The Positive Breeze Of Change!

I am sitting here early on a Monday morning in the lobby of a convention hotel in Orlando, Florida. I am down here at a convention of flooring retailers.

Got down here on Friday. Since then, I have sat having drinks with retailers from other national 2011 sales conventions.

Here at the hotel where I have been staying there was an onslaught of PGA and LPGA retailers. Their group had more than 4,000 retailers, resorts, clubs and golf course owners from across the US.

The golfers are now out and replaced with True Value North American sales team and retail franchise owners. There are more than 15,000 folks walking around with their True Value name-tags, shirts and hats.

Yesterday there were doll collectors and retailers. Thank the dear Lord, they are now gone.

It was odd watching women walking around with dolls wrapped in blankets and referring to them as relatives and putting them to sleep.

I heard next week that Kraft will be coming in to meet with independent grocery and c-store managers and after that group; the florist groups will be arriving.

The folks attending these conventions represent the backbone of American small business. These are the folks that work the weekends greeting customers and selling products. They are the ones stocking the shelves and balancing the asset and debit columns.

I have taken time to speak with these small business owners and ask them about how they perceive business moving forward.

Two things are running consistent.

First, there are more smiles this year than last year… in fact, more than many have expressed over the last several years.

There are more smiles because many do indeed see the economy picking back up again. The conventions held in Orlando are posting records attendance.

It even makes me smile when I hear about a growing degree of enthusiasm.

Will 2011 be a record sales year? No. But will the numbers starting moving positive again. Yes.

Second, and much more interesting… the talk at the conventions is focused a lot on how to reach out to the new, emerging consumer and doing business in a totally different, high-touch, interactive marketplace.

Refocusing and re-adjusting on consumers age 18-40 that today, represent more than 50% of shoppers.

They label them the GenXers, the GenYers, the Millennials. But whatever, the label, they know that they shop differently, access information differently and interact with what they buy and where they shop differently.

At the convention with the floor retailers, the CEO, President and CMO of the host company kicked-off the convention with Millennial pictures, numbers and interview snapshots.

Past conventions that I have attended, the CEOs and Presidents often talk about their Corporate Visions and numerical sales goals.

And just think, this is just Orlando. There are probably many more retailers, distributors, agencies and sales team coming together in Vegas, LA, Chicago, and NYC hopefully expressing the same positive thinking and challenge.

Changes are taking place and good ones at that!