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Today’s show featured an interview Linda Erickson of the Star Speaker Academy.
Find Linda on LinkedIn.
LINDA’S TIP: “I want to emphasize the power of using stories into your deliveries. If I would have said, “Oh, the Convention Center has 73,000 square feet,” they aren’t going to remember it. But they’re going to remember a Guinness World Book of Records. They’re going to remember the inaugurations. Those are the things that you leave people with, and you can always give them the information after. Data and information is good to a point, but it can also kill you.”
THE PODCAST BEGINS HERE
Fred Diamond: Today, we got Linda Erickson. Linda, I’m excited to hear your story. We got to know each other a little bit. Why don’t you give us a little bit of an introduction to who you are?
Linda Erickson: First of all, my career was in the hospitality industry and sales. I’ve crossed several genres. I owned a travel agency in Southern California. I was in the hotel business as a DOS in North Lake Tahoe. When I came to Washington, DC, I was the DOS for the Puerto Rico Convention Bureau based in Washington. Then for 15 years after that, I was Vice President of Sales at the convention center in DC.
Fred Diamond: This was the old convention center or the new one?
Linda Erickson: The new convention center.
Fred Diamond: Wow. Good for you. I’m based here in Northern Virginia. For people listening around the globe, what’s the official name of the convention center?
Linda Erickson: The Walter E. Washington Convention Center.
Fred Diamond: I remember when that went up. It’s in Downtown, DC. It’s an unbelievable facility. It has everything from the automobile show, to conferences, to conventions. I’m amazed at some of the stories that you must be able to tell us here about that. The area’s grown tremendously as well. I know you’re not in the DC area anymore, but I go down that way on occasion when I go into DC, and you’d be blown away. When did you leave the area, by the way?
Linda Erickson: In ‘22.
Fred Diamond: Not too long ago.
Linda Erickson: Yeah, not too long ago at all.
Fred Diamond: We’re doing today’s interview in November at 2024, and there’s all these new what they call mixed use live, work, play. It’s not far from people listening. It’s not far from Capitol Hill. It’s not far from Union Station, which is the big train station. It’s not far from the stadium and it’s not far from the White House and the mall and all those things too.
I’m really anxious to hear your story. As we do on the Sales Story and a Tip Podcast, I ask our guests to tell us a sales story. Linda Erickson, tell us a great sales story.
Linda Erickson: At the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, really, it was easy to sell the destination when you think of it. Three airports, this gorgeous building, over 33,000 hotel rooms, over hundreds of things to do for free, 175 embassies. But I never took for granted what it was like to bring a piece of citywide business in. It was competitive in the marketplace. Extremely so. Here was my challenge, said, “Okay, how do I rise above the competition? What do I do?” This was my test.
We were bidding on a piece of corporate business technology from the Silicon Valley. Trust me, everyone wanted this piece of business. My objective was, “How am I going to distinguish the convention center, our feature offerings, as well as our staff? What was going to make the difference?”
I created what I called the Superlative Site Tour. Fred, are you ready to go on tour with me? The clients come in this day and they walk into the Grand Lobby, and I had the convention bureau and my key staff there, but also had my CEO there. I thought, “Okay, I want to make an impression.” The big man’s here, introduction, a warm welcome, they’re like, “Oh, wow.”
But then as they looked up in the foyer of the convention center, we had a very sophisticated digital signage program, at the time, the only ones in the United States in convention centers. There on four flags coming down, two on each side, said, welcome, their logo, their mission statement for the company, as well as the name of their conference for that year. They were aghast and they were blown away. I always say, I have this line, I call it power opening. That was my power opening. Bring in the CEO and razzle and dazzle him with that.
Fred Diamond: That’s amazing. I have some clarifying questions, but I want to ask you, what are some of the tips that you took away from that sales story?
Linda Erickson: My big tip from the end now, that I was going to give at the end? I’ve got a whole story for you here. There’s more.
Fred Diamond: Well, tell me more of the story then. Keep going.
