Expo Success | Must Read Creating Partnerships After more than 20 years in promo, Karie Ballway, executive vice president of Cooley Group, PPAI 100’s No. 72 distributor, finally attended her first Expo in 2024. The savvy industry veteran took to the trade show floor with a purpose, equipped with a list of key accounts that she was looking for unique ideas to support. “You want to have a good understanding of what your clients’ goals are for the first half of the year,” Ballway says. “Are they rebranding? Is there an anniversary event? Do they participate in employee appreciation? Are they onboarding new employees?” After a colleague recommended that she check out new exhibitor Olive & Cocoa’s booth, Ballway introduced herself to Jen Maschmidt, senior national sales manager at the Salt Lake City-based supplier of gourmet food gifts and floral arrangements. “I’ve never been so busy at a trade show,” says Maschmidt, who returned to Expo after 15 years. “This is a show where we had so many pings back with distributors saying, ‘I have to figure out how to work this into our offering.’ A lot of distributors requested client-facing catalogs and said they’d set us up as an approved supplier, which are always good signs.” Ballway also met Whitney Friesen, sales manager at Lynn & Liana Designs, a Canadian supplier of hand-crafted cutting boards and serving trays. Even though it was the Manitobabased company’s second year exhibiting, Friesen was still blown away by the response. “We know someone is serious when we start talking about a specific client and their colors, discussing options, details and more than just a sample, but creating something specifically for that client,” Friesen says. “As a smaller supplier, we have the ability to be more flexible, so we don’t really say no. It’s always like, ‘Let me see what we can do.’” Following The PPAI Expo, Ballway worked with Friesen on a rebrand for a client in the financial industry and with Maschmidt on gifts for an architectural commercial client’s customers. During an internal sales meeting, Ballway also pitched both suppliers’ product lines for end-of-year gifts for Cooley Group’s clients. She credits their collaborations for the distributorship capturing new business in excess of $50,000 this year. “Both suppliers captivated me with their creativity, great colors, impressive packaging and wow factor,” Ballway says. “They’re super knowledgeable, and they both have a retail presence. We’ve established a level of trust in which if I send business their way, I have all the confidence in the world that things will happen to the best of their ability.” Whitney Friesen, sales manager at Lynn & Liana Designs PPAI • DECEMBER 2024 • 59
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