From sales education to personal motivation, these seminars will give you an added boost to your business! Click on a link below to view the full description:

• Charlie Plumb: Keynote Address
• Jonathan Trivers: The Costco Effect: What She Saves at Costco/WalMart She Spends on Ceramic Tile
• Al Bates: Challenges for the Industry: Inflation, Rising Metal Costs, Rising Fuel Costs, and the Euro
• Al Bates: Company Performance Report
• Jack Daly: Relationship Selling
• Jack Daly: Building a World Class Selling Organization
• Distributor Forum: Best Practices Shared (distributors only)

Captain Charlie Plumb has lived what he believes to be the American Dream. As a farm kid from Kansas, he fantasized about airplanes although he felt certain he would never have the opportunity to pilot one. It would be the United States Navy who afforded Plumb the opportunity to live out that dream.

Captain Charlie Plumb graduated from the Naval Academy at Annapolis and went on to fly the F-4 Phantom jet on 74 successful combat missions over North Vietnam. On his 75th mission, with only five days before he was to return home, Plumb was shot down, captured, tortured, and imprisoned in an 8 foot x 8 foot cell. He spent the next 2,103 days as a Prisoner Of War in communist prison camps.

During his nearly six years of captivity, Charlie Plumb distinguished himself among his fellow prisoners as a professional in underground communications, and served for two of those years as the Chaplain in his camp.

Since his return home, more than 4,000 audiences in nearly every industry have been spellbound as Captain Charlie Plumb draws parallels between his P.O.W. experience and the challenges of everyday life. He has shared his message to an even wider public through appearances on Good Morning America, Nightline, Larry King Live, and The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer.

One of the most sought-after achievement speakers of his time, Charlie Plumb's presentations are as he is, sincere, straightforward, humorous, and tailored to motivate each specific audience he encounters. His insights on how to cope with the difficulties as well as the opportunities in life have a positive impact on those who hear his message, those who read his books, and those who come to know him as a friend.

This is not just another keynote address. This is a celebration of the human spirit.

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Ceramic tile is no longer the sole flooring for the very wealthy. Ceramic tile is purchased by Americans who make as little as $40,000 household income to millionaires. Today consumers love products that have appreciatory value -- ' I might not own the mansion, but I can have the floor of the wealthy.'

The single biggest change in U.S. consumer behavior is this trading up to much better products; she wants to spend more money on her home and we must have the right products for her. Join Jonathan as he explores this timely phenomenon in our industry.

Jonathan Trivers was president of Abbey Carpet Company, the largest floor-covering franchiser in the United States. Jon is a contributing editor of Floor Covering Weekly and principal of Marketing Wit and Wisdom, a retail training company. He and his wife operate a summer day camp for disadvantaged and severely disabled children in Nova Scotia, Canada called A Simple Gesture.

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The rising cost of steel globally is affecting many industries, including ceramic tile. Higher natural gas prices are impacting ceramic tile production facilities in many countries. Gasoline prices have soared, impacting transportation costs in all industries. The Euro is appreciating against the dollar as never before. The ceramic tile industry is facing some tough financial decisions, but with the proper understanding of how these situations affect your bottom-line, you can prepare and survive these latest pressures on your business.

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One of CTDA's most popular speakers, Al Bates from the Profit Planning Group has proven expertise in a number of financial and management fields and he will once again present the annual CTDA Company Performance Report.

The report, compiled confidentially from responses of ceramic tile distributors across the country, gives you a clear and concise view of the financial strengths and weaknesses of the ceramic tile distribution industry.

But that’s not all! Financial challenges that arise in a downturn economy are challenging. This session will distinguish between actions that really help and those that only make a difficult situation worse. Identify draining cash traps - inventory and accounts receivable, and slam the door on expenses - focusing on areas where reductions are possible without sacrificing customer service.

By participating in the PROFIT survey, you will receive two very useful management tools that compare your results with your peers:

PROFIT IMPROVEMENT PROFILE analyzes and compares your company's profitability and financial ratios to your peers and focuses on your company's three weakest areas, tells you how to improve those areas and shows results that could be achieved if the plan is implemented.

The PROFIT TOOL KIT is a diskette sent with your data and the industry data already included. The program lets you test some "what-if" changes in your business and immediately see the results.

Participant data will be held strictly confidential by Profit Planning Group. Profit Planning Group has conducted similar surveys for more than twenty organizations and have an unblemished record of confidentiality.

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Relationship selling is all about building a friendship with your customer and listening to their needs. Once you've built that relationship, and earned their trust, you are on the road to making them a customer. But it doesn't stop there! Maintaining regular contact is vital. If you neglect a client who has trust in your integrity as a person and as a salesperson, that client may be forced to turn to your competitor.

Jack Daly offers dramatic keynote and general session presentations- interactive workshops, in-depth seminars, and lively training sessions- that inspire audiences to take action in the areas of sales, sales management, customer loyalty and personal motivation.

Jack brings 20 plus years of field proven experience- from a starting base with the CPA firm Arthur Andersen to the CEO level of several national companies. Jack has participated at the senior executive level on four de novo businesses, two of which he subsequently sold to the Wall Street Firms of Solomon Brothers and First Boston. As the head of sales, Jack has led sales forces numbering in the thousands, operating out of hundreds of offices nationwide.

Amongst a career of highlights, here are a couple noteworthy examples:

• In 1985, Jack relocated to California from the east coast and started a mortgage company with 3 colleagues. As CEO, Jack led the company through robust growth in it's initial 18 months to 750 employees, 22 offices nationwide, producing $350 million per month in mortgages, and in it's first three years the company reported profits of $42 million.
• In 1998, working as a senior partner in a 5 year-old privately held Enterprise, Jack helped the company to be recognized as Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst & Young and ranked #10 on the Inc. 500 list of the fastest growing firms nationwide.

Jack Daly speaks from experience and for several years has helped thousands of individuals and organizations reach their full potential. An accomplished author of books, tape systems, and with numerous articles published in business periodicals, Jack is committed to getting his audiences involved and taking action.

Jack was born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and currently resides in San Juan Capistrano, California. Jack's education includes an MBA from Wilmington College, a BS from La Salle College and Rank of Captain in the U.S. Army.

A nationally known professional speaker, Jack leads with content, delivers with contagious enthusiasm, and leaves his audiences both wanting more and committed to taking action. Jack has spoken throughout North America to small, medium, and large-sized companies, inclusive of Fortune 500, Inc. 500, YPO, YEO, TEC, Trade Associations, Conventions, Non-profits and Schools.

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Join Jack to continue to build your selling skills. He'll help you find the right people through ongoing, continuous, and systematic recruiting strategies. Get salespeople to produce results quickly and maintain the staff through techniques such as how to run sales meetings, what topics to run sales meeting on, outsourced areas to “sharpen the axes” of sales staff, progress reviews-and how to appropriately use them to grow salespeople, how to run sales contests that increase effort and results, scheduling and implementing of field coaching etc.; keep your salespeople through recognition systems, ongoing personal growth opportunities (yes, more training), fun and out of the box sales competitions and other sales environment initiatives, awards events, and potential enhancements to existing compensation programs. There are smart, measurable processes that can be put into place to make sure that big commission checks are not the only thing that keep top pros working with you.

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Each year, distributors gather to discuss subjects primarily of exclusive nature to distributors. It is a time to share your successes and your failures and take home a few new ideas to implement. And best of all, the forum is scheduled so you won’t miss out on a single afternoon leisure activity!

This year's session will take place immediately before the Friday morning business session with two topics selected for discussion in roundtable groups and results presented to the whole. Topics will be chosen by participants prior to the conference.