PPB March 2021

PPAI Media website at pubs.ppai.org. Here are some of the poll’s findings conducted in late December 2020 and early January 2021: • In the first quarter of 2021, 37 percent of respondents said they will definitely attend a virtual industry event , 16 percent said probably or most likely, 21 percent said probably not and 11 percent said definitely not. • In the area of order shipments, 33 percent of respondents said they always expect orders to arrive late , 11 percent said they sometimes or rarely expect orders to arrive late, and 44 percent never expect late shipments. • At the end of December 2020, respondents said themost troubling business issue was keeping the sales pipeline full (50 percent) , while 20 percent said it was forecasting for 2021, 10 percent said meeting 2020 revenue goals and product shipments, and five percent said employee and staffing issues, or something else. • When asked what they’ll remember as the best part of 2020, 17 percent of respondents said spendingmore time with family, 14 percent said lack of required business travel or learning or mastering new technologies, three percent said working fromhome and 17 percent said the best part of 2020 was something else entirely. Thirty-four percent said none of these. • Asked in early 2021 to rate their personal optimism for business in the year ahead, 41 percent said it is better now than six months ago , 36 percent said their optimism is about the same as in 2020 and 23 percent said it is worse now than six months ago. • Three-quarters (75 percent) of suppliers exhibiting at the first-ever PPAI Expo Direct-2-You in January, said what drew them to participate in the trade show was to showcase new products, have conversations with distributors and get more visibility for their companies. Twenty- five percent said themain reason was for the distributor conversations. • Fifty-three percent of distributors attending the virtual show said themain drawwas to see newproducts , find ideas and visit with suppliers. Twenty-seven percent said their primary reason for attending was to see new products, 12 percent wanted to find fresh ideas, two percent wanted to visit with suppliers and six percent were after something else entirely. • After a long hiatus from in-person sales calls, 33 percent of respondents expect to be able tomake in-person sales calls in June , 26 percent expect to do so in September, 16 percent think it will be possible immediately and the same number predict tomake those calls by April. Nine percent expect to have to wait until December tomake in-person calls. Seemore findings in PromoPolls and participate in the current poll by visiting pubs.ppai.org/polls. Suggest questions to be considered for future polls by emailing TinaF@ppai.org . 86 | MARCH 2021 | CONNECT