Richard Erschik is a trade show industry veteran with over 50 years of experience, evolving from being a company’s exhibit manager to one of the most respected voices in post-show sales lead management and exhibitor training. Over 3 decades ago, Richard identified the industry’s widespread failure of post-show sales lead follow-up, which persists to date. Richard founded a very successful marketing services company that processed over 1 million sales leads, helping 147 companies turn their trade show leads into real sales. 

Richard led the company to generate over $10 million in revenue and was named “One of the Most Innovative Companies in the Country” and a “Best Practice in Trade Show Marketing” by American Airlines. Rich later sold his business and dedicated the next chapter of his career to training exhibitors, delivering more than 350 in-person seminars and online workshops to more than 50,000 professionals. He has been a featured speaker at the EXHIBITOR Show in Las Vegas for 18 years and was named as Trade Show Executive Magazine’s “Who’s Who in Exhibitor Education.”   

Known for his no-nonsense approach, sense of humour, and unforgettable real-world stories, Rich’s mission has always been simple: help companies stop wasting money at trade shows—and start converting their leads into measurable sales results for a positive ROI.  

He is also the author of two books that tell his captivating industry story: “Trade Shows Don’t Cost… They PAY!” and “From Problem to Profession.”  

• In this episode, Richard Erschik talks about the problems in the Exhibition Industry, delving into some core issues, such as the roles of Marketing versus that of Sales, and why Marketing should not just hand over leads to Sales just after an event is done.  
• He discusses the lack of experience and training in the Exhibition industry, especially post-COVID when a lot of experienced people had to be fired simply because there were no exhibitions at that time. After the pandemic has passed, however, the problem of not having experienced people is still affecting the industry. 
• Richard believes that Trade Shows clearly are the best way to get the right prospects in front of the seller, face-to-face, but not all leads are good, and not all leads will buy immediately. It is the job of the marketing department to qualify hot leads and nurture the others based on their progress along the buying journey. These and many other insights. 

Run time – 00:49:06