If 2020 was the year of fear, 2021 was the year of turbulence. Despite end-user skittishness, frozen budgets, continued lockdowns, supply chain problems, inflation, and “the great resignation”, many of you thrived. This industry’s ability to overcome any challenge is astounding and your optimism knows no bounds.

Jeremy and Jonathan both lead organizations, that despite the challenges of this year, have achieved record growth and more importantly they both lead our industry in social responsibility and sustainability efforts.

Bill Petrie is the founder and managing partner at brandivate. Bill created brandivate to help ignite and accelerate the growth of their clients through market innovation. With over 22 years working in executive leadership positions in the promotional products industry, Bill works with both suppliers and distributors who are seeking to grow.

During the past year, there’s been a huge shift in the sales world with marketing playing a key role. Marketers are now the new Sales Makers. For a long time, the marketing profession was like the stepchild in the sales household in our industry. But now, marketing is the compass, how customers find you; marketing is the fuel for sales growth with existing clients, and marketing is how you differentiate and distinguish yourself from the herd.

I can’t tell you how many frustrated salespeople I’ve sat across from, people who are doing all the right things but are not yet breaking through and are about to give up, when suddenly one final tactic opens the door, gets the prospect’s attention.

Given the state of the global supply chain and the impact it has had on everyone in our industry, as you can imagine this was a very tense and lean-forward conversation felt by everyone in the room.

Our guest today is Ellen Tucker, Director of Business Development and Expositions with PPAI (The Promotional Products Association International). Ellen joins us for a brief chat to talk about what to expect from Expo this year, we discuss the health and safety protocols, what PPAI is doing to ensure a safe show, and we talk about the most important part: how you can make the most out of Expo.

In this sales planning series, we’re going to unpack how to create a solid sales plan as you head into 2022, but before we do, there are a few key trends you should be aware of that will greatly impact your planning, your budget, and your mission for growth.

Davis Smith is the Founder and CEO of Cotapaxi. Cotapaxi is on track to becoming one of the biggest outdoor brands in the world challenging brands like Patagonia and North Face but there are more differences in Cotapaxi than similarities plus, Davis prefers the idea of collaboration over competition.

We’re learning lessons from the world of fundraising and we have three guests on the skucast from two different organizations. One organization is PromoKitchen and the other, Promocares. Each organization recently worked on separate fundraising initiatives. Today, we interview some of the participants involved, as a way to help bring awareness to their work but also, to explore their experiences as a teaching moment for us.