PROSPECTING

Hi again. In my last article I discussed how important it is to know your strengths and choose a position on the field that will allow you to play at your best. If you missed that post, you can click HERE to jump back and read it. Are you ready to start playing the game? If so, what role is best suited for you?

For the sake of today’s post we’re assuming the role of the promotional products distributor sales person. Suppliers, ops, and others. Hang tight. I’ve got something for you coming in a later post.

There are a couple of ways to enter this industry as a distributor salesperson. I’m guessing if you’re just starting out you may not realize just how different someone else’s role might look from yours, even if they are playing the same position on the team. However, whether you are a solo entrepreneur or a salesperson that operates as part of a larger team, your mission is the same. In essence, the distributor salesperson’s role is to find clients, build relationships. Find problems and create solutions. Make sales. Rinse and repeat.

So where do you find clients?

A number of years ago there was a post in the promotional products professionals group on Facebook that brought up the idea of prospecting. The question of “How do you find clients” was posed and the answers ranged everywhere from, “I go door to door in strip malls” and “I call the numbers I see on the sides of vehicles” to “I buy lists” and “I go to local networking meetings.”

The answer I gave then is the answer that I would still give now. None of these answers are inherently wrong, but they may not be right for the goal you are trying to achieve.

You see, if you play small, you stay small. And staying small is ok, by the way. It’s not everyone’s goal is to be a top salesperson. This industry allows you to make a more than decent living part-time while going to school, caring for kids or aging parents, or enjoying a semi-retired lifestyle. There is no shame at all in the part-time game. If you’re a part-timer and get down on yourself for not having the extra time to give or just aren’t hitting the numbers you see others hitting, you may need to read that again. Not sure why I feel that necessary to say, but I do. There is just as much honor in part-time, casual work as there is being full-time and landing major accounts. How you define success is and will always be unique to you regardless of what other people think. Never forget that. I will say, though, that regardless of your financial and time goals in this industry, there are far more efficient ways to do things than some of the suggestions offered. So, no matter where you are in your journey, applying these tips will help maximize your minutes to get more out of whatever you are able to put in.

You ready? Let’s go!

First up on our to do list - find customers

This is where so many go astray without even knowing it. We take on any client we can get without thinking about how this client fits into our vision. When you set out to fish for clients, remember: You’re going to catch fish in the pond where you’re casting your net. Saltwater, fresh water. Small fish, big fish. Before you set out the bait, know what’s in the area, and if that water isn’t filled with what you want to take home, find another pond to fish in.

This concept really hit home to me when I had started out on my own as a distributor and was discussing my frustrations with an industry colleague who asked, “How’s business?” during an event. She asked questions about where I was prospecting and what challenges I was encountering. What she said to me that day was, “You can chase rabbits or you can chase elephants. The amount of work is the same, but the payoff is much different.”

One sentence changed my whole outlook. The smaller clients I was meeting at Chamber meetings and networking groups wanted discounts, and either had bad artwork or no artwork at all. Despite wanting to help them build their brand and their business, nothing I was ever going to do was going to help them and I was running myself ragged, starving my business in the meantime. I realized I’d never met a CEO or a director of marketing for a larger company in these meetings. Most of these individuals were real estate agents, extremely small business owners (candle shops, boutiques, etc.), home health care organizations, accountants, or multi-level marketers. Each meeting was taking 3 precious hours out of my day between drive time and the meeting itself and I was going once a week between the different organizations. That’s 12 - 15 hours per month.

That moment I admitted that the person I had worked for previously didn’t have it all wrong and created an outreach plan to get my message, services, and products in front of the people who I really wanted to do business with.

What are the steps you need to take to do this?

1. Make a list of 50 companies that you would love to do business with and why. Is there a particular industry that you know a lot about or are interested in? You’re going to wake up everyday and work with these people so make sure the companies you choose have values that match up with yours and speak your language.

   Most people don’t know that I was an IT major in college. So tech was my thing. However I had history working with healthcare during my tenure with the old company so I had some healthcare as well. I could speak to these individuals with confidence and that helped them trust me more quickly because they knew I understood their needs. This is imperative!

2. Learn who’s who and create a family tree within these organizations. Which departments order merch and who are the key people you get to know. You can do this by purchasing a list, you can research on websites, or my personal favorite - social media. You don’t have to always be posting. Social media is for listening and learning more than sharing. LinkedIn is about to become your new best friend.

3. Do your homework - Who do these companies compete against? What stories are their competitors telling? What merch are their competitors using and how is it being distributed? And for your prospect/clients - What story are they telling, how is it different from their competitor (and if it’s not you can help them change that!), what merch are they currently using, how are they distributing it, what kind of return are they getting from it, and a big important piece of the puzzle - Are they happy with the results? If not, what kind of ROI would they like to see?

   Why is all of this important? Building a solution and stealing a client’s heart begins with having an understanding of where they want to end up. You can’t take them to that end point if you don’t know where they are and what they are doing now that isn’t working. It also helps to know what their competitors are doing because part of your job is helping them stand out and/or differentiate from their competition. You can’t do that if you are clueless as to who they are and how they are going to market.

4. Get strategic. Before you pick up the phone and call or send a generic LinkedIn message, put yourself in this person’s shoes. They already have 50 emails in their inbox they haven’t been able to return, they’ve got voicemails they don’t want to check from people they don’t want to talk to. Chances are because they are human they’ve also got a husband or wife at home, a list of chores to do once they get there, and maybe a kid that got sent home sick from school, or a dog that ran away because the teenager left the back gate open when taking the trash out. If you were this person, would you want to get an email from you with a lame message about how you want to sell them promotional products? Would you pick up the phone from an unknown number and be happy to hear you on the other end trying to convince them you can change their life with a one-color imprint on a .29 cent pen?

   No.

Get smart about your marketing. Think about the other person and what it would take for you to get excited to buy from you if you were the one sitting at that desk getting a hundred phone calls a week from someone just like you.

In the days of overflowing email inboxes and unchecked voicemails, my answer has been and will forever be the same. USE PROMO TO SELL PROMO. And don’t just buy what’s on sale. You have a targeted list of qualified prospects that you know you want to do business with. Buy these gifts with them in mind. What will they love? What is printed on these products? What can you give them that they’ll be excited to see when they open the box, determined to keep, and thrilled to show off? And how do these products they love also help you tell your unique story? This is important because if you can show up and stand out from your competition using your own medium, immediately they’ll know that you are someone that can help them stand out from theirs.

Want to learn more about picking the perfect self promo for prospecting, trade shows, sales incentives, client thank you gifts and more? Keep your eyes out for next month’s edition of The Right Stuff by Charity Gibson, only at PromoCorner!