January 2007

Jump-Start Sales in 2007

Six tested ways to drum up more sales contacts and strengthen your existing customer relationships.

Edited By Nicole Rollender

To kick off the new year, we asked some distributors and suppliers for their best tips on where and how to find new prospects, and how to make the customer relationships you already have even stronger. Read on to see what they have to say.

Focus on the Relationship
After 17 years of selling in the promotional products industry, I’d say that the most important aspect of getting an
order is how you build a relationship with your prospects and customers. More important than the product, its features and benefits, marketing, and packaging is the relationship you develop with your buyer.

The Rockefeller Institute a few years ago stated that 59% of all sales were lost because the buyer no longer felt he was important to the provider. Have you ever been on an account call where you’ve gotten past the gatekeeper, and gone directly to the buyer? You’re ready to make the pitch of a lifetime, and the prospect shoots you down before you can.

“Well, I only buy from John P. Coldwater,” he says to you. Translation: “I have a relationship with John, not you. I like him; I don’t need you. He takes care of me; not you.” Now, John’s a guy who has a relationship with his buyer.

Here are four ways to build strong relationships with your customers:

1. Establish credibility early. Do what you say, and do it when you say you’re going to do it. No one likes
   being disappointed.
2. Be an advocate for your buyer. Pitch in even when you don’t have to, even if it means no immediate financial gains for you.
3. Find common ground. Look for something outside of work that you have in common with your buyer. This gives you the ability to talk more personally with your client.
4. Be proactive. Never wait for a buyer to come to you. Always go to the buyer, and she eventually will start to rely on you as part of her team and inner circle.

Finesse Large Accounts
During my past 15 years in the print and promotional products industry, I’ve learned a lot about managing and calling on large accounts. I’ve discovered that three of the most important aspects of successfully working with such accounts are communication, competition and comfort.

1. Communication is the most important aspect of handling large accounts. From receiving orders electronically to invoicing different departments and budgets, communication is vital. Most companies in our industry don’t handle this type of communication with large accounts very well. We also need the ability to communicate, via reports, exactly what’s happening with our customers’ business – large accounts have come to expect this.
2. While large accounts can be very competitive, it’s important to remember that they’re just like any account. When you provide the right value to the customer, she’ll buy. Please note that in many instances the right value has nothing to do with the product or the price. Sometimes, the right value is about how quickly you handled a problem or how efficient you are in processing orders.
3. Large accounts need to be comfortable working with you because the risks are greater for three major reasons:
   • Decision makers want to look good and are fearful of making the wrong choice.
   • One wrong choice can lead to a significant dollar loss.
   • Sometimes a wrong choice creates so much work to fix that they’re fearful to risk change.

Offer Brand-Name Apparel
There’s a lot of competition out there vying for end-users’ attention. After trying age-old methods such as phone calls and cold calling, why can’t you get in the door to make your sales presentation? The end-user has so many choices with many distributors showing the same product. Therefore, you’ve got to give them a reason to want to see you, not “just another distributor.”

Try this: The end-user will want to see you when you tell her that you’ll bring in retail brand-name products. Sounds easy, right? Actually, it’s got more power than you realize.

The retail brand’s power is recognition on the end-user’s part. When a supplier uses a retail brand for co-branding purposes, it brings more creditability to the supplier that’s using the retail brand. So, as a distributor, if you’ve got a retail brand, which speaks of quality and image, to show your clients, it may be easier for you to get some face time.

Remember these two things:

1. A retail brand helps eliminate barriers to getting in the door. It doesn’t matter if you’re a small or large distributor–with a retail brand, you’re all on the same playing field.
2. Public awareness of a retail brand works in your favor. For example, end-users will see brands on national television for TV interviews, football games and regular commercials. This channel of awareness flows smoothly through the purchasing system.
   Brand names add value to a product, so capitalize on that.

Find the Right Customers
Take care of your customers and they’ll recommend you to others. Not only that, but their references will lead you to the right customers.

They’re the ones who have the same values as you and your company. They look at partnership in the same way. The right customers aren’t just price driven. They appreciate your availability, the ease of process you provide or whatever makes your business model unique. When you limit your search to the right customers, you’re knocking out a whole rank of competitors. Everyone can quote a price, but hard selling is outdated. What you want to be is a solutions provider. When you’re talking to the right customers, you don’t have to sell by price.
The best way to find the right customers is through a happy customer. Once you’re in a client’s zone of affection, she’ll go out of her way to introduce you to others. We have customers who bring other distributors to our booth at trade shows. That’s an incredible moment. You feel personal satisfaction and not only that, it’s convenient because the customer is qualified right then and there.

Using prior relationships starts a domino effect that travels right up the supply chain or into other departments of a client’s company. To get the ball rolling you usually have to ask for the referral. Don’t be afraid. Making the request is a way of testing the business relationship. You’re about to find out how well you’ve done.

Our survey and referral tool is a great way that we gauge a client’s readiness to make a referral – and then to get one. It’s one of our free online marketing tools. You can build your own survey by writing custom questions and including pre-made sections that solicit performance ratings and future event information. If the performance rating comes back high enough, a referral box automatically pops up.

There’s no better advocate than the person you impressed with your service, so strike while the iron is hot. If you know you’ve gone above and beyond, don’t be afraid to send the customer survey or come out and ask, “Do you know anyone else who could use something like this?”