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Educational Programs
SPPA offers several educational programs that award MAS/CAS points annually.  Nonmembers may attend these events and SPPA members are encouraged to take advantage of the special member rates.

At this year's SPPA Spring Showcase, we are happy to bring you Joel Schaffer, MAS, as our educational workshop speaker.  More information about Joel and his sessions can be found below.  These sessions have been approved for CAS / MAS points.
Join Joel for his sessions on Tuesday, March 13, 2012 at the Cahaba Grand Conference Center in Birmingham, AL.

8:00 - 8:30am Breakfast
8:30 - 10:30am Educational Sessions

Admission to the seminar is $10.00 per person for SPPA members and $20.00 per person for non-members.  Breakfast and all educational materials are included in this cost.

Click here to register for the sessions and the SPPA Spring Showcase.

   

Both of the courses above have been approved for 1 MAS point each by the PPAI Professional Development Division.


Joel D. Schaffer, MAS  



Joel D. Schaffer, MAS is CEO and Founder of Soundline, LLC, the pioneering supplier to the promotional products industry of audio products. Joel has forty four years of promotional product industry experience and proudly heralds “I was a distributor”.  

He has been on the advisory panel of the business and marketing department of St. John’s University in New York. He is frequent speaker at Rutgers Graduate School of Business. He is an industry Advocate and has appeared before the American Bankers Association, American Marketing Association, National Premium Sales Executives, American Booksellers Association and several other major groups. He is a frequent contributor to PPB and Counselor Magazines. He has facilitated over 200 classes sharing his industry knowledge nationwide. He is known for his cutting humor and enthusiasm in presenting provocative and motivating programs. 

He is the only person to have received both the ASI’s Marvin Spike Industry Lifetime Achievement Award (2002) and PPAI’s Distinguished Service Award (2011). He is a past director of PPAI and has chaired several PPAI committees and task forces. He is a past Chair of the SAAGNY Foundation, Past President of SAAGNY and a SAAGNY Hall of Fame member. He was cited by ASI as one of the 50 most influential people in the industry. 
GPS- Global Positioning Strategy:
How To Position Yourself & Your Business in the World of Commoditization

The cry from distributors is louder each day as loyal clients turn to the internet for commodity products. Price checking has cut margins and direct sources are stealing business. Is there a future? How do you fight this trend?  After a survey of over 100 top distributors this sessions focuses upon 15 key arguments to help build loyalty and maintain commodity sales. The session then turns to positioning oneself and business as an agency. Using Daniel Pink’s “A Whole New Mind” it keys in on the assets a creative consultant brings to the table. The session looks at how the industry is undergoing stratification and helps the attendee position themselves for the future.
  • Your options to fight internet sales or not.
  • Dissecting pay per click and your competition
  • Examine how you’re a positioned starting with your business card and your internet front page.
  • How to position yourself as a consultant.
  • How to position your company as an agency.
  • What buyers see
  • What buyers really want.
  • PPAI’s latest fact on buyers.
  • How right brained distributor can rule
Wellness:
An Emerging Market With Huge Potential

Pharmaceutical sales are all but gone and we wonder if there is anything on the horizon to replace it. Wellness is a major opportunity and awareness is limited. This session will empower distributors to seek out the market

A wellness bill offering credits to industry for creating a program has been in front of Congress for months. It should be on the House floor this Spring and should pass. With ever rising health care and worker’s compensation costs, wellness programs are sound investments.  Promotional products and programs are critical to their success. The industry has a multi-billion dollar opportunity in front of it, if we get aggressive. This seminar looks at the marketplace, the buyer, the areas of concentration, and the huge potential.
  • What wellness means
  • Areas of application
  • Benefit selling – how to make a presentation
  • The financials
  • Who buys
  • What they buy
  • Positioning your company as a consultant
  • Where is the competition
  • Selling the unwilling
  • Products & applications
  • Wellness event marketing
  • Cooperative marketing
  • Is wellness part of safety?
 
 
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