Marcia Deem, CTSM
Marketing Events Manager
PERQ, Online Guided Shopping
For designing an event marketing program from the ground up with an eye on training and transparency
Making Change
I’m part of the marketing team, but the main person responsible for events. My role was created in 2017 when I was hired. At the time, PERQ was attending just a couple of events each year. We increased that to 20 events last year and expect to do about 100 this year. I’m involved in the whole process from beginning to end, including researching the events we want to participate in, and handling the logistics for those events, as well as the logistics of the events we host ourselves.
Managing Change
Selling at a tradeshow or an event is different than selling on the phone or even one-on-one. The way you approach people and the way you behave is a bit different. Since the PERQ sales team is dramatically upping the number of events they attend, I wanted a resource to keep everybody on the same page and knowing what’s expected of them, so I created an interactive boothmanship quiz and guide. It makes sure that everyone has the same message and is representing the company in the same way. It’s an online guide, with a lot of gifs to make it fun. PERQ has been experiencing rapid growth—we’ve gone from fewer than 100 employess when I joined the company last year to about 130 today. The guide ensures that everyone is representing the company consistently at events.
What’s Next?
One thing I’m working on now, and hope to accomplish soon, is providing more visibility into our events marketing program.
Not everyone at the company is involved in events, so I’m developing an online events hub so that everyone is aware of the events taking place. I want to be able to include everyone and I want them to be proud of what we do. And it’s important as we grow to keep everyone in the loop.
Biggest Challenge
Our company markets to three different verticals—auto dealerships, property groups, and furniture retailers—which operate very differently in terms of how they do business, types of events, their knowledge about what we do, and how advanced they are with technology. The hardest part of managing this kind of fast-paced growth is keeping track of everything. Having processes in place is essential and streamlining those processes helps a lot.
Role Model
I was born and raised in Brazil and I have lived in the U.S. since 2004. My dad, who is still in Brazil, had a government job that was very stable, but he was a risk-taker. He decided to launch his own business and I watched him go through the process, the ups and downs of growing your own business. I think he’s why I’ve become a risk-taker too. I’m not afraid to try new things in business and in life. He also taught me to be independent, to speak up and express my opinions.
Hour to Spare?
I still have a lot of friends and family in Brazil and all over the U.S., so if I had some extra time on my hands I’d check in with them to see how everyone is doing.
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