Jon Schallert

Jon Schallert is an internationally-recognized speaker and marketing consultant specializing in teaching businesses and communities how to turn themselves into Consumer Destinations.

Jon’s Destination Business strategy has been helping independent entrepreneurs and owners, towns and downtowns, shopping centers, retail chains, and franchises, around the world for more than 30 years. His strategy has the advantage of pulling a greater number of consumers from a greater geographic distance, to a business, causing increases in sales and profits, while improving the marketplace where the business resides.

After 10-years with Hallmark Cards and years of studying the most successful business owners in North America, Schallert developed his proprietary Destination Differentiation process that he teaches today. Jon’s work with business owners has proven results in increased sales and media attention. This same differentiation process has been used successfully by towns and communities across North America as Jon works with them to create Destination Downtowns.

In order to give affordable assistance to business owners and communities, The Schallert Group, Inc. developed Destination University that brings on-demand and live business improvement webinars to owners, associations, and communities around the world. With 50+ world-class authors and business experts contributing content, Destination University is a leading-edge tool that gives the same training advantages that are used by large corporations and major universities.

Schallert's insights can be seen in national publications such as The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Entrepreneur Magazine, among others. He is the only consultant in the world to receive the "Top Motivator" Marketing Award from Potentials Magazine. He is a member of the National Speakers Association, the International Downtown Association, and the National Main Street Network.

Whether you are a new or existing business, a small community or large city, company or association, Jon can provide valuable information to help you in your goals to succeed.

SERVICES PROVIDED BY JON SCHALLERT

Speaking
Jon Schallert conducts inspirational and motivational keynote speeches and workshops for thousands annually. If you are looking for a speaker who understands marketing and small business success, Jon is the right speaker for your next meeting, annual event, or conference.

Keynotes and Breakout Sessions: Jon conducts keynote speeches and training workshops. Jon's dynamic keynotes at conferences deliver the right message for your audience. Break-out sessions and workshops can be added to enhance his message giving specific steps his audience can put into place as soon as they return to see immediate results. All of his sessions are customized and tailored to address your group's most pressing needs and create the results you want. Jon spends time interviewing key people along with members of your audience to create a memorable experience with lasting results.

Workshops: Jon’s customized training workshops are used by communities, downtowns, retail groups, and companies. Jon will work with you to customize a workshop that targets the topics and issues that are timely for your group to achieve the results you want. Attendees get concrete steps to leave with that can implemented for immediate change to impact sales and customer traffic, most of which are no-cost or low-cost. rapid improvement can result.

• Keynotes and Workshops: 1-hour to 90-minutes in length
• Workshops: ½ Day and Full Day options available

Hose a Live Webinar
A live webinar is a cost-effective way to have Jon Schallert present to your group in a group setting via the internet. Host a live webinar in your location and watch Jon present his workshop live on a screen. Audience members can ask questions answered by Jon live at the end of the presentation. Choose from three different topics, or have a customized session to meet the needs of your group.

Consulting
Jon consults with clients ranging from independent business owners to Fortune 100 companies. His Destination Business principles help any size company refocus and improve their marketing strategies to capture and keep more customers. When these principles are applied to entire marketplaces like cities, towns, and downtown business districts, rapid improvement can result.

• Hourly, ½ day, full day, and multiple day options available

Destination Business BootCamp

Business Owners: Jon's 2½ day Destination Business BootCamp teaches his 14-step differentiation process to turn any business into a dominant consumer destination. His BootCamp is designed for independent business owners, entrepreneurs, retailers, restaurant owners, and anyone considering opening a business.

Community Leaders: Our Community Reinvention Program is perfect for any community or rural area wanting to turn their area into a Consumer Destination. Community leaders bring 6+ business owners to attend a BootCamp and receive a 6-month program in additional to Jon coming to your area to present a 90-minute workshop.

Destination University
Destination University is a monthly membership program that offers online and live business trainings from 50+ business experts and best-selling business authors from around the globe. Find the help you need on the topic you want when you want it.

Jon Schallert, a member of the National Speakers Association (NSA) and the National Speakers Association Colorado-Chapter, conducts inspirational and motivational keynote speeches, and workshops for thousands annually. If you are looking for a speaker who understands marketing and small business success, Jon is the right speaker for your next meeting, annual event, or conference.

Keynote and Workshop Topics
Jon Schallert speaks on the following topics. All of Jon's keynotes and workshops are customized for his audiences, based on feedback he receives from interviewing your members, making no two workshops ever identical! Jon will discuss with you which presentations are better suited for an opening keynote versus a workshop or break-out session.

