Vacation Time

Summer's here. Time to get away from it all. At least for a lot of folks. Most of this generation seems to get the idea that vacations are important. At our plant (where we make those incredible California Springs Sports Bottles), after you've worked 5 years you get 3 weeks. After 10 years you get 4. We want our people to get rested up so they can produce even more and do it better.

However, I've noticed there are still some who feel they can't take that vacation. They can't get away. Too important! Something might go wrong. Can't afford the time away.

Well, I don't want to go to meddlin'. Not me. If you can't leave your job for a week or two or three, you haven't done a very good job of training others around you. I'm guilty of that, sometimes. Crisis occur while I'm gone, because I haven't adequately prepared my staff to handle it. I still go. At least five weeks a year, my entire adult life.

The truth is, if you get completely away for at least 10 days, you will come back with ideas and motivation that will more than make up for your time away. There might be a pile of work on your desk, and a few messes to clean. Those piles and messes will show you where you need to better train next time. So quit making out that your such a big shot and get outta town.

Overloaded? Up in the Air? Problems?

C00967347
Originally uploaded by Randy Kirk.

Thought I'd post this on a Monday. Doesn't it just scream "MONDAY!"

Search Engine Optimization - SEO - Why Should a Salesman Care

Fifty hours a week, sometimes more, you make the calls, fight the traffic, call back for an answer the 14th time and get voice mail. But once in a while, the phone rings and its a free lead. They saw your ad. They looked up promotional products in the yellow pages. More likely today, they Googled something like Custom Imprinted Products - Austin, TX. Or they went to Ask Jeeves an typed: where can I find the best printed water bottles in the world?

When that happens, you want to be found among the responses. Back in January, we decided to type in Custom bicycle bottles. To our great dismay, we didn't show up on any list for 25 pages or more. Being competitive in nature and knowing this wasn't helping our sales, we put in hours and hours of research. Now we are on the first page or two on all of our "Key words" and "Key phrases." How did we do that?

I'm going to break this post up into several days, because there is much to much to tell in one article.

TEXT IS EVERYTHING

Since we are in a product driven business, and our roots are in advertising, we are inclined to want to say it with pictures. White space is our friend. Too much copy kills the ad. Not true on the web. Not if you want to be found by the major search engines.

The Spiders (computerized agents that go out to find relevant information) are sent out every day to update what the SE (search engine) will list when you type in key words. They do not look for and cannot read pictures!! With regard to web site content, they typically look for:

The first 250 words
Headlines
Words in Bold or Caps
Word density

Therefore, the first thing you want to do is to make sure that the first 250 word shown on your site are filled with key words, and that those key words are capitalized, made bold, and appear in headlines.

For instance, today your site might have a beautiful picture on the front page with words like "Make Your event special. We are ready to help you with your planning. Our marketing professionals are trained to evaluate your unique needs, and help you to accomplish your sales goals. Call us for a free consultation."

The search engine would maybe use event planning professional. So if anyone ever typed that in, you would be on the list somewhere. However, if your first 250 words started out:

CUSTOM IMPRINTED PRODUCTS are the core business at Smith's Advertising Specialty Company. Our promotional products specialists are ready to help you with any custom imprinted product requirements you might have. We carry 70,000 unique promotional products that can be custom imprinted, many in 4 color process.

This opening will be scanned by the spider and it will see that you really care about custom imprinted and promotional products. You will move up the list on both of those subjects or any variation. So the bold items above are the key words you are trying to get noticed on.

You might have other key words that are more important to you. Like the example above, your city might be important if your business is mostly local. So, make sure your city name is in the first 150 words at least once. This will also help to differentiate you from others who are trying for a high position on the other key words.

Maybe you are interested in a special niche, like schools. Write your copy to include the words you want to have the Spider find. The spiders are trying to be logical. They really want the person doing the search to find relevant pages. Your job is to help the search engine find the relevant things on your pages.

That way, you can get those calls from out of the blue for 100,000 California Springs Water Bottles. Right?!?

Real Self Motivation

We are all motivated by various things. Money, the lack of money, success, the sales manager, our spouse, or possibly money. However, for the most part these motivators are long term. What might one do to get motivated today, right now.

