New Book Gets First Review

I may not post every review, but hopefully you'll indulge my posting those as nice as this in the Houston Chronical.

I don't know if this review caused it, but Running A 21st Century Small Business moved from #160,000 best selling to 5,600th best on Amazon. If you and all your friends go buy one, maybe we could get into the 100's!

I'm also wondering. Would this book make a good promo product? Banks? Insurance Companies? Warner says they can personalize it in small quantities.

Promotional Products Should Be Delivered On Time

You've been knocking on the door of this important potential customer for over a year. You have established yourself as #2. If the other guy slips up or can't do it, you get the next call. Today is your day. They need 300 water bottles by Friday, 4 color process. The other guy had the order, but it can't be delivered by the deadline. You know that this is your chance to become #1. How much control do you have over your own destiny?

According to David Blaise's "Top Secrets of Promotional Products Sales," 85% of the quality of your customer service depends on the customer service of your supplier. To be honest, if I were in your business, I would not like those odds. So, how can you increase your control over your own failure or success?

Two strategies stand out. By far the most important element is Supplier Selection. The second and still hugely important element is not overpromising. Let's visit these two, one at a time.

If you have been in the Promotional Products Biz for any length of time, you have had to deal with a missed event, many near misses, and more than a few dozen nerve-frazzling might-have-been missed deadlines. Even those promotions that go off perfectly may often be plagued with uncertainty between placement of the order and delivery due to art, documentation, raw material shortages, imprint problems ... I better stop before I make you depressed.

As a supplier it takes a real big set of nerves to say this, but if a supplier messes you up or gives you heartburn, whose fault is it really? There are plenty of resources and methods available to determine the capabilities and track record of potential suppliers. If you blindly select a supplier because they are the only one you can find for a certain product, or the only one that can hit your price point, you are setting yourself up for disaster.

Referring to David Blaise again (Top Secrets of Promotional Product Sales), he maintains that you should test every new supplier by calling and asking for samples. How is the phone response? Do samples arrive when promised? Do they arrive at all? How do the samples look? Even if everything goes well, was there any part of the experience that showed potential for doing even more than was asked for? Did the customer service person attempt to learn more about your use, so that they could recommend other options? Did they explain color choices, advise regarding stocking or timing issues, or discuss art possibilities?

You should, if you or your company doesn't already do so, create a database of suppliers. No, not just a wall of catalogs or reliance on ESP or SAGE. This database should have suppliers you have used rated by some kind of code. Many of our best customers use us exclusively for sports bottles. They don't even look at our competitors. We are highly rated based on prior performance. Why risk using another supplier?

Do we ever mess up? Sure. But it is our philosophy that when we do, we will do whatever is necessary to make it up. We have had an employee drive 400 miles to make a Saturday morning delivery. We have overnighted product at our expense to England. You need to have 100 or more suppliers who you know will always get it done, and done right.

Your customer calls and wants a dispenser of hand soap with their name on it. And they want it in two weeks. You have no one in your database of preferred suppliers who offers hand soap in dispensers. What are your options?

As suggested earlier, my first step would be to ask all about the project. Demographic, strategic plan, reasons for short window, budget, etc. Half of my reason is to boost my image with the customer by being a professional marketing assistant. The other half is to create the maximum number of options for serving him.

Checking all my normal resources, I determine that there are a couple of companies in the industry that can meet the need. Neither my company nor anyone I know has ever purchased through them before. I check ESP and SAGE with mixed results on their performance history. I call both and ask for samples and pricing. One company is adequate, the other sloppy. Both say they can meet my deadline.

I would go back to my customer and explain the exact truth. I have located an adequate supplier. I have no experience with that supplier, but they say they can make the date. I explain where the ratings come from and how I reached my conclusion. Then I suggest alternative solutions that would use companies I know can hit the date. If the customer decides to go forward with the project have I shifted some of the responsibility to him? Not at all. To the extent that I take the order, I am still on the hook. Any failure to deliver on time will certainly be laid at my feet.

If I take the order, I will now follow it very closely, leaving nothing to chance. I will ask for commitments for each stage of the process. When will art files be faxed? When will labels be finished? What day will product be shipped? What is the backup plan if something goes wrong?

Then I will establish my own back up plan. In our discussions, what product would the customer most likely accept in an emergency? Make sure that the backup supplier is in a position to take a rush order.

Knocking the Competition - Bottled Water is Super Bad for the Environment

I don't believe in knocking the competition. I believe that it is much better to point out the strengths of your own product or service, and to sometimes even praise the competition for what they do well. Sometimes there are exceptions to this rule. I think this is one of them.

