On Human Sociality and . . . Progress?

Wow, March was a busy time for us! The month culminated with the Midwest Petroleum and Convenience Tradeshow in Indianapolis. Given the current state of the economy, I was expecting the events at the tradeshow to be noticeably muted over last year, but my expectations proved to be incorrect in almost every way.

I don't have any final numbers, but an official from the Kentucky Petroleum Marketers Association told me on the last day of the show, that while the number of exhibitors was down a little from last year, the overall attendance was up (and attendance was more than I expected). The welcome reception and supplier hospitality events we attended certainly weren't scaled down at all and several people I talked to said that they flew to the conference rather than drove (which tells me travel budgets aren't really taking a hit).

From a personal standpoint, I encountered more buyers than sellers and I didn't hear too many people complain about the economy. I didn't notice a lot of "brand" awareness there. What I mean by that is I didn't see companies like Coke or Pepsi "being there just to be there". There were more vendors, suppliers and distributors than manufacturers. I guess the focus was on business over marketing and advertising.

This was somewhat contradicted by some informal polling I did where most vendors/exhibitors I talked to said that the reason they attend conferences and tradeshows is to create or maintain relationships rather than to make sales.

If the focus then is on relationships rather than sales receipts, it begs the question: Is there a better way? Isn't there a better way to foster and maintain relationships than by purchasing airline tickets and hotel rooms? By lugging around, assembling, then disassembling the booth gear? By giving away foam toys shaped like tanker trucks or ATM machines?

I think maybe the answer no. I think it is no because humans are social beings. And conferences and tradeshows are social events. Why then are many people in the industry so slow to adapt to the online social world? Something to think about.

My thanks: First of all, thanks to Terry, Michael, and Bill from American Business Brokers for letting me crash their booth. Thanks to Benjamin from IDT Retail for the breakfast meeting and the conversation. Thanks to Wendy and the guys from Java City Coffee for the hanging out with us and for the coffee mug. And finally, thanks to everyone else who stopped by, said hi and shared their story with us.

Sign-Up for the Newsletter

Between the new projects and the off-line networking we did in March, not a lot of stuff was done to the site, but we were able to add a new, much-needed feature to the site. There's a new link on our site navigation bar for people to sign up for our newsletter.

Now, I hate to point out the obvious, but if you already get this newsletter, there's no need to sign up again. But please tell your friends and co-workers, or anyone else you think might enjoy our content.

Look for the "signup" button on all our pages next to the contact button.

Search Engine and Community Forum

If you haven't tried our custom search engine yet, get over there and check it out. The results are specific to the convenience store industry so you can always find what you're looking for. If you want your company website included in the index, please contact us and let us know.

Also, don't forget about our community forum. It's a great place to ask questions and seek or give advice. It's free and easy to use.

Marketing Packages Available Soon

Sorry, no featured article this month. Aside from our trip to Indy, we've been too busy working on a new project to put together an article that would actually be worth reading. So, instead of filling this space with some article from the archives, I thought we'd let you in on the project we've been working on.

This website was originally started as a marketplace for buyers and sellers of gas stations and convenience store to get together and connect. While we have since expanded into the industry news and consumer markets, our roots remain as a business-for-sale website.

As such we're sensitive to the effort it takes to actually sell a gas station. It's no easy task. While having an Internet presence on multiple business-for-sale websites is absolutely critical, it is also important to have a good off-line presence as well. And that lead us to our current project.

We are in the process of developing a product to help with the off-line marketing of gas stations and convenience stores. The end product will be a 4-7 page marketing package (complete with photos of the asset) that will contain all the information a possible buyer would want to know about the business for sale opportunity.

The packages will be sold for a fee and in return you (the seller or representative) would receive a multi-page facility description form. Once you complete the form and return it to us, we'll extract the information and compile it into a professional marketing package. The package is then yours to keep, print, or distribute however you wish.

Our goal is to help sellers, agents, and brokers help themselves by providing a powerful marketing tool for their gas stations for sale. Look for more information and perhaps a preview of this new product in the mid-April newsletter.

CONFERENCES
NACS State of the Industry Summit in partnership with CSP - Chicago, Illinois
April 6 - 8, 2009

Dino Mart Sinclair Station

Location: Gilbert, Arizona
Asking Price: $2,650,000
Inside Sales: $48,000
Gas Gallons: 101,000

Commercial Realtors and Brokers Needed

We need some help finalizing our marketing packages. If you are in commercial real estate or business brokerage and have experience selling gas stations, please contact us. We'd like to give you a preview of our new product and get your feedback.