First of all, it is hard to get or stay motivated if there is no plan or goal. Have you established a goal for today? 10 cold calls? 50 mailing pieces? 5 call backs? 3 presentations? Research product ideas for 3 calls from yesterday? $500 in profit? Whatever the goals are, write them down. It is also a plus to have weekly, monthly, even annual goals on some of these quantifiable aspects of your sales effort.

So now that we know what the goals are, back to the original question. How do we motivate our slightly lazy selves to get going and get sales growing. Since we are in the motivation business, it would seem like this would be the easy part, but we all know it isn't.

I like to make the goal real personal. One that worked for me was the dessert incentive. I am a sweet fanatic. Dessert after lunch and dinner is mandatory. The deal I made with myself was that unless I hit my daily goal, no dessert. You might have your own very important evening desire. I can think of other things that could be used for this purpose other than dessert.

The same thing works with weekly or monthly goals. Do you need (want) a new all digital video recorder, maybe an upgrade on your Ipod, or a weekend in Palm Springs? Don't wait for your company to set up a contest or incentive. Do it for yourself. There is undoubtedly a makable number of dollars that you could earn next month that would justify rewarding yourself with the prize you desire. Set the goal. Set the prize. Go for it!

The Fear Greed Curve

I can't take credit for the following concept, and I can't quite remember who said it previously. However, it makes such sense, and is far more understandable to the average person than supply-demand. The world economy is driven by the fear-greed curve.

Gasoline Prices got you down. Want someone or something to blame. It is so easy to blame big, nasty corporations who want to rip of consumers, neighbors across the continent, and even the world, who are driving gas guzzlers, or the Bush administration for not taking some action (the action would depend on your political point of view.)

However, I propose that the real culprit is the natural way of mankind. We are driven by many things, but two of the most powerful are fear and greed. The major corporations are afraid to invest in new equipment, exploration, etc., because they are afraid the price will come back down to $12 a barrel. However, as the price stays high, some of the competition (be it companies or countries) get greedy, and try to increase market share by lowering their price. Some then become fearful that they will lose market share or end up with mountains of inventory, so they lower their price also.

As the price goes up, the greed factor also plays in. Some companies or countries artificially raise the price to see what the market will bear, and are all too willing to take advantage of shortages, real or imagined. This only works for a while, because at some point, somebody is going to start adding capacity to maximize profit (greed.)

Your customers act the same way on a smaller scale. If you realize that these emotions underly some of their thinking, it may effect your strategy for dealing with them. Think about it. Comment about it.

Nana and Aslan

Nana and Aslan
Originally uploaded by Randy Kirk.

On the personal side, I just became Poppy for the third time. My wife Pam and baby Aslan (the Lion in the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe) are both doing well. Our daughter Brandy is really glad to be on this side of Aslan's birthday. Dad Casey and brother Micah seemed to have a good time, too.

Good Point From Unfavorable Article

If you go here you can read an article you won't like. This writer doesn't care too much for swag. However, she does make one great point in her only really positive comment:

"There are plenty of anecdotal reports about how promotions encourage customer goodwill and spark a modest increase in referrals, for instance. There are oodles of surveys that delve into what recipients look for in promotional products (usefulness, quality, and attractiveness)."

Sure, I would agree with that since California Springs Water Bottles are useful, high quality, and attractive. But maybe you can use this quote to convince someone to spend an extra dime or quarter to get the very something that might actually make it home with the customer, and get used.

California Springs Website is Finished. WOW!

A hat tip to my partner, Terry Brown, and his able assitants, Verenice Reyes and Scott Starnes. If this isn't the best supplier site on the Web, nominate your favorite in the comments. Visit by clicking here.

Internet Options for Advertising Specialty Professionals

A few hundred years ago when I was a young guy, I opened a retail bike shop. For the first several weeks the phone never rang. Then, one afternoon, the phone started ringing like crazy. After the 10th call, I asked the next caller where they had heard of me. Turns out that the Yellow Pages had dropped that day.

Today you need the Internet for all the same reasons. The yellow pages is not the first place people go to find a resource any more.

Two Unique Aspects of Advertising Specialty on the WWW

After years of web site development for California Springs and reading reams of articles and books on the subject, my conclusion is that most advertising specialty companies and reps need an integrated strategy to help their potential customers find the "store." And they need a method of communicating with existing customers through the web that keeps their clients from trying out somebody else's store.

