by Thea Engst
Tru Service Group is a national construction company that supplies labor, logistics, warehouses, inventory management, and liquidation to its customers from coast to coast. I sat down with the company’s Senior Account Executive, MaryPat Alroth, to talk about a day in her life, and how Tru Service Group is approaching 2024 trends.
Becoming a Senior Account Executive
MaryPat has been in the tradeshow industry for 20 years and with Tru Service Group for eight of those years.
“I started as a part-time office assistant for another I&D [installation and deconstruction] company,” she told me. She was hired as the first-ever sales representative for Tru Service Group, helping to create their brand and establish a strong customer base.
“I also spent several years as an Exhibit Sales Manager on the show management side before returning to the labor end of things,” she explained. “Being on both sides of the show floor has given me a wider perspective.”
The more time she spent in the industry, the more MaryPat felt her calling. “I was intrigued by the business and learned as much as possible and never looked back,” she said.
A Day in the Life
MaryPat works remotely. Remote work allows her to provide better customer service to her bicoastal customers and work longer, more flexible days. “I love the autonomy of remote work,” she said. “My typical day starts early and ends late—this is definitely not a nine-to-five business.” Trigger warning: this schedule may induce the need for some to take a nap.
“I start the day by checking emails. I usually have a plan for making cold calls, sending introductory emails and follow-up emails, working social media, and connecting with current clients. I have an account manager who is wonderful and handles the necessary information for the field, but I also like to stay in the loop on current and upcoming projects. It is also my responsibility to approve final invoices for jobs. I believe that clients are more like partners: when we do a great job, it benefits all of us. My clients are on both coasts, and some are overseas, so it is important to be available anytime. The best part of this job and this industry is that every day brings something new.”
2024 Trends
Now that MaryPat has told us about the micro-aspects of her job, let’s talk about her macro goals. I asked her what she and Tru Service Group are most looking forward to for 2024 and how they plan to approach fresh challenges.
Sustainability
“Sustainability has become an increasingly important part of our industry,” she said. “ Companies, including ours, look at ways to recycle and dispose of materials responsibly.” I look forward to seeing how the impact of companies like Tru that implement increasingly sustainable practices positively affect our planet.
Labor
“One of the biggest challenges in our industry is the declining labor force,” MaryPat went on. “We are all working towards developing a new, younger workforce. Our company has been lucky in that we were able to keep our core employees and grow during the pandemic thanks to pivoting to focusing on commercial work.”
This question led me to ask about the shorter lead time issue popping up for tradeshows lately, as companies that are understaffed struggle to keep up. MaryPat told me: “We are seeing more last-minute labor requests from our exhibit house partners. The exhibit houses are waiting for the client’s approval before scheduling our services.”
And, of course, I had to ask, what about Tru’s staffing state?
“Our company culture is based on teamwork. It takes all areas of the company working together to provide the best possible service for our clients,” MaryPat said. “We have been growing every year. We survived the pandemic by growing the commercial side of our company. Now, both tradeshows and commercial divisions are busy. We expect this trend to continue in 2024. We are always looking for amazing carpenters. We have expanded our sales team along with office personnel.”
AI
In a world of AI and all that it offers, MaryPat addressed Tru’s future working with the technology. “I am excited about the growth trend,” she said. “I am interested in seeing how AI will affect our industry. We are not employing AI but are looking at ways we can or should use it in the future.” It’s always exciting to see a company looking to work with the future instead of against it.
Budgeting
Finally, the scary part of managing: those numbers. “Budgeting is always a tricky and stressful process,” MaryPat told me. “We attempt to look at the trends of both the industry and our clients as we set goals and budgets.”
The future of Tru Service Group
As we all quickly rush into 2024, Tru Service Group stands out as a company not only surviving but thriving. Taking what was learned from the pandemic, Tru has evolved and looks to continue to do so with every new trend and demand of the tradeshow industry—and the planet.
This story originally appeared in the Q1 2024 issue of Exhibit City News, p. 76. For original layout, visit https://issuu.com/exhibitcitynews/docs/ecn_q1_2024.
