You Might be UNLISTED

My current bedtime reading is Marketing Without Advertising by Michael Phillips et al. One of the primary themes throughout this book is that the most important advertising for our businesses is being LISTED. The editors mention the obvious like Yellow Pages, Web pages, and the Chamber of Commerce. But I suspect that all too often, our small businesses haven't even taken care of the obvious.

So, are you listed? Do you have a decent sized ad in the yellow pages? The ad should be well thought out. If you are unclear about how to do a great yellow page ad, do the research in dozens of yellow pages at your local library or on line. My personal preference is to make sure my ad is completely different and more eye-catching than my competition. It is crucial to use the copy writing techniques discussed elsewhere in this blog: headline must say it all, lots of copy, promises, action statement.

Some of my distributor friends are members of several chambers in their area. I would want to own all or part of the back page of the chamber directory. I would be disinterested in inside ads, but I would sure make certain I am listed.

Web presence? If you search this blog, you will find all kinds of info on how to do your website and a blog. You should be doing both.

Are you listed on all the industry lists? ASI, PPAI, Sage, etc. Join as many as you can afford. Don't worry about the politics. You want folks to find you. This is a good way.

Are there community web sites or other group sites that would help people find you? Could you set up a group? Start a blog about your city, or some aspect of your city that would be likely to draw business or non profits to the site. Of course 15% or more of the content could be advertisements for your services. Get a couple of non-competitive companies to help with the site. Get folks who have a unique story to tell about the area or who have excellent writing skills.

We learned this lesson in spades in 2005. We spent 100's of hours making our listings on ESP and Sage broader, deeper, and more complete. More than any other effort last year, we are seeing a big payoff from that effort. How can you increase your visibility by being on lists that people are likely to use to find folks like you?

Price Matters to the Promotional Products Buyer

Many top motivators in this industry will cause you to experience cognitive dissonance when they maintain that price is way down the list of what truly matters to your clients. To the extent that you have followed the above methods and established yourself as a member of the marketing team, and not just another swag salesman, these pundits are correct. However, in the trenches there are various reasons this perfect scenario doesn't always play out. Examples include:

1. The buyer has to or wants to send it out to bid, no matter how much he appreciates your extra effort.
2. The buyer doesn't care about your value added skill set. He just wants 1000 pens for the meeting.
3. There is a buyer change, and the new guy is trying to make a name for himself. Being stupid, he thinks he will make a name for himself through saving dollars, and you have no time to educate him.
4. You receive a bid offer or phone call request and have no opportunity to establish any kind of rapport.

These kinds of situations are highly nuanced and thus there are no easy answers. Rather I would propose a set of principles and strategies to follow.

A. Small unsolicited requests for pricing or bids. Attempt to determine whether you really have a long term opportunity here to develop important business or referrals. If not, offer your standard pricing and terms and move on.

B. Assume that the price list supplied to you by every supplier is a starting point. A big part of your job is to sell the supplier on why they should give you a price that is lower than eqp for an order of the minimum. You can then use this price and low margins to "buy" the business when there is a long term strategy in mind. This is really where the big boys play. This is why traditional distribution channels are always being stretched and challenged.

Using this type of strategy over the long term or for every client is a recipe for disaster. You need the margins. Your supplier needs the margins. And if your main customer base only buys from you on price, there WILL come a day when a competitor WILL find a way to beat you.

Also know that there is a niche for a certain kind of distributorship which discounts all of the time as a strategy. They do this by keeping extremely low overheads and offering no extras. There may also be hidden costs such as payment in advance, freight handling charges, etc. To be this kind of distributor you must create that kind of business. I personally don't know how to do it, so can't offer direction or advice.

C. A major client tells you that his business will always be a bid situation. This is my favorite kind of challenge, and one where winning is not assured, no matter what direction you take. But consider the options. You can sell them at low margins and get some or all of the business. You can sell them at decent margins, and win a few contracts. You can work your butt off to get better pricing from your supplier and work on low margins and get almost all of the business. You can SELL this client on changing his buying procedure.

What is his goal in bidding out all the work? What are his specific goals for the overall promotional products area? What does success look like to him? More than likely his "bid everything" strategy is imposed from above or is just the best he can come up with with his limited creative skills.

By determining if there is a way for him to feel more successful or, better yet, look more successful to those grading him, you can now build a pitch for your comprehensive approach as a supplier. You may even be able to use a trial close that helps him create a success grid: quality products and printing, arrives on time, problem free administration, excellent pricing, successful campaigns.

D. Keep in mind the Kirk 10% principle. Outstanding approaches to any situation will be trashed by 10% of the buyers. We made an initial call on KMart 20 years ago. Our product was already in Target and doing well. Three highly successful, professional salesmen with three piece suits entered the buyer's lair at 7:00 a.m. Part of the buyers intimidation strategy was to see first time product presentations super early.

We decided to ask the critical questions first . How many turns did he expect? How many dollars per foot? This type of thing. We knew that our item was getting outstanding turns and returning excellent dollars per foot at Target. This was the "professional way" to approach the client.

The buyer got irate and told us that he wasn't interested in training us in KMart's retail strategy. He just wanted to know what did our product do? How much did it cost? We left with our tails between our legs. This strategy works 90% of the time. P.S. We got the business anyway.

Google Ad Words - 7 Things You Need to Know

Have you paid any attention to one of the largest advertising engines in the world. One that didn't exist a few years ago, but now is making Google one of the most valuable companies on planet earth.