Part 1. A simple web site is easy to get started and not very expensive. If you have a site that is more than 4 years old, or that is unprofessional in appearance, or if you have no site at all, consider using one of the many ad specialty suppliers of web sites. These sites are like a prefab home that gets you into the starter mode. Would it be better to create a completely custom site with bells and whistles that your competitors can't claim? (like http://www.californiasprings.com) Sure. Plan to spend 500 man hours of artist or web designer time at $20 per hour or more.

The other drawback to the custom web site is time. You need something NOW, not in 3 or 6 months. The prefab approach can be up and running with a very professional look in mere days.

Part II of the strategy is e-mails. You need to drive people to the site. I discussed e-mails at length on the post of June 10. While e-mails may have a message that doesn't require a trip to the web site, it is very important to use the e-mail to encourage visits to your site. This will allow bookmarking as well as exposure to the ease of doing business with you through the web.

Part III is the blog. Blogs (you are reading one) provide a way to offer personality and special service en mass. If I were to spend all day on the phone, I might get to speak to 20 distributor owners, salespeople, or vendor relations people. Through this blog we get an average of 100 people a day that are making contact with us. And that is after only a few months. We expect that this number will be many hundreds per day as the site becomes better known.

I have written about blogs earlier here, and will be writing much more extensively about them later.

How To Run a Successful E-mail Campaign

Whatever happened to Selling Tips #1, #2, and #3?

We were inspired by the Star Wars people. We figured that if they started at #4, went to #6, and then started over at #1, there must be some great benefit. After all, look how successful they are.

Actually, the average reader isn't interested in the first of anything. No track record on that. Lets see if they stick around. After 10 years of being in this business, one old timer said to me: "Looks like you're going to make it. Guess I'll start buying from you."

And we all know that one ad or one promotional mailing is not as effective as three. We knew there was a better chance of your opening the 4th in a series than the first. Below are ten similar tips to getting people to open and respond to your e-mails.

1. Don't assume because you get 50 advertisements per day that everyone does. Some of your customers have plenty of time to open, digest, and respond to your e-mails. It is this author's personal opinion that e-mails are the most efficient means of communicating a marketing proposal today. Most efficient in time, money, and energy.

2. Send out one e-mail per week, not more not less. Consistency is so critical in this kind of advertising. In the print business it would be similar to a "keeper" ad, the little 3 inch ad in the back of the magazine that is in that same place issue after issue. One day the customer needs something, and they know right where to get it: The in box, the trash (maybe), or wait a day or two for the next e-mail.

3. The Subject line is key. It should be a series like Tip #1 or Idea #4 or Profit maker #6. It should have an identifier that clearly makes it from you. Your e-mail might go straight to the trash the first few weeks, but at some point it gets opened because (see the opening paragraphs above.) It should have some reason to open it now. That might be because it is timely (e.g. Special this week only), or irresistible (e.g.Top This!), or cute (e.g. Missing Personnel.)

4. When do you send it Most experts suggest Tuesday - Thursday. We send out our corporate e-mails on Tuesday - Thursday because we think you will open product information during business hours in the normal course of your day. We send out the Selling Tips on Friday because we think you are more likely to open something educational on Friday afternoon or over the weekend.

5. The body must be compelling. Not just because you want them to act today, but because you want them to open it next week, and the week after. Every week needs to be "worth it." Personally I would not send a stand-alone ad. In fact, many spam filters send pure HTML straight to "Junk." Use the e-mail for text with a link to your ad. If you only have a web site ($100 or less per year) for one reason, use it to house your ads, so that you can link the ad to your e-mail.

Your body copy should be lots of fun. You might have a funny story, a personal detail, or a contest to get interest. Keep a running joke, or story, or contest so there's a reason to keep opening the e-mail. Then have an even more compelling reason to get the customer to go to the ad. But don't kid them. It's got to be honest and worthwhile.

6. As mentioned in an earlier blog (June 3), have a signature at the bottom that includes all contact information and maybe one last selling proposition. Also note how on my e-mail I give you a second reason to click through. This also helps increase traffic.

7. Keep the e-mail short. Short words, short sentences, short paragraphs, total e-mail short.

8. Have a way to count your response. You can get a free counter for your web site. Just go to the bottom of this blog. You'll see my counter. If you click on "free counter by Bravenet" it will walk you through setting up a free counter.

