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Monday
July 12, 2010 Tip of the Day - Win Back A ClientFiled under: Tip of the Day
From Counselor’s July 2010 issue.
Thursday
July 8, 2010 ESP Pay for Placement: Is it something you should use for your products on ESP?Filed under: Uncategorized Guest blogger and ASI Marketing Manager Jake Krolick dishes on the newest ASI Store addition, ESP Results Screen Advertising, or ”Pay For Placement”.
Interested in learning more about Pay for Placement? Click here.
Wednesday
July 7, 2010 Tip of the Day - Upsell A ClientFiled under: Tip of the Day
How do you encourage your client to buy a higher-priced and better-quality product? For Rachel Rose, field service manager with Regency Office Products (asi/306196), the formula involved slowly presenting options higher up on the price ladder. “I always go with something right at the customer’s budget, something a few dollars above and something significantly above,” she says. “I find that customers are so open to new and creative ideas that if you can bring a significant value to their promotion and create a true campaign for them, the dollar amount is no longer a concern.” Rose was contacted by a company that initially only expressed an interest in a low-end promotional product for its safety promotion. Instead of focusing on just logoed stickers, Rose presented the client’s reps with products for an entire safety program. What had started as 500 logoed stickers wound up being an order including safety cones and hard hats. When Rose first spoke with the client, they announced a budget of $200. But after she successfully (and slowly) convinced her clients of other items, Rose walked away with an order totaling $1,492. The key to that kind of upsell is proving your expertise and clearly explaining the features and benefits of a variety of items. Kathy Richard, sales director for Credeur’s Sports & Specialties (asi/170993), shows her clients that she is well-versed in the industry by offering various items at different price points. “Because our business is so competitive, there will always be someone out there who will lowball your client just to get their foot in the door,” she says. “But if I offer low, mid and high pricing to my customers, it lets them know that I have done my research thoroughly and I’m giving them the best possible choices.” From Counselor’s July 2010 issue.
Tuesday
July 6, 2010 20 Creative ThinkersFiled under: site updates
And we here at ASICentral came up with a creative and interactive way to display them. Presenting the decorated apparel’s 20 Creative Thinkers, online style! Click here to check it out. Enjoy! –ThinkTank
Thursday
July 1, 2010 Tip of Day - 5 Sales Myths DebunkedFiled under: Tip of the Day
1. Myth: Scan the office and comment on a picture, trophy, or find something that aligns you with the buyer. Reality: Many buyers are offended by this and see it as being a “tactic” that is insincere. So much so, that Walmart refuses to allow vendors into the buyers’ offices and forces the conversation to occur in a windowless, artless, non-personal space to avoid any chance of that happening. 2. Myth: People buy from friends. Reality: Buyers buy from people they envision can solve problems within their own organizations. Especially in sales that are heavily technology-based and require purchase of software or hardware that the purchasing organization has not used before, the buyer wants to know that should something go wrong, there is one person that he can call to get it fixed. Zahn had one buyer tell him that he wanted to know that if something went south, he knew which one neck he had to choke to get it right. 3. Myth: Sales were lost because a competitor had a better price. 4. Myth: Buyers are swayed by product features. Reality: Buyers are buying a business answer and not a product. What the buyer is purchasing is a solution to a problem (an opportunity to increase productivity/increase efficiency/reduce turnover, etc.). Sales will often “blame” marketing for the lack of product features, when the reality is that the salesperson has not done a sufficient job of converting the prospect’s business issues into a solution provided by the product or service. No one “buys” a feature. They buy what it provides for them. 5. Myth: Lower price wins.Reality: If all things are equal, sure, a lower price is more attractive. However, the role of the salesperson is to ensure that all things are not equal and that there is value to doing business with him/her/the company that exceeds the “savings” of the lower price.
From Advantages magazine. |
After a big merger and many management shifts, distributor Active Concepts (asi/104857) has lost a major pharmaceutical company as a client. Here are four ways for owner Debbie Honig to win the client back.\
The world is a competitive place. Everyone is trying to get a leg up on everyone else. Just think about your everyday life: At the supermarket it’s good to be in the front of the line as opposed to the back, and it seems that on check-out it becomes a race with your fellow shoppers. I was at a concert last week and had seats in the 25th row. Now, my seats were OK, but I was watching the front rows with envy of their unobstructed sight lines and better overall experience. At the airport, first-class passengers and frequent flyers get the first rows on the plane, plus expedited boarding and check-in. Being ahead of shoppers, concert goers or passengers is not a necessity, but can make your life easier and more enjoyable. However, when it comes to business, being ahead of your competition is a necessity.
When customers call you for ideas on their next apparel promotion, they’re often undecided on exactly what they’re looking for. As a distributor, this gives you the advantage to pitch options across multiple price points. Presenting low-, medium- and high-end choices encourages clients to purchase outside of their professed budgets.
For the July issue of Stitches magazine, Editor Nicole Rollender went in search of the 20 people who are shaking up the decorated apparel market right now with their innovative ideas. From those toying with new decorating techologies to those taking digitizing to a whole new level, Nicole came up with a great list of the industry’s most creative thinkers.
David Zahn, president of ZAHN Consulting LLC, has been training salespeople since 1990. “I have seen both the eagles that soar and the turkeys that sink,” he says. Here he provides his own list of most-common myths, and the truth behind them.