The US and now the rest of the world are going crazy over bottled water. Clearly there may be slight advantages in convenience and taste when compared to straight tap water, but it is hard to see much advantage at all when compared to filtered or RO (reverse osmosis) water.

The price we are paying for any slight benefit is way more than the high cost we pay for the water itself. My wife tells me that she can get the 16 ounce bottles for $4 per tray of 30 bottles. That would be about $1 per gallon. Of course, when we buy it one bottle at a time a 7/11 or a trade show, the cost might be $10 a gallon.

A fellow blogger, Michael Williams pointed me to this article.

That has translated into massive costs in packaging the water, usually in plastic bottles made of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) which is derived from crude oil, and then transporting it by boat, train or on land.

"Making bottles to meet Americans' demand for bottled water requires more than 1.5 million barrels of oil annually, enough to fuel some 100,000 US cars for a year," according to the study. "Worldwide, some 2.7 million tons of plastic are used to bottle water each year."

Once the water is consumed, disposing the plastic bottles poses an environmental risk.

The study, citing the Container Recycling Institute, said that 86 percent of plastic water bottles in the United States end up as garbage and those buried can take up to 1,000 years to biodegrade.

I would think that it would be obvious that we to the extent that we are worried about the water in our tap, or don't like the taste, it would make way more sense to filter it, or get home delivery, and then put the water into California Springs water bottles for ease of transport to the office, games, picnics, etc. Our bottles will generally be useful for up to five years. Hmmmm. Seems like an easy decision.

So, for those of you who care about the shortage of oil or the size of our landfill problems, start stearing your clients away from disposable bottles to reusable bottles.

Tracking Results - Is Anyone Paying Attention

Question #2. Is anyone in your client's organization tracking results to determine what works for them?

Last time, we discussed the importance of getting a truly complete understanding of the reasons for the promotion, and other details that will help in making wise decisions regarding the product to be used. Today, we want to look even harder at the primary reason anyone does a promotion: To cause the end user to take action!

Call me crazy, but I would be shocked if even half of your clients are measuring the results of the promotions you are providing. The reason I'm so certain of this is that the products we send out, and the other products that I know are being sent out, do not have any method associated with them that would allow for measurement of action.

Let me say it another way. Most of the bottles we ship have a brand, and nothing else, printed on the body of the bottle. Slightly less than half of the artwork we receive includes a phone number and/or website. Less than 10% call for action suggested by the advertiser.

Assuming that some of those who are including a website or phone number ask visitors to the website or callers to the number how they came to hear about the company, then we might have 20% or so of all promotional products being tracked for results.

If there is no tracking of results, there is no way to know if you are doing your job well. If there is no way to determine whether or not you are doing your job well, you have no leverage for keeping your client in the face of competition.

Oh sure, there are some other ways to judge performance. Do sales go up in the period of the promotion? Are there less injuries on the job? More inquiries during the roll out? But these are pretty squishy numbers. Not the kind I'd like to use to justify my position with my customer.

YOU CAN DRAMATICALLY INCREASE YOUR VALUE TO THE CLIENT AND SPECIFICALLY TO THE BUYER BY HELPING HIM ESTABLISH A CRITERIA FOR SUCCESS AND A METHOD OF MEASURING RESULTS.

Comment from Jeryn Freeman

The one area I'd like to see expanded is tracking results - question #2. In a high percentage of situations, the customers have no idea what they expect or want to achieve. Questioning typically elicits vague thoughts: "be nice to our employees" - "show our employees that we care about them - or appreciate their work" - "just a little something for our sales reps to leave behind" and so on. This is the point in the conversation where most of us smile nicely & change the subject. We don't know what questions to ask, or we do ask a couple of 'targeting' questions & get blank stares or more vague responses.
Or maybe the customer says "We want to increase sales of product XJZ."
This is an area you could write a whole book on - & I think you have the skill to do that.

Comment from Joanne Rush-Worrall

However, when I read the article, it seems to assume (in the instance of your sport bottle at least) that everyone who only uses a logo or web site on the bottles you sell doesn't have a tracking mechanism to make the promotion work. That assumes too much. I believe you can still track the success of a promotion without emblazoning the promotional product with your entire message. It's incumbent on the promo products rep to set that stage.

When I meet with my clients BEFORE the event, I always ask them what they're trying to accomplish with their upcoming promotion, and then we set a second meeting where I present the promo program. If their goal was to get their message into the hands of 200-300 potential clients, we present the promo give-away as a "trade off" - the booth visitor "trades" information on their need in return for a promotional product. The client ends up with the pre-qualified leads they need and the potential new customer has a usable item that will remind him of the company when the actual follow-up sales call is made. Those prequalified leads are not "squishy" numbers in my book. Those are a solid sales starting point for the client.