Most Requested Keynote Titles:

• Mom and Pop on Top: How To Be Small, But Play Large
• Once Optional, Now Required! The New Rules of Small Business Success

Popular Workshop Titles:

• Business Reinvention: The New Normal On Main Street Every Street
• Turn Any Business Into A Consumer Destination

Most Requested Workshops by Tourism and Convention and Visitor Bureaus:

• Get Local Consumers To Spend Money Locally
• If They Stop Here Once, I'll Sell Them 'Year-Round
• Capturing Customers When They Enter Your Door: The Critical 7 Seconds

Mom and Pop on Top: How To Be Small, But Play Large

This session, designed specifically for a keynote speech, takes small business owners through a series of realizations. Jon illustrates how large Fortune 100 companies are now repositioning themselves as small companies in their marketing, and how consumers of today enjoy spending money with indepedently-owned Mom and Pop businesses. Jon also shows audience members the critical mistakes that most Mom and Pop's make when trying to project their uniqueness, their customer service differences, and their product advantages in their marketing and advertising. Attendees of this session will come away with a new enthusiasm for being "small" and knowing better how to leverage their independence to influence consumer spending in their favor.

Once Optional, Now Required: The New Rules Of Small Business Success

Running an independent business was never easy, but before the recession, it was decidedly easier. Now, the recession is officially over, but the lingering effects of the downturn in consumer spending are still present in many parts of North America today.

This session is best designed for a 90-minute breakout session or a 3-hour workshop. Attendees of this session will learn from Jon why today's entrepreneurs must direct their businesses not as owners, but as small business CEO's. Attendees will also see how many of their own actions, beliefs, and skill-sets must be changed if they want their businesses to remain viable and profitable in the future. One owner called this workshop a "reality check" that provided a list of behaviors that owners much change, if they truly want to achieve business success.

Business Reinvention: The New Normal On Main Street & Every Street

The economic downturn has caused existing businesses to close, and newer businesses to suffer their most dramatic sales plateau ever.  Consumers are spending less, being less impulsive in their purchasing, and most business owners are uncertain what to do next.

In this presentation, Jon has interviewed some of the top owners of Destination Businesses in the country, as they experienced the same decreases in traffic and sales as every company selling to consumers. But these business owners adapted and made major changes to their businesses in order to stay profitable and stay afloat. Groups can have Jon present this as a keynote speech or a workshop, but all attendees will hear inspiring stories of these business owners who had to make major changes to their businesses in this challenging economy, and how their business Reinvention caused them to succeed. Every attendee will leave with a list of strategic and tactical changes they will want to make to their businesses.

Turn Any Business Into a Consumer Destination

This is Jon Schallert's most requested session, continually changed and updated every year. Jon has presented this session to thousands of entrepreneurs, retailers, restaurant owners, service businesses, professional practices, and independent business owners around the country. Jon draws on his on-site consulting experience with thousands of independent businesses, and shows any business how to use his trademarked 14-point process for reinventing a business into a Consumer Destination. No other marketing speaker, consultant, or small business coach in the world has analyzed the steps Jon illustrates in this business improvement workshop to become a Consumer Destination.

Attendees will leave with a new understanding of Jon's Destination Business strategies and tactics. Attendees will understand why location, location, location no longer matters for independent business success, and why waiting for "Big Brother" to reinvent a marketplace fails the majority of the time. Following this session, attendees will understand the importance of reinventing their businesses in order to create the most successful consumer-oriented businesses available.

Get Local Customers to Spend Money Locally

Jon Schallert's "Destination Business" strategies and tactics are often used by downtown development groups, economic development organizations, and communities around the country. These organizations are concerned about retail leakage to other communities, and the sales gap that exists between what is spent locally, and what is spent out-of-town.

Jon's point-of-view is different from every consultant dealing with these issues, in that Jon's 14-point process for reinventing a business into a Consumer Destination has led to the reinvention of businesses in communities throughout North America. Consequently, when Jon shows these organizations how to get local consumers to spend money locally, many cities and towns realize that Jon's proprietary techniques work well for collective retail marketplaces, not just individual businesses.

Jon has presented this session in various locations across the country, receiving high praise for this session from members of the National Main Street Network (a downtown development group associated with the National Trust for Historic Preservation), and the International Downtown Association, IDA. For a full list of client testimonials, click here.

Attendees will leave with a new understanding of how to capture local customers and retain tax dollars locally.

