Marketing Masters:
Woo Your Clients
Here are five savvy ways to make your business – and approach to sales – really stand out in the crowd.
Ordinary salespeople might be content with cushy repeat orders of 25,000 pens and 10,000 squeeze balls. Not Keith Wilson, a decidedly unordinary salesperson who really knows how to market himself and his services (he cheekily calls himself the Promogenie and brings his clients "ideas that are out of this world"). For years, he fulfilled these standard orders for a good client, until he said to his buyer, "Guess what? There's a product out there that's far cooler than what you're ordering, and I'm going to find it for you."
So Wilson, an account executive for PromoShop (asi/300446), trolled an industry trade show and came upon a squeeze ball with red glitter inside. "I showed it to my buyer, and she loved it – she said they were like desk ornaments," he says. "She tripled her order that day, and since then, she's reordered 30,000 balls three times."
So, what's the lesson from the guy who was able to upsell 90,000 squeeze balls? He understands how to stand out from the crowd. To help your company reach its moneymaking goals, Stitches offers super-charged marketing secrets we learned from interviewing some of the industry's most successful dealmakers.
Prospect Like A Pro
According to Stitches' latest State of the Industry report, 85% of decorators say referrals are among the three most successful marketing methods for their businesses. "I've gotten all my clients from referrals, and then they give me more referrals," says Josh Ebrahemi, a partner at Jack Nadel International (asi/279600). "I don't cold call. For me, it's just a never-ending referral process."
Getting referrals does require patience, though, since you need to wait until you've established a relationship with a client to ask for one. Indeed, the best referrals come from client relationships that are built over time. "I know her well enough to send her a congratulations card if she quits smoking, or I can ask him to lunch for his birthday," says Mike Beckman, owner of Proforma-BPM (asi/300094). "I could go directly to another potential buyer in that company, but I cultivate one relationship, and then ask for the introduction. That goes a long way in establishing trust."
When Beckman gets a referral, he uses creative mailers to begin wooing his prospect. One example: a themed three-part mailer about fearing change. "I sent my prospects a postcard with a lion's eye on it, and the text, ‘We have our eye on you – to provide your marketing services,' " he says. "Then, we sent a promo item – a cage – with the message, ‘Don't fear change.' Finally, I sent another postcard with a picture of a lion, urging the prospect not to be afraid of the way they market. Then, I made a phone call to discuss how we can help with their marketing efforts."
And, don't forget to court your prospect with self-promos. Wilson is the master of this. When he makes a cold phone call, if the prospect acts like she's not interested, "I say, ‘Wait, I have a box of $75 worth of promotional products with your logo on it to send you,' " he says. "Then, I ask, ‘Are you still not interested?' That gets their attention."
At trade shows, Wilson uses what he calls his "dirty-bomb approach to self-promotion." He chooses five cool items from his garage full of promo products, such as an ergonomic potato/carrot slicer, a BlackBerry cover, a toothbrush holder and a jump rope, to display at the show. "I've got my tagline on everything," he says. "On the jump rope, I put, ‘Remember doing jump rope way back when? The healthy alternative to buying a pen.' On the other side, it says, ‘Promogenie – when ordinary just won't do.' "
After Wilson wows a prospect with his unique array, he arranges to have a box of the same products sent to her office before she returns from the show. "My goal is to have my self-promo stuff all over their house and their office," he says.
Always Be Available
It's not as easy to reach out and touch your clients these days – it used to be that you'd drop in for a face-to-face meeting, pick up the phone or send out a quick e-mail. Now, not so much, with Tweets, texts, instant messages and webcams thrown into the mix.
"Some clients want to talk to you in person," says Paula Gossett, senior promotional consultant for Brown & Bigelow (asi/148500). "Others don't have time for that. They want to send you a three-word e-mail, and expect you to answer them back in three words within five minutes. On your first meeting with a client, ask, ‘So, how do you want me to contact you? Do you prefer e-mail? Tweets or texts?' And then, stick to communicating with them the way they want – get on the client's wavelength."
And, top salespeople really are available to their clients 24/7. "I sleep with my BlackBerry next to me," says Karen Johnson, owner of Avalon Imaging Group, an iPromoteU (asi/232119) affiliate.
Johnson, who has a lot of clients in Europe and the Middle East, needs to be available to buyers during their workdays and literally responds to all e-mails within five minutes, even at 3 a.m. "I call it extreme customer service," says Johnson, who returns up to 300 customer e-mails every 24 hours. "I also use the Smart Text feature on my BlackBerry to send people short messages about what action I'll take in response to their request."
Don't hesitate to enlist a staff member to help stay in touch with clients. Johnson, who also uses Skype and instant messenger to communicate with her overseas clients, works with her personal assistant to send clients updated tracking and shipping info every 72 hours. "If a customer has to call me about their order, I've failed them," she says.
Thank Your Clients
Wilson sends his top clients edible thank-you gifts, like a huge fortune cookie drizzled with caramel and chocolate with a message inside that reads, "Very fortunate to have you as a client."
And, Beckman sends his apparel clients one-off personalized garments with their apparel orders. Case in point: He gave a client a fleece with a laser-engraved back. "She and her boss loved it, and they ordered 75 more," he says.
Would you send your client an iPod Shuffle for ordering a certain dollar amount? That works for John Resnick, owner of Proforma Printing and Promotion (asi/300094). He developed a tier program, where he sends clients edible arrangements, iPods or other brand-name gifts for orders that are $2,500 and above. "This year we've also been sending chocolate or randomly sending lunch for a client's whole office," says Resnick, who's a strong believer in spending money on thank-you efforts to show clients his business is doing OK.
Anita Brooks, owner of Geiger-On The Gulf Coast/ASB Marketing (asi/202900), sends "good client" letters to her top 40 clients in June, thanking them for their business and offering them a free service, a discount on their next order, or a $75 donation to a charity in their name. "About 10 might be redeemed, but all of the recipients like receiving the letter," she says.
Brooks also hand-delivers a desk calendar to each one of her 250 clients in December. On those visits, she asks what events they've got planned in the first quarter of the new year so she can prepare campaign ideas to pitch to them. "We give a gift to everyone, even if they only ordered once that year," she says.
Neal Munn, owner of Rhino Marketing Specialties Inc., a Geiger affiliate (asi/202900), has learned to keep his client's gender in mind when sending them holiday gifts. "One year, I sent my female clients Waterford crystal ornaments, and I didn't get much feedback," he says. "The next year, I gave them highway safety kits. I was getting phone calls raving about the great gift, stuff like, ‘I put the kit in my car right away.' "
NICOLE ROLLENDER is editor of Stitches and director of ASI Education. Contact: nrollender@asicentral.com