As a business coach, I specialize in helping people in promotional products sales, especially newcomers, quickly and easily grow their sales. These are three big mistakes I see promotional products sales professionals making and how to avoid them.
Mistake #1: Not Qualifying Prospects
Many years ago, when I first started selling promotional products, I thought everyone was a good prospect for me. Consequently, I wasted a lot of time and energy on the wrong prospects: those people who were only looking for the lowest price, or worse, didn't have the ability or authority to order. After awhile, I learned to quickly qualify my prospects, and my business greatly increased. How can you identify good prospects? One solution is to qualify them with questions, such as:
- Do they have an immediate need such a special event, product launch or trade show coming up?
- Do they have a special challenge you can solve using a promotional product?
- Do they have a marketing budget?
- Are they part of the decision-making process?
- Do they have the ability to give you ongoing business or referrals?
- Do they value your time and input or are they only concerned with finding the lowest price?
Dedicate your time to the prospects that meet your criteria, and if they don't, move along. Save your time and effort for your best prospects.
Take Action: What are the key characteristics of your ideal prospects? Write a list of questions that will help you identify them and quickly disqualify those that don’t meet your criteria.
Mistake 2: Not Targeting Specific Industries and Clients
You can’t be all things to all people but you can be a star in your target markets. Specialists earn more than generalists, across the board, and consistently attract more business. People like to do business with experts. Being a specialist will make it easier. When deciding on your specialty, look for industries or trends that are growing or top buyers of promotional products. Don’t worry about narrowing your choices; you can do business outside of your niche market (and you can have multiple niches) your niche is where you will concentrate the majority of your marketing efforts. Not sure about your perfect niche?
Make your choice by:
- The industries you target
- The problems you solve
- The products you most enjoy selling
- The demographic you serve
- The top industry niches
- The special services you provide
Take Action: Once you’ve decided on a niche, actively reach out to your most desired prospects with a creative mailing that shows how you can help them. Additionally, reach out to those professionals who are not direct competitors, but who come in contact with people in your niche on a regular basis. See how you can work together for mutual benefit.
Mistake #3: Not Focusing on Their Needs
Once you’ve discovered your perfect niche or target market, you’ll want to have an understanding of the challenges companies in your markets typically face. This will go a long way in establishing your expertise and increasing your promotional products sales. Google, LinkedIn and your prospect’s website have made it easy to research and understand their needs. It’s also important to ask powerful questions on all your sales calls to fill in the gaps of what you do not know. The more you know, the better you can sell and meet your niche market’s needs. Here are some things you’ll want to know:
- What are their biggest challenges?
- Who are their clients?
- What products or services do they sell?
- What have you read or heard about them?
- What special events or product launches are coming up?
- What departments typically purchase promotional items?
- What does your prospect value and expect from a promotional products sales professional?
Take Action: Make a research folder for each of your top prospects and clients and fill in the important information.
Avoid these three mistakes and watch your sales soar!
Rosalie Marcus, The Promo Biz Coach, is a promotional products business expert, sales strategy coach and top-rated speaker. Combining her skills and years of experience she helps her clients sell more at higher profit margins and quickly and easily grow their sales. Get a free special report 10 Proven Ways to Thrive in Promotional Products Sales at www.PromoBizCoach.com Reach her at Rosalie@promobizcoach.com