Want to Make the Sale? Bring the Kid.

A couple of months ago, I was charged with the task of selling a few Chick-Fil-A calendars for my daughter’s band. Not an unusual parent assignment or a seemingly difficult one, especially for such a keen marketer as myself.

I knocked on the doors of the other companies in my office building – extolling the benefits of the calendars, including their clever illustrations and money-saving coupons. The reception to my sales pitch was rather tepid, however, and one guy even spent five minutes looking through all 12 months and laughing at the pictures only to say, “Naw, I don’t think so.”

Why couldn’t I close the deal? You can get most of your money back after using just one coupon, for crying out loud. I gave the unsold calendars back to my wife in disgrace and hadn’t really thought about them until this week. One afternoon, one of the guys in my building knocked on my door. He came in with his tween daughter carrying a box of those $1 candy bars, and for extra good measure, his wife came too.

Are you kidding? The family? How do you say no to Hannah Montana? I bought three candy bars that day and was reminded of an important sales truth.

To make the sale, you have to make it really hard to say no. And just in case it is inconvenient to drag your children on sales calls, use something equally as powerful. A clear benefit. A strong value. An advantage over the competition. A promise of over-the-top customer service.

In today’s economy, there is no time to be subtle. You just need to be direct and powerful – like a child with a box of candy bars.

P.S. I still have a few calendars left if you want one. Seriously.

Looking Out for No. 1?

The pre-holiday, new business window was quickly closing and a slow few weeks were on the horizon. At least that’s what Jeanne Alexander thought. The owner of Advertising Specialties & Art Unlimited saw that her calendar was far less crowded than usual and decided that she had a couple choices as how to spend her pre-Christmas work time.

The first option was to just pack it in and wait for the new year. And given the overall economic climate both here and elsewhere, I bet there would have been a less-than-festive mix of worry, self-doubt and apprehension involved.

Option two, she said, would be to step back, take the focus off herself and see what she could do to help the business people she knows through her extensive network of contacts -- a network I watch her carefully and skillfully nurture throughout the year.

Not surprisingly to anyone who knows her (or senses that this topic would have far less impact otherwise), Jeanne decided to make calls, connect people she thought might benefit from each other and execute her own economic stimulus plan the old-fashioned way. And she did it simply because she thought it was the right thing to do.

That’s it. In the face of economic upheaval, Jeanne remembered that being successful in business is about more than bolstering your own bottom line – it is about serving others when possible to build a community of success that benefits everybody. Putting others before yourself. Not a bad concept to hang your hat on.

The funny thing is that those three weeks Jeanne was looking forward to spending in relative calm turned out to be slammed with business. Her business. She never ended up with a break at all.

Jeanne shared this story with our Chamber Leads Group last week to encourage us in networking and generating referrals for each other. She inspired us, and I hope it inspires you.

Learn more about what Jeanne does at www.AdSpec-Art.com.