Linda Erickson: We’re going down to the first exhibit hall, Exhibit Halls A, B, and C. I had them overlooking into the exhibit hall and said, just imagine this. In 2008, we served 16,236 people at a sit-down dinner. We had to do it in three locations, but this was the largest. We built a makeshift kitchen there also. We won the Guinness World Book of Records for the largest sit-down dinner served at any convention center around the world. My message to them was, look at who we are, what we can do, collaboration, teamwork, talent to pull that off. It was a masterful objective.
We continued on down to the base of the stairs. There’s our VP of facilities to welcome us. Took us behind the scenes for a bit, showed us the loading docks, all what it takes to get a show in, because on a P&L statement, for a meeting planner, that’s usually the most expensive. We had great labor relations, made a difference. Off we went.
We stopped at the NOC, which is called the network operating center. There to greet us was our general manager for technology. It’s a technology company, can we deliver? We wanted to make sure we could. He had done his homework brilliantly, and not only could we meet, but exceed all of the requirements that they needed. Continued on.
Another escalator up, this time we’re at another exhibit hall, D and E. Outside of that hall too, was this huge digital sign where that was a great opportunity for sponsorships. Again, my message to them, subliminal, they’re going click, click, ching, ching, money. They could sell that. It rotated as many times as needed. It was a multiple revenue stream for them. Halls D and E, walk in, I’m on cement floors and columns. Boring. Right? All of a sudden, I said, “In this room, every presidential inauguration has been held since the building opened in 2003. Just think of this day when Obama had his first inauguration. Here’s Beyonce singing Etta James’ song At Last.”
Then I shifted to, in that same space, we hosted two nuclear security summits with 54 world leaders present. The show decorator literally reenacted the United Nations, what it looked like in New York. I then introduced them to our Vice President of Public Safety, because especially in today’s world, safety is everything. I don’t care if it’s an inauguration or a nuclear security summit, are they safe? With our expertise in these huge global profile events, we definitely made a difference there.
Our last stop, up to the ballroom, which I would call the grande of the building. As we opened the doors, our audio-visual team had set a mock stage of what it would look like to have had their general session. Lights and sounds and music, and they were taken aback. We wrapped it up right across the hall in the foyer with a champagne toast. We had hors d’oeuvres so they could taste the food using that sense. Then our general manager and COO was there to give them another farewell welcome and farewell on our capabilities and any questions.
Moral the story, moral of the Superlative Site Tour, we closed the deal, three-year contract though for three years. That’s the Superlative Site Tour.
Fred Diamond: That is amazing. I’m getting chills here because I’ve been in that building. I have a couple of clarifying questions. For our listeners here, give us just the general ballpark on what a conference like that, the gross revenues from something, just ballpark what it would be. Are we talking 5, 6, 7, 8 figures, just so the people understand?
Linda Erickson: Are you talking to the building or with the cost of the planner?
Fred Diamond: To both. Help us understand how big of a deal this is.
Linda Erickson: First of all, it’s a huge deal. The revenue for us in that revenue was in the millions, six figures, definitely. To that planner, of course, I’m not privy to their final stats, so to speak, but the annual citywide convention for any association or corporation is usually their major revenue generator for the year. We’re probably talking multimillions in that case.
Fred Diamond: You talked about competition. Some of the people from Destination DC, we talked about them, Elliott and Melissa Riley, over the years, they have been on the Sales Game Changers Podcast. Their mission is to bring conferences to DC. They’re competing with Boston, New York, even smaller cities like Baltimore, Atlanta, and Dallas, and international companies coming.
Is your competition other sites within DC or is it similar where you’re also competing with New York and Boston? Give us a little bit of an insight. When you say competition, what does that mean?
Linda Erickson: First of all, we’re close, worked with the bureau hand-in-hand, Destination DC. It couldn’t do it without us. It was Destination DC, the convention center, and the hotel community. Collectively we would come together. The convention, we would take the lead on a piece of business. There’s certain buildings that are right in the competitive set. For example, Philly is almost exactly the same as US. San Diego, very similar to us. But Orlando, Chicago, and Las Vegas are much bigger than us. Some shows we could not. They could only go into that realm.
There was also a huge push internationally, the Destination DC that we co-created together. In that case, international conferences aren’t usually as large. Some of them are as a regular one. We opened up a whole new world of business from that particular place. Boston was similar to us too, from building size. Sometimes you have to look at that. You could always go a little bit smaller, but not a little bit larger.