Even if the results do not meet expectations, they establish a basis for the next promotion. Should we change the promotion, the product, the copy, the art, the timing? Or do we lower expectations, and rerun the promotion with minor adjustments?

You can now also take the results back to your brain trust and review the project. When you come back to your client with polished recommendations based on highly skilled thinking, it will doubly impress.

To show that we at American Quality Products are more than talk, we are creating ways for you to accomplish the very goals we are proposing. California Springs line now offers two easy methods to promote action and create measurable results. Available for immediate shipment, removable 4 color stickers that can be attached anywhere on the bottle. Also available now, Hang Tags designed to go inside or outside of the bottle. For full information go here.

With the use of these stickers or hang tags, the bottle art can remain pristine, therefore increasing the likelihood of daily use over many years. At the same time, the end user has a "coupon" that directs him to take action.

Next Time - In your dealing with clients you can only control about 15% of the quality of the customer service. Who controls the other 85%?

Part One: Promotional Products Should Produce Results

Early in my career when I first hired an advertising agency and began to evaluate the power of advertising, there were many advertising agents and space sellers who would boldly declare, "You just have to try stuff and see what works." There are two profound questions in that statement:

#1. Do our customers, the advertisers, assume that we are clueless about what works?

#2. Is anyone in their organization tracking results to determine what works for them?

If our customers assume that we don't know what works, it would be because our industry has not been providing them with trained professionals who have education, training, and experience in what works. To the extent this is true of you, the deficiency can be made up with this blog, other free resources on the web and in the public library, coursework at local colleges, and mentoring from more seasoned sales people. In some cases, your supplier may have folks on staff (as we do) who can provide professional consulting with regard to pinpointing products and approaches that have the greatest likelihood of success in any given promotion.

However, before even a seasoned expert can provide solid advice, there needs to be a set of criteria clearly laid out as to objectives, budgets, logistics, end user profile, and the context into which the promotion fits. I can't begin to tell you how often I speak with salespeople, even owners, in this business who don't know much, if anything, about these criteria. A distributor's client called and asked for a quote on 1000 bottles, so the distributor is now calling me to get the quote. What if the bottle they are asking to be quoted is totally wrong for the user they are trying to reach? The results in such a case, can turn out to actually hurt the image of the company, rather than enhancing it.

Here are the primary questions you should be asking:

1. What is the demographic of the end user? Age, sex, lifestyle, occupation, hobbies, family size, education level, etc.

2. What is the way in which the specialty item will be used? Give-Away - trade show, school or similar; part of package deal, prize (for what?), "thank you" for donation, motivator, leave-behind for sales, mailing, etc.

3. What product, service, or other reason is the item being used to create action? What action is desired?

4. Is the desired action more likely to occur due to one viewing of the message? Or is there an advantage to many viewings over time?

5. What is the budget per end user? Total budget?

6. How many end users must be served?

7. What is the overall marketing plan regarding the message or the product being promoted?

8. When is the product needed?

9. Are there any items which the client prefers or will dismiss out-of-hand?

Julie Papadis says

*Randy, I think you should put "scissor" cut out lines around this, so one can cut out, laminate and tape to desk, monitor etc. These questions alone
would lift the image of our industry from one of "used car salesman" to "educated marketing diva," in my case, or "educated marketing agent." We would become a key member of their marketing team instead of the "purveyor of woogets, gidgets and more."

Upon asking these questions 90% of the buyers will be impressed that you asked - 10% will be annoyed. But you will gain three huge benefits from asking them:

1. Those who are impressed will now think of you as a marketing resource, not just a swag salesman.

2. You will gain information that will help you with the overall company strategy that might open doors to future opportunities.

3. Most importantly, you will have clear criteria for making excellent recommendations through your own knowledge and experience and by gathering ideas from those whom you trust.

Next: Is Anyone Tracking The Results

More About Kirk (Me)

Truly there is a time and a place for humility. Then, at other times it is appropriate to lay out ones' credentials. For instance, in applying for college or a job, great care goes into the preparation of the resume. When I send a book offer to a publisher, it goes with a massive marketing proposal that includes every possible superlative about yours truly. Even well known folks accept a flowery introduction before a speech. What am I getting at?

Simply this. I am going to spend an entire month of writing here at "Kirk unCorked" on a single topic. I believe that it will be the most useful information I have ever passed along to any business audience. I want to use the next few paragraphs to convince you that you should not only read every word, but that you should encourage your friends and associates to do so as well.

After graduating from UCLA Law, I began a career in the bicycle industry. In addition to owning companies which manufactured, distributed, sold, and/or advertised various products and brands in that industry, I wrote every book written about bicycle retailing through 1995. I was also the most featured speaker at trade shows for 20 years.

