What I've Learned from 20 ICAST Shows - feat. Carl Carson (ICAST 2026 ep 4 of 4)

of a sales rep. Let's talk about Getting to ICAST, I know a lot of you guys that people don't realize, you know, you guys are a lot of the people who are actually taking the product and the booths and things to ICAST and doing a lot of the setup.

So you're involved in actually ICAST before the doors even open, correct?

That statement couldn't be more true.

Yes, the manufacturers are working tirelessly before it ever even gets close.

The reps that are heavily involved with the manufacturers, whether it be the lure design or newsletters or media content, getting presentations ready.

Because we actually, you have a lot of meetings that precede ICAST.

So...

There's still some factories or some individuals or smaller companies that are like, well, it's May, May of 2026.

And, you know, my year's just kicking off.

Well, May of 2026, we're already selling 2027.

And so there's kind of a calendar going.

in the sales world that you kind of go by.

And ICAST is kind of like the kickoff.

We've used it for a long time to kick off new products.

That calendar is kind of changing and manufacturers are kind of moving that calendar.

But yes, reps as a whole, there's a bunch of us that work Way in advance, you know, whether it get displays, get samples, the meetings, getting the product shipped, um, to advanced warehouse to ICAST.

Of course, getting to ICAST in advance, because we have about three days that we can really set that show up.

And that's probably the most amazing thing I've ever seen is how fast we put that show together in three days.

Cause when you walk into that, uh, convention center, it's bare.

There's no carpet, there's no nothing.

And in three days, it's amazing how they all come together and how nice it comes together.

And then of course, once you, as a rep, once you get past the delivery, the setup, well then all your meetings start.

That's another thing that a lot of people don't realize behind the scenes is as a rep, You work sometimes two or three months out setting your meetings for ICAST if you haven't already met with those independence or distribution or chain.

And in some cases, we used to have sales meetings leading up to ICAST so we would collectively all know what to talk about.

So you would have sales meetings and you would have all the prep and then all the delivery, all the setup, and then you have ICAST itself.