Fred Diamond: One of the key words that we talk about on the Sales Game Changers Podcast and at the Institute for Excellence in Sales is preparation. You just didn’t wing this and send an email to everybody the night before, “Hey, these guys are coming into town. Bill, I need you over here.” Talk about some of the preparation that went into this entire process. Did you spend months processing this and tons of meetings, and was everybody on board? It just seems like such a brilliant execution, but it’s not just like, “Hey, these guys are coming in. Be your best.” You had people strategically placed. Talk about the preparation a little bit.
Linda Erickson: I did. That had never been done before. That’s why I termed it Superlative. I’m just talking about the building right now. First of all, for the whole destination, it’s a huge thing. We work with the convention bureau on a lot, to as far as the people coming in. Then, of course, the hotel community, because they lead that site tour around the city. But from the building’s perspective, I wanted us to shine differently. Because a lot of times it’s just the salespeople on the site tour. But we’re not the experts really when it gets to the technology. We’re not the experts on that show floor. We’re not the experts in audio-visual. Bring the people to them that can actually deliver those goods. Plus, it’s creative. It’s not that same talking head the whole time. I was about delivering an experience for them.
If you noticed in just what I was sharing with you on the tour, wow them with the signage of there. Have them taste the food there. I always try and use as many of the senses that I could, five senses to do it. Internally, it took a lot to, first of all, concept, bring it together. I did that with my team. Then I went out to every department. They were more than willing. Because they know the heart and soul of our revenue is convention centers. They were more than willing to do it. Then I would coach them, “This is what I want you to say. Let’s get this.” I am a firm believer in these three words called practice, practice, practice. What I find in the sales environment, people don’t do it. They get up and they wing it. They wing it. I guess they say, “Have PowerPoint do the talking,” kind of does it for you, and it’ll kill you every time.
Fred Diamond: Wow. This is a great story, Linda. Thank you so much. Do you have any further advice that came from this that you want to share?
Linda Erickson: My tip is, deliver an unforgettable message and experience in all of your sales presentations, no matter how big or how small. Deliver that unforgettable message and experience in your sales presentations.
Fred Diamond: Just curious, I’m sure you did a dry run or two. How many dry runs did you do for when you did the tour for the technology company?
Linda Erickson: We probably did five.
Fred Diamond: Wow. I love the concept. A lot of times we take things for granted. We have a customer, we’re just going to renew. We think we’re their choice. A lot of people do mail it in even though they’re “committed”. This was such a savory story on thinking it through, appealing to them, understanding what their drivers were, bringing in partners, training your people.
A lot times, at the Institute for Excellence in Sales, most of the sales that we talk about, they’re complex. They’re B2B or B2G. There’s multiple people. There’s timing. There’s the customer. We actually did a show recently on the customer’s buying journey. Where are they? For your customer too, you had to know, when are they making the decision? What’s going into that?
Linda Erickson, I want to thank you so much. This has been a great story, and visualizing the building, a huge deal. It’s just great insights. Anything else you want to say, because it was such a fascinating story?
Linda Erickson: I really want to emphasize the power of using stories into your deliveries. That delivery is only everything. If I could have said, “Oh, it’s 73,000 square feet,” giving all that down, they aren’t going to remember it. But they’re going to remember a Guinness World Book of Records. They’re going to remember the inaugurations. Those are the things that you leave people with, and you can always give them the information after. Data and information is good to a point, but it can also kill you.
Fred Diamond: We talk about storytelling a lot on the Sales Game Changers Podcast. You’re right. They would say, “Well, what’s your square footage?”
“Well, it’s 7,000 and if we give you D and E, that’s another 15,000 in.”
“Okay. Well, how many light bulbs do you have in the building?”
“Well, we have 32,000.”
You’re right. I remember President and Mrs. Obama dancing to Beyonce on TV. Visualizing 16,000 people eating a meal, wow. That’s a great example of how to tell those stories.
Once again, I want to thank Linda Erickson for being on today’s Sales Story and a Tip Podcast.
Transcribed by Mariana Badillo