In 1993 Warner Books published my book, "When Friday Isn't Payday." Inc. Magazine referred to it as a 'Business Bible.' Out of over 50 business books published that year, Inc. rated "When Friday Isn't Payday" among the top three. That book was eventually published as one of the first e-books, and was translated into Chinese.

This month Warner will publish my new book, "Running a 21st Century Small Business"

I, with my partner of 25 years, Terry Brown, have now been manufacturing and selling the California Springs Line as a supplier in the advertising specialty industry for 12 years. In the past year I have undertaken to get a full understanding of the industry to better serve you in this blog, and to better equip our company, American Quality Products, to serve you as a customer.

During my career to date, I have brought numerous innovations to the table. Now, the time has come to do so in this industry. My research indicates that many of the ideas that will be presented over the next 4 weeks are leading edge and some are completely new. You will have to be the judge of that. I know with certainty that these ideas used in your business will increase your standing with clients and therefore increase your money-making potential.

How To Get 100 Orders in 100 Minutes

Most of you saw our offer on Feb. 1, 2006. Some thought we were crazy. Others thought we were exhibiting pure genius. I suspect it was somewhere in the middle. We offered 100 printed bottles 100% free, no strings, to the first 100 distributor salesfolks who placed an order for same.

The e-mail blast went out over Blastmaster at 10:30 California time. The first phone call came in at 10:31. At 12:20 we took our 100th order, just 100 minutes from the start time. We estimate that we talked to 300 distributors sometime on the that day. We are guessing that we will continue to hear from people about this for many weeks.

We expect many of these 100 piece free orders to turn into 500, 1000, 5000, 10,000 and even larger orders in the next 60 days. We expect some of these new advertisers to place additional orders for bottles with our distributors for years into the future. We have already had two requests for large quantity quotes that resulted directly from the promotion.

How can you do this?

1. Like any good marketeer, you must first determine what it is you want to accomplish. Next, how much are you willing to spend? Then, how will you communicate your offer.

2. Let's assume you also want 100 new customers, you're willing to spend $4000 for that result, and you will communicate by e-mail and phone calls.

3. Make phone calls to 10 of your most important suppliers. You want to know if they are interested in working this promotion with you. How many of the item(s) they most want to promote would they like to be in each order. Suggest 100.

4. Your goal is to get them to agree to no set up and 50% EQP on 10 or 20 such orders. And you are shooting for $.40 average net including shipping. If you can get an average commitment of 10 orders from 10 suppliers, you have your 100 sets.

5. Send out your first e-mail on this subject. I would make it a teaser. No real details. "I've been trying to sell you on using our company for your promotions for quite a while. Next week I'll be sending you an e-mail with an offer you will not be able to refuse. Stay tuned."

You may want to do some fun graphics, create some humor around it, or provide some links, p.s.'s, etc. that might cause them to move towards an inquiry or order now.

If you are hoping for 100 orders, I would think this should go to at least 1000 potential customers.

6. On the scheduled day, send out the e-mail making the offer. "We want your business so bad, we are willing to give you 100 items with your logo and other information custom imprinted for absolutely $000.00 Free. No strings. No one free with one. No obligation to ever buy from us again." Show the 10 items that are being offered. Big letters "Your choice."

Of course, there is on catch. "We have only 100 of these available and this e-mail has gone to about 1000 potential customers. The offer is first come first served until we run out. All we need is your official P.O. by fax or e-mail for 100 of one of these items at $0.00 for a grand total of $000.00 to secure your free product."

Simple, straightforward, and has to work. Your budget is only $2000. Only give away 50 orders. You get the idea.

Incrementalism Works

If you ever tried to tackle a really big job? One of those jobs where the goal looks overwhelming like losing 100 pounds or writing a Book? How about making 1000 cold calls! Surely that would be a great goal to set. There is a big secret to getting these kinds of things done, and with low anxiety.

You have to do it a piece-at-a-time over time. You need to agree in advance how long you will take, and how much you will do each day, week, or month. When I write a book, I estimate the number of pages, lets say 250. I can write 2 pages an hour, so that is 125 hours. I can set aside an hour a day Monday-Thursday and two hours on Saturday. So I have 6 hours per week. So, 22 weeks to write the first draft. It is no longer an elephant in my plate. Just today's quarter pounder.

Want to make a 1000 cold calls. Do it in 250 days (50 weeks X 5 days) at 4 calls per day. Couldn't possibly take more than 1 hour per day to make those 4 calls. If anyone reading this has the slightest doubt that your business would increase substantially as a result of making 1000 cold calls next year, please leave your comments.