You know what Adwords are? They are those sponsored ads on the same page with your key word search. You look up the keyword "How do I lose 15 pounds" and on the right hand side of the page are 100's of little 4 line ads. Those advertisers are paying 5 cents or $5 each time you click on the ad and are transported to their sales pitch.

Disclaimer. There are 1000's of people who know more about this than me. But I suspect that I know more about it than 95% of those who visit here from time-to=time. So, based on my limited knowledge, here are 7 things you can take to the bank.

1. This method of advertising will continue to be a major and growing way to drive people to your business. Your competition is already doing it. Go to keyword promotional products and see how many ads there are.
2. Your customers will also be spending more of their advertising dollar on this type of ad.
3. Becoming a sophisticated user of Adwords may be one of the most important things you can do to grow your business.
4. If your customer is using adwords to draw people to his website with the intention of selling them something online, he needs promotional products to seal the deal. This is and will be a huge market for your and my kind of stuff. I will do a whole article on this within the next two weeks.
5. There are dozens of smaller search engines who have their own version of Adwords. Sometimes you can get more bang for your buck on these.
6. I truly believe that the combo of e-mail blasts, great website, and blogging will be enhanced by Adwords advertising. If this approach to marketing is not in your immediate pile for your future, you may miss the boat.
7. The reason Adwords is so cheap is because only a small percent of the business world has discovered it. The reason Google stock is so expensive is because smart folks know that when the other 95% figure out how to use it, the bidding war will push the cost much higher. NOW IS THE TIME.

Support Your Blogman

I found an article on line the other day that said a ranking of #100,000th or less on Amazon.com meant your book was doing Ok. Your publisher would be pleased. Obviously, a ranking of #1 or #99 or #5000 would be better than 99,890, but I'm trying to be realistic.

Up until now, my ranking for Running A 21st Century Small Business has been around #100,000 most week days. I had one day at around #5600, but one Sunday I was #246,325. Overall, I'd say my publisher would be on the fence about the success of the book.

Now, I figure there are 70,000 distributor sales people. If you all would just buy one each, my numbers would start to climb. And, if you believe my press, and the reviews, its a really good book. (My Mom thinks so too.) (Don't ask my Wife.)

To really turn this into a major hit, you could use it as a motivator for your clients. You could give them away to your business clients. Even better, you could sell your b2b clients on using the book as a specialty item, with their name on the cover.

So. Help me out here. My oldest son is almost 17. The college bills are coming up soon. His auto insurance is $4000 a year. I could use some sales. (Buying bottles helps, too, but that's for another post.)

Click right here to buy the book. E-mail me at Randy@Californiasprings.com to discuss using the book as a self promo or as a promotional.

Use Your Celebrity to Build VIRTUAL CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIPS

During the course of a conversation with one of my customers discussing the ways to reach customers in the current climate, we coined the word Virtual Customer Relationship.

As a sales professional, you are only able to manage about 200 accounts. Of those you might have 20 "A" accounts, 50 "B" accounts, and 130 that send you a fig now and again. What if you were able to magically double that number or even end up with 100 "A" accounts and 1000 others. I'm betting a bunch of my time and effort that it can be done.

You see, it is impossible for the supplier in the Promotional Products Industry to know 60,000 sales people. It is even impossible for suppliers to "know" all 17,000 distributors. It would take 50 Customer service people on staff for us to know half of the distributors and a fraction of the sale forces of those distributors.

It's a bit like that in your neighborhood. I'm guessing that there are at least 10,000 potential clients within easy driving distance of your office. Moreover, there is really no territory by geographical boundary in this business anymore. I talk to distributor sales people all the time who have clients throughout the USA and even some in foreign countries.

How can you get to "know" 1000 or more customers? The key to this is a slightly different question. How can you "be known" by 1000 or more customers?

When I was in the bicycle business, doing those books and trade show seminars, I would be walking back to my booth at the show, when perfect strangers would wave at me. They knew me through my "minor celebrity." They hopefully also respected me for my position and/or my knowledge. If that respect could turn into orders, the job was complete.

I believe you can do this through blogging, e-mail newsletter, seminars, and other such almost free marketing. Here are the steps:

1. Get busy doing good work in the community that you hope to sell. That community might be a city, a region, a hobby, a profession, a non-profit, an industry, etc. Take jobs, get elected to office, seek the presidency.

2. Establish some communication form (blogs, e-mail, etc.) where you are invited by your customer base to visit them weekly or more frequently by a "free means." These contacts must be exciting, informative, useful, or mention the name of the client once in a while. (Sorry about that last one, but it is true.)

3. Build your reputation. It might take 6 months. It might take 3 years. It shouldn't take much more than that. Seek speaking opportunities at service club breakfasts or lunches. Set up events that will help the cause (and yours.) Send out PR releases in trades and local papers.

4. Develop an expertise in some aspect of what you do. Two or three expertises would be even better. Learn everything there is to know on the subject. Use this information to write articles or do interviews in trade rags or in local papers.

5. Potentially, aggregate articles you write into a book (at least 120 pages.) Get a publisher if possible. If not, self publish. Sell the book or give it away when you speak. Get book stores in your area to carry the book (on consignment, if necessary.) Offer the book on your blog or website. Try to get others to offer the book.

6. Now, when you write or call, you are "known." Some folks will call you or send orders through your website because they know you. When you send out a mass mailing, faxing, e-mail, or product sampling, your picture should be part of the headline.

7. Don't let this stuff go to your head. Keep it in perspective. Remember how easy it was to do. Your success has less to do with your skill than with the fact that 999 out of 1000 never tried it.