BUSINESS MONITOR
Why bother? The main benefit is that it makes you look like an expert, or at a minimum very well informed. Secondly, youʼll be a regular source of new ideas and marketing people love them. Thirdly, you can work this ad infinitum without it becoming repetitive.
Think outside the box Consider sponsoring a football team.
No, I donʼt mean Manchester United, rather a local under 10s team, possibly one your son or daughter plays for. If you are involved with a team, youʼll have noticed how many parents and grandparents turn up to stand on the sidelines. Some of them will have their own business, quite possibly a sizeable one. Since youʼre actively and financially involved you will get to know the regulars. When they want to buy, why would they go anywhere but the person who shares their enthusiasm? I have been told some very positive stories about this marketing technique from a variety of sectors. Consider recruiting sales agents: commission only, no sales leads, use of a desk and phone perhaps. Superficially, it sounds deeply unappealing. However, there are plenty of retired people who are plain bored, and perhaps rather lonely. Theyʼd like to boost their incomes, too. Some of them will have sales training and experience, perhaps in an allied trade. You need to work out and write down exactly what the deal is, where this person can prospect, what you expect of them. They might be just hunting up opportunities for you to go in and sell to, or they could be doing the whole sale. Whatever you decide on, there are no up-front costs and the potential is a steady flow of new customers. Even a total failure will only cost some phone calls. What about ʻbuyingʼ sales time with a business lunch? Personally, Iʼve never enjoyed selling with a knife and fork in my hands and the food definitely
takes priority over the sale for both parties. It also takes up a lot of time and can get distinctly pricey with no promise of
business, especially if two or three people are involved. Try the low-cost option: instead of taking them for lunch, take lunch to them.
Find a deli with really good quality and choice, get a cool box/bag and, hey presto, lunch is served. Book your selling time for 12-12.30pm and eating thereafter. Iʼve been on the receiving end of this and it works. A nice little side effect to this is that you email the menu to your
www.printwearandpromotion.co.uk
a sale, but with a few more questions, a number of other sales opportunities can be teased out.
The enquiry could relate to shirts for delivery drivers, but that does not prevent you finding out about any exhibitions where they take a stand, the need for safety clothing, any charities they actively support, any new product launches or expansion of premises in the offing.
customer and he emails back his choices. Heʼs already ordering from you at a subliminal level. I would add that this approach demonstrates a high level of personal service, too.
Demonstrate your expertise
A sales discipline that can become a marketing tool is to do a proper fact-find. Itʼs absolutely normal to hear sales trainers and managers criticise the level of questioning by sales people. OK, they are rightly focused on making
Find out this information after youʼve addressed the immediate need. Youʼre asking these questions because you do a thorough and thoroughly professional job. While I recognise that such multiple opportunities wonʼt apply in all cases, where they do, you have a series of sales prompts for months to come. Remember itʼs easier to sell to an existing contact than to a new one.
I referred above to the benefit of demonstrating expertise. I would suggest looking at your client list to see which business sector(s) you have most experience in. Do they have particular needs and issues? I bet they think they do even if you donʼt. Then boast about that expertise to every potential similar client in your catchment area. This is no time to be shy.
This may not be as instantly obvious as you might expect. For instance, you may never have traded with a logistics business, but have provided delivery driversʼ clothing for a number of other
companies. You know the issues, opportunities and problems so use that knowledge as a route into the logistics sector. Take in a show (or more than one).
Visiting an exhibition enables you to meet potential customers: those on the stands and the visitors, like you, in the bar or restaurant. Let me stress that you donʼt sell to people at the show without having a stand. You would be ejected, and rapidly.
But you can meet people of all sorts in one day or half a day. The trade sector that doesnʼt run a show isnʼt much of a trade. So go! If all you get out of it is the show guide, then that is a bonus anyway. If there isnʼt a good range of potential customers listed in it, you are being very picky or you went to the wrong show.
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