Last month, one of our fearless leader Bill Petrie’s PromoJournal posts was entitled ‘Don Draper Sales Tactics’ and it dealt with those timeless yet effective sales approaches that the ‘old timer’ sales professionals from the 1960’s utilized to succeed. It was filled with Retro Ideas that seem to have faded into the mists of time but are well worth revisiting and embracing to fuel success.
It was a superb list that served to remind us – most especially the under-30 account executives – about some of the classic approaches to landing clients and building relationships that Don Draper and his fictional Ad Men of ‘Mad Men’ used but seem to have gone extinct in this electronic age. One of these techniques in particular really resonated with me and reminded me of the quaint days-gone-by approach of making sales calls. Actual sales calls with your body. It was Number Two on his list and it read:
SEE THE PEOPLE
The text for this point read, “There is no better way to make an emotional connection (with your client) than in person. It’s not quite as easy to do today as it was in 1962, but if you make it a priority, you set yourself apart from your competition that are all too eager to hide behind the comfort of a desk.” Or, I would add, of their computer or laptop or i-phone.
I started in the promotional products industry in 1982 when it was called advertising specialties. To many, those days might be looked back upon as prehistoric. I remember working at the W. W. Cribbins Company in Woodland Hills for the great Preshia Humecke and the day we got our first fax machine. We didn’t know exactly what it was, but we plugged it in and stood around staring at it, bemused and confused. After about ten minutes everyone went back to their desks… until a few hours later when the first slow chugging fax noisily came in and we ran from all corners of the office to watch as this little piece of white paper curled out of the bottom, snipped off and fell onto the floor… and we all said, “OOOOOooo!! AAAhhhhhh!”
Those of us at Cribbins who ran to watch that first fax come through were all on the internal staff. There weren’t any sales people who came running BECAUSE THEY WERE ALL OUT OF THE OFFICE MAKING SALES CALLS.
Because that is what you did in 1982. And 1987. And 1992.
If there WAS a salesperson in the office, it was expressly to write up an order or get some samples or put together a quote before heading back out again TO MAKE MORE SALES CALLS. If they were in the office and not doing those things, we would ask them if they were sick. Or if something was terribly terribly wrong. Because salespeople were expected to make sales calls – in person, on the road, driving their cars, making cold calls by walking right in the front door and selling branded merchandise to people who didn’t know them. Sounds scary, doesn’t it?
But that is how we learned to sell, how we began client relationships, how we made a living. There were no computers, no cell phones, no texting, no virtual this or electronic that. However, we did have a fax machine.
Now it’s December 2018, almost 2019 and I’d like to suggest that you embrace the credo SEE THE PEOPLE this month. One reason is that your competitors aren’t doing that and you ALWAYS want to do what everyone else ISN’T doing to stand apart and BE MEMORABLE. Your competitors go into their office every day, all day. They sit at their desks and they tweet and they Instagram and they e-blast and they text. They don’t make many phone calls and they certainly don’t get into their cars to make sales calls like in ‘Death Of A Salesman.’
Don’t send your client holiday gifts… drive them out, see your contacts, give them a warm handshake or a holiday hug, say thanks for their business WHILE LOOKING INTO THEIR EYEBALLS (most people have two of them) and telling them how important partnering with them to promote their brand is to you.
And this is the other reason to do this. To enhance and solidify your relationship. Because your competition is sending your contact tweets and emails and Instagram links but YOU ARE THERE. Looking at them and saying thank you. Asking them if there is anything on their desk, right now at this very moment, that you can help them with? Reminding them you are soon attending our 2019 industry trade shows, what can you keep an eye out for on their promotional behalf? You can’t get lost and ignored in the barrage of electronic communications if you are standing in front of them and smiling.
How many customers do you have that you’ve never met in person? Fix that. Each year I do a big End User Show for our SoCal customers called HALOPALOOZA. We have nearly 500 clients attend and we have technology that notifies our salespeople when their clients arrive at the front check-in desk. I can’t tell you how many times one of my salespeople comes up to me, grateful for that notification because they don’t know what their client looks like! I shake my head and think, ‘that’s 2018 for you!’ but it doesn’t have to be that way and shouldn’t be that way. Not if you get in your car, drive out and say thanks to your customer base this holiday month.
Wishing you all a warm and wonderful holiday season and remember – Be Bold, Be Different and, like the man says, Be Memorable! Catch you in 2019!
Rick Greene, MAS, is the Western Regional Vice President for Halo Branded Solutions, a Past President of SAAC, and the author of two fantasy novels entitled “Boofalo!” and “Shroom!” available at www.amazon.com. His third book is a non-fiction biography of character actor Henry Brandon called “Henry Brandon King Of The Bogeymen” published by BearManor Media and is now available everywhere fine books are sold.