It’s April 2019 and the Endgame is upon us.
The closer we get to the April 26th release date of Marvel’s Avengers Endgame, the more excited I get. After ten years of films, the serialized super-hero story known as The Infinity Saga comes to an epic conclusion in the 22nd movie in the series. Sure to be the BIGGEST film of this year, we’ll see Iron Man, Thor, The Incredible Hulk, Black Widow, Doctor Strange, Captain America, the Amazing Spider-Man, the Guardians of the Galaxy, Ant-Man and the Wasp, the Winter Soldier, the Black Panther and many others band together to definitively beat Thanos and put things right with the Finger-Snapped Universe.
The ad campaign for Avengers Endgame has been featuring the tagline “Whatever It Takes” as their level of commitment to get this overwhelming job done. And, as I like to view everything through my Promotional Products industry filter and ask ‘How does that apply to me and my work for my branded merchandise clients?’ And I found that I’ve taken that WHATEVER IT TAKES catchphrase to heart over my long career and indeed do ‘whatever it takes’ to be successful.
The top salespeople in our industry all embody this ‘whatever it takes’ attitude and my question for you quite obviously is… do YOU do whatever it takes to make sure your clients' advertising, recognition and communication goals are met? You may think you do… but take an honest assessment of how you communicate and what you do before you answer this critical question.
Here are a few of my own ‘Whatever It Takes’ examples:
- Most recently, one of my HALO sales people got an appointment with a Fortune 500 food and beverage chain. She was thrilled and excited at first… but then started feeling a little intimidated. She asked me if I’d join her on her first presentation in which she’d discuss the core values she brings to her promotional relationships and I would talk about the big picture HALO stuff. Just knowing I was there by her side was enough to give her the ultimate confidence to do a superb job on this meeting, which teed us up to present solutions in a presentation to their entire marketing and finance teams. Well, that important second meeting was scheduled for December 26th, the day after Christmas. We were to drive to downtown Los Angeles to meet with their 6 department heads for a three-hour meeting. Nobody would be thrilled at the prospect of a three-hour meeting with two or more hours of driving on the day after the biggest holiday of the year – except that WE were. We wouldn’t dream of saying, “Hey, can we schedule this meeting after the 1st of January? I have family in from out of town.” Many would request that… but NOT if your mantra is WHATEVER IT TAKES. We told them we will be there, ready to present our solutions. And we were. And we did. And this week my Account Exec booked two opening orders totaling $150,000 from a new client. Whatever It Takes.
- One year near Halloween, our client the Los Angeles Times was hosting a brunch for several hundred orphans on-site at their building and they’d ordered 300 Halloween masks with their logo for these children. The event was Halloween morning, October 31st and they called our offices at 4:00 PM on October 30th… the masks hadn’t arrived. They were coming from back East and the factory was closed, there was no way to figure out what happened until the next day, the day of the event. I gave it some thought for about four seconds and then was running toward my car, setting up a task force in the office of loyal staffers who were calling Halloween and Costume shops around Los Angeles, trying to find someone who had 300 children’s masks that I could purchase. I was on my cell phone as they uncovered different shops and fed me addresses. I drove from Woodland Hills to Hollywood to Los Angeles and finally up to Pasadena, to a small costume shop that told us over the phone they had some reject masks up in their attic and there were about 300 in this box. I could have it for $75 bucks. Do you have any idea what every costume shop in America is like on October 30th each year? It’s their busiest night of the year. This particular shop had hired security to keep order as there was a line outside the door that wrapped around the building of last-minute costume shoppers. I was told to bypass the line and walk up to the front door and ask for Pete. When I did so, I was heckled and screamed at by the unruly mob, but I got right in, we went up to the attic and that old box of onesie-twosie masks of Tweety and Mutant Ninja Turtles and The Bionic Woman was the PERFECT solution for our Orphans. I had a messenger deliver them to the Times at 7:00 AM Halloween morning and while they didn’t have a logo, those children had masks and the client was impressed with us. Whatever It Takes.
- Another emergency occurred when we were supplying lanyards for a Breast Cancer walk in Santa Barbara on a Saturday morning and – sure enough – the office phone rang at 5:15 PM on Friday evening. It was the salesperson, calling frantic from the event site. The lanyard had NEVER arrived and they were not only to be used for name tags, but they were also holding all the runner numbers! They were essential and they were MIA. At 5:15 PM on a Friday afternoon, almost everyone would say ‘I’m so sorry, I won’t be able to find out what happened until next week and everyone is close now. I wish I could help!’ But not when your mantra is WHATEVER IT TAKES. We jumped on SAGE, sourced lanyard suppliers in Los Angeles and began dialing. We got out of office recordings, so I began hitting random extensions and after several tries, I got a gal in Accounting at a supplier in Riverside. She told me to call back on Monday and that is when I gave her the unique opportunity to be a SUPERHERO (like in Avengers Endgame). I told her that I needed her to go to her warehouse, put two cases of blank lanyards in her car and that I was coming to her house that evening to pick them up. I’m not sure if it was the desperation in my voice or simply my charming ways, but she agreed to do just that… if I arrived before 9:00 PM when her children were put to bed. I had to drive across Los Angeles to her home near Anaheim in Friday rush hour traffic… but I made it there at 8:45 PM. I got back home with the lanyards (which she gave me without even a purchase order!) at 11:00 PM and arranged to have a messenger come to my house at 3:00 AM to pick them up and drive them to Santa Barbara by 5:00 AM so they’d be there for 6:00 AM set up of the breast cancer walk. Again, even though they didn’t have a logo, the client was STUNNED that we got them lanyards and we did promo for that walk for many years thereafter. Whatever It Takes.
So, when you are faced with an impossible task by your desperate customer before you tell them there is no hope, that you can’t help… think about what Iron Man would do. Then put on your armor and go to work. Because… Whatever It Takes.
Rick Greene, MAS, is the Western Regional Vice President for Halo Branded Solutions, a Past President of SAAC, on the PPB Editorial Advisory Board 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 movie character actor Henry Brandon called “Henry Brandon King Of The Bogeymen” published by BearManor Media and available everywhere fine books are sold.