found itself in a time of crisis when a key member of their sales team left the organization just two weeks prior to the association’s annual conference in Las Vegas. Glenda Paxton, Senior Director, Strategic Events, was new to her role at ACTE and in tremendous need of additional support. ACTE’s event platform provider eShow recommended Profitable Association, Inc. (PAI) for immediate assistance.
The Solution
Profitable Association, Inc. “came to the rescue” according to Paxton and hit the ground running while being onsite for ACTE’s CareerTech VISION Conference and Expo in Las Vegas. PAI helped implement an effective sales strategy to do onsite selling, and 50% of the booths for the following year’s event were sold by the end of the time in Las Vegas. Pre-sales efforts had been missing from ACTE’s strategy in recent years, and PAI was able to capture these leads and opportunities. Paxton describes the impressive results this way, “To be able to pull off what we did that first year was nothing short of amazing. To be able to go from no process, no plan to having almost $500,000 in exhibit sales in two and a half weeks was just amazing.”
Moving forward PAI partnered with ACTE to introduce new processes to support the growth of exhibit sales and focused on standards for collections and communications. A new rule was put in place that no exhibitor could access the show floor without having paid in full. In 2023 this led to a 100% rate of collections with one or two of the booths being paid for onsite just prior to the start of the conference.
With PAI’s leadership, more continual and informative reminders with timely and pertinent details are sent to exhibitors throughout the year. Paxton speaks highly of PAI’s pivotal role in keeping ACTE well-organized and streamlined with communications that now inform both advertisers and exhibitors of due dates and other key requirements and information. PAI has supported ACTE’s success and the growth of exhibit and advertising sales by taking on much of this administrative work related to the sales process.
Success
Paxton reports that PAI has become a valued member of the ACTE team as they continue to grow together. Through PAI’s stellar efforts and noteworthy support, ACTE exhibit sales increased 50% from 2022 to 2023 and another 17-18% from 2023 to 2024. The conference now features over 300 exhibitors annually, and Paxton’s goal with the team is that the next expo in December is sold out by this summer. In addition, ACTE has formed a trade show advisory council, and PAI has been instrumental in helping with those relationships and listening to feedback on how the expo can improve. Paxton adds, “It’s just been a great partnership. I think that the dedicated support processes have really been instrumental in our success.”
Paxton summarizes it this way, “PAI understands the model and has expertise in the platform that we were already using. PAI was there when I needed them. They are a strong team member, and they have a good methodology in place to support your mission of growing exhibit sales. Previously with advertising sales, we were doing a lot of administrative work to capture the payments. With PAI, it’s definitely been streamlined and an easier process. We had a lot of pent up demand that we weren’t capitalizing on, and PAI gave us the support to be able to capture the leads that we were getting.”
The Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE) is the leading association in the United States for career and technical education. ACTE represents all roles and levels of the career and technical education profession which includes administrators, guidance counselors, educators, researchers, and others. ACTE is committed to these professionals and education focused on the preparation of youth and adults to be successful in their selected careers.
Profitable Association Inc. provides custom-built sales programs, by embedding with and serving as a strategic extension of an association’s team. Interested in more information about our sales programs? Schedule a free call with our team today to learn how Profitable Association Inc. can help #PowerUpYourRevenue in no time!