You can also get various kinds of e-mail management programs. One that comes highly recommended is Constant Contact which you can get at:

http://reseller.constantcontact.com/index.jsp?pn=shortys.

I don't make any money from these recommendations, but in this case another ASI favorite, Shorty, does if you use that link.

9. Use the feedback you receive to sharpen up your play. Everyone's customer base is different. We even tend to have a few customer types within one customer base. Try different things to see if you get more hits. Try sending out two different e-mails the same week, each to half your list. See which approach is better.

10. Read books, e-mail tips, and web sites about e-mail techniques so that you can constantly sharpen your methods.

I promise to come back to this subject often as I see things that might help you.

Next week I'll tell you everything you ever wanted to know about Web sites, but were afraid to ask. You'll have to wait until Friday the 24th for the SEO story. (Search Engine Optimization. But in case you're working on that now. Here are two clues. The search engines cannot read pictures. Use bold letters in your text on all keywords. More later.)

Are You a HOTTIE?

I'm not. My wife probably thinks so (or not.) My mom surely does. My girls??? But in my heart of hearts I know I'm not.

If you are, it will greatly advance your career as a Promotional Products professional. Maybe you're really tall, really great looking, or very unusual in some way. You have a leg up on the rest of us normal (read dull looking) people.

Sure, I've made a good living in sales because of my . . (no bragging in this column.) But if I were starting all over today, I would either get stretched, have plastic surgery, or come up with a unique persona. The last option being cheaper and less painful, it appeals to me the most.

One salesmen I know has these amazing belt buckles he wears. Another brings doughnuts every time. If she forgets, she gets hooted. Many over the years had a joke or two each visit. Still another still wears $300 suits when everyone else is in Hawaiian shirts. Being in the cheap plastic stuff business, maybe you should always bring a wild and wacky give-away to leave behind.

You get the point. Your ideas, your prices, your charm, your wit will go a long way. But it is truly amazing how important it is to be remembered.

Stay Out of My Pond

I used to live in a townhouse community that had a fairly large lake. From time to time we had some really cool ducks that visited us. It turns out that the State of California has rules about how many ducks are allowed on a pond of that size. So they posted a sign: "Five ducks maximum on this pond." Can't you picture a flock going by and dad duck is saying "No Ma. That pond is all full up, too."

In the advertising specialty business, we have a whole bunch of rules. Suppliers are not supposed to sell to end users. Distributors are not supposed to import direct. Suppliers shouldn't own distributors. You know these rules.

Unfortunately, there are a whole bunch of ducks in this business who don't know how to read. And that's just how it is. More and more distributors are doing supplier-like things. More and more suppliers are not sticking too closely to the rules about selling end users.

How should this effect you, as an advertising specialty sales professional. You could complain, make phone calls, send e-mails, and letters. You could get mad, sulk, and moan away the day. But none of those activities are going to put food on your table. So, hit the road, Jack. Go sell something.

I make this statement, knowing in my knower that I'm right. If you stick to business, do a great job for your customers, and keep making those calls, you will get a percentage of the business. You will make pretty much as much as you are willing to work for. You will lose some because a competitor imports directly. He has costs that he probably isn't considering in his quotes. They may come back to haunt him. But you will lose some deals like that anyway.

You will lose some because a supplier goes around you. You won't deal with him anymore, and slowly the word will spread. As he sows, so shall he reap.

Forget about it. Move on. Get Going. Find another pond.

Blogs Can Help Your Business

June 6, 2005 latimes.com : Business
Using Blogs to Build Direct Links to Public
# Firms are turning to the format to bypass the media and get out their message 'unfiltered.'

From Associated Press

When General Motors Corp. wanted to stop speculation this spring that it might eliminate its Pontiac and Buick brands, Vice Chairman Bob Lutz took his case directly to dealers and customers who were up in arms about the possibility.

He wrote about it on the company's weblog.

For the rest of this story go here

Tuesday, July 5 in this BLOG, learn more about blogging as an internet marketing option.