If They Stop Here Once, I'll Sell Them 'Year-Round

Many businesses rely on tourist-related traffic. Jon Schallert's trademarked 14-point process for reinventing a business into a Consumer Destination can be used by any business, destination resort, or tourist attraction to reinvent tourist marketing. Convention and visitor bureaus and tourist related associations find this motivational keynote relates to the operations of all entrepreneurs, retailers, and restaurant owners, who are trying to attract more customers and tourists through their doors.

Attendees will leave with a new understanding of Jon's Destination Business strategies and tactics, and many of the typical, overused methods tourist-related businesses capitalize on to increase customer traffic. Attendees will understand why waiting for "Big Brother" to create a tourist marketplace is not advantageous to the aggressive entrepreneur, and how all tourists are not created equal. Marketing differentiation will be discussed, showing the pros and cons of multiple marketing tactics.

Capturing Customers When They Enter Your Door: The Critical 7 Seconds

Today's time-pressured customer enters every business with a mission: get in, find their solution, and get out, ready to tackle the next item on their to-do list. Unfortunately, the visual first impressions that every customer observes when they enter a business often shape their impression of the business negatively for their entire buying trip, impacting the time spent in the business, and the amount they end up spending.

Jon has presented this session for numerous business and trade associations, the U. S. Small Business Development Center, and in conjunction with his other marketing workshops for entrepreneurs.

In this session, Jon Schallert will illustrate how customers entering every store or business form their first impressions in seven (7) seconds, and how customers view six (6) critical areas of a business's floorspace when entering it. Jon will use actual photos from the thousands of businesses he has consulted with to illustrate these principles. Attendees will leave the session with a better understanding of their own visual consumer weaknesses, and with a desire to improve the visual appearance, and positively impact sales.

Capturing Today's Over-Marketed Consumers

Entrepreneurs and small business owners appreciate Jon Schallert's marketing advice in "Capturing Today's Over-Marketed Consumers. Effective marketing and advertising strategies are necessary to bond today's consumer to a business. In fact, consumers have become so sophisticated in repelling advertising and marketing today, that the successful business must use new tactics to "sell" a consumer who repeatedly insists on not being "sold".

Jon has presented this session for numerous business and trade associations, international retail groups, and product manufacturers. This session has been sponsored by Small Business Development Centers across the country, in numerous chambers of commerce, and three times at the National Main Street Center's National Town Meeting, in conjunction with the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

In this session, Jon Schallert illustrates how customers today repel marketing and advertising advances. Then, Jon shows how most of the advertising and marketing dollars that are spent are wasted, and how to create an immediate sales and customer traffic increase, using marketing that customers willingly believe and accept. Attendees will leave the session with a better understanding of their own marketing strengths and weaknesses, and the ability to change unsuccessful habits upon returning to their businesses.

Below is some information to help prepare for Jon's visit to make this a successful event.

If you have any questions or need something that isn't listed here please contact our office and we'll be glad to help in any way possible.

• Photos of Jon
• Pre-Visit Questionnaire
• A/V Requirements and Room Set-Up Guidelines
• Jon's Bio
• Introduction
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Follow-Up Resources – What Now?

NEWSPAPER INTERVIEW? RADIO TALKSHOW? TELEVISION GUEST?

INTERVIEW DESTINATION BUSINESS EXPERT JON SCHALLERT

Call (303) 774-6522. Be sure to tell us your deadline and topic.

Deadline coming up fast and need to interview an expert in a hurry? Call Destination Business Expert, Jon Schallert. Regardless of his location, Jon will make himself available for your newspaper interview, for your radio talk show, or as a television talk show guest. No business consultant in the country is better attuned to the challenges of independent business owners than Jon, which means an interview with Jon is filled with valuable information for your audience, and relevant to today's news.

No one understands the challenges of independent entrepreneurs like Jon Schallert. Jon's experience comes from working with thousands of business owners every year. Jon's advice is real-world, and not based on theory.

Here are some quotes from journalists who have worked with Jon:

"As a retail reporter in Denver, I rely on sources locally and nationally. Jon always makes himself available, at short notice and when he is traveling. He has provided not only insight on trends and growth estimates for certain companies and retail industry sectors, but usually adds a level of content some analysts do not. Jon shares a lot of opinions about the 'whys', the social and demographic factors that are driving certain trends in shopping or growth/shrinkage in certain sectors."
Kelly Pate, Denver Post Business Reporter

"Jon is a great resource for my retail articles. He is knowledgeable, he has excellent ideas, and he responds very quickly which is vital when I'm trying to meet a deadline. Best of all, with his background in journalism, Jon's written responses to questions never need to be edited. I'll definitely be calling him again in the future."
Jennifer Kruger, Senior Editor, Photo Marketing Magazine