Maximizing Your Internet Effort - Part 1 - The Marketing Plan

To do this right, start at the beginning by planning your internet presence in the same way you would any other marketing effort. Copy this blog, print it out, keep it close to you at all times. It is going to help you in four ways.
1. Provide an understanding of marketing in ways you may not have ever considered.
2. Help to define your overall marketing strategy.
3. Offer methods for teaching your client how to wisely use advertising specialty products as a part of an overall marketing strategy, rather than as an unintegrated promotion.
4. it will help you focus your internet marketing use. No matter what you do, it will use huge chunks of time and money. It is a shame to waste either.

Marketing 1-A For Advertising Specialty Professionals

Marketing is much more than sales and advertising. It has to do with everything from product concept and design, supply line planning, identifying of markets, packaging, and pricing, to a complete strategy for advertising, promoting, and selling the product or service through various levels in your customer chain.

As an advertising specialty products company or sales professional, your own knowledge of how all this works should be evident in how your own company does things. Otherwise how can you help those who you serve. Here are a few questions that might start your marketing blood flowing.

1. What is my unique proposition? What do I or my company bring to my customer that isn’t the same as everybody else in this business? Price? Warehousing? Years of experience? Exclusive product lines? Fast Service? In house art or marketing department? Web Based Company store? Potentially a very long list of possibilities. Make your list.

2. Who is your customer? Do you specialize in certain ways or just call on every business and organization on the block? Is it your desire or plan or current approach to call on buyers who are uniquely purchasing advertising or ad specialty products, or do you call on small companies or entities where your buyer wears many hats (maybe even the owner), or is your customer the advertising agency? Of course, there are others who might be on this list, and you mayhave all or many of these in your customer base.

Also need to consider if you are calling at more than one level. Do you need to convince the ad agency and the customer, the customer owner and the marketing department, the marketing department and the sales force? Do you even need to do tests or focus studies with their customers?

3. What kinds of marketing efforts are working for you now. Cold calls? Networking? Referrals? Mailings? Catalogs? What specific approach is working in that effort or those efforts. Humor? Multiple contacts or impressions in a short period of time? Free offers for appointment? Professional puffing of capabilities? Etc.

4. What do you want to accomplish right now? More customers? Better customers? Larger customers? More volume from existing customers? Land prospects already on your list? Solidify your standing with best customers? Expand what you do with existing customers? Increase territory covered? Concentrate effort in fewer product lines? Increase size of average order? This list is just about endless in its possibilities. Very few business owners or sales and marketing people ever think it through.

5. How long will the campaign last? What is success? How much is the budget in time, personnel, and money? When and what conditions will result in pulling the plug? How will results be counted?

If you can get your arms around these question, actually write down the answers (really a good idea), and make sure that the other members of the team have ownership in the directions above, you are ready to think about the options available on the web. That will be part 2.

Maximizing Your Internet Effort - Part 2. Internet Options. Coming Monday June 13.

Just The Fax

Just The Fax
Originally uploaded by Randy Kirk.

There are more tips like this in the book "101 Ways to Get Your Foot in the Door." And while this idea seems obvious, how many are doing it???

Now add this. You should be doing the same thing with your signature on your emails. Most email programs allow you to have one or more text signatures available to send with your emails. They can be several lines long. You could include your web address, your phone number, even a short sales message.

Both of these ideas cost you nothing to implement and could bring in substantial business. Check out the signature line on the email I sent you today for an example.

Objections: The Salesperson's Best Friend

Don't close the site! Give me a chance to explain! I haven't lost my mind!

Surely its happened to you. Maybe it happens a lot. You're telling your story and the prospect is listening at somewhere between 50 and 100% attention. They are giving you a "yes" or an "ok" or maybe a "that's cool" at appropriate moments.

The time comes to test the water and you offer up your best trial close. The answer comes back "Not today. I'm just not interested." As they say this, they get up from their chair, or start to dial a phone number.

You're shocked. They seemed to be involved. As you replay the conversation, however, you note that they never said "Can that be done in our corporate color?" or "I don't see how we could get all the copy in that small space?" or "Are you sure your company is big enough to handle our needs?" They just kept saying "Oh, how nice."

Be aware of that circumstance early on. Try mini trial closes on specific aspects of your presentation if they seem to be "yessing you." Ask some questions to see if you are even dealing with their needs or their area of responsibility. Even ask who they are using now for these types of products if you haven't already.

You want objections throughout your presentation. When the objections stop, you have probably lost their attention.