The Pedestal Group

The first time I saw a marketing technique like the one used on me today, I was both disgusted and impressed.  This afternoon in the mail I received a marketing piece with a post it attached saying some person thought I would be interested in the information and signed it with their initials.  The first time this happened to me, I really worked at determining who the “J” was on the post it to make sure I didn’t blow off something that was important to someone I cared about.  Unfortunately for the person who sent it, I checked with my “J” friends first rather than just calling them.  So I was disgusted because it is a lie. If I call this person, they don’t know me and it was a ploy to get me to call.  I’ve known some recruiters who do this in the form of leaving a voice mail “regarding a highly confidential matter” and then it is because they think you will know someone good for a position.  It got the desired result, but now the rest of the call is to prove the recruiter isn’t a slime bucket.

But I was impressed  because it was genius.  If we had even the most tenuous relationship, when I called if the person could say we met somewhere or talked at some point and they truly thought I’d be interested, I’m hooked.  To tell someone they made enough of an impression on you that you remembered them when something came up is a huge ego boost and would definitely get my attention.

So do this the way it was intended.  Go to a networking event and meet people.  Jot down on the back of their business card something they said or something they are interested in.  When you follow up after the event, don’t just send a “great to have met you” email- instead, include in it something that is based on what they discussed; something they would truly be interested in.  If you don’t have it electronically, send it hard copy.  But be sure to put your name on it and have the note say something to reference your conversation so they have a context.  At the end of the day your messages will get noticed and people will think of you as someone who really pays attention.  Meanwhile, I’m not returning this call.  But I’m still impressed.

I’ve had an interesting couple of weeks trying to get a project wrapped up for a client.  We need some things professionally printed.  They aren’t complicated, but we were hoping for around 100-200 pieces and we need to get a proof to my client before he can sign off on doing it.  I used to work in a publications office and that was pretty standard back then – can’t imagine it is so different now.  I contacted a printer I’ve used before and I really like him.  Except after discussing the projects and promising a quote, he’s disappeared off the face of the earth. Can’t get him to answer phone calls or emails. Just gone.  Okay, no big deal, right?

SEVEN printers later, I have two quotes. One came with two sentences of “we’re here in the mornings to talk about this” and the other doesn’t even have any text on the email!  And worse?  One of them sent me a note back the first time around telling me why they couldn’t take on the project (too small of a quantity, etc.).  I had to write back additional questions to get them to consider the job!  Four of the others didn’t return phone calls or emails and the fifth one was very service-oriented, but was three dollars a piece higher than is in the budget. So now I will take my business to the people that at least have some information in their email, but I am left feeling extremely unhappy with the whole experience and will continue looking for a good printer.

Can you imagine your customers feeling like this?  I’ll bet big money the owners of these print shops have no idea this is what I’ve gone through.  I’m confident they are all (most) nice people who care about their businesses.  I am hoping nothing bad happened to the first one!  But, at the end of the day, six printers will lose business because I couldn’t get them to do their jobs.  It has been said before, but obviously could do with repeating:

Respond to people – if you are not going to be in the office, set up an out-of-office message and TEST IT.
Every communication with a customer or prospect is a marketing piece – be sure you represent yourself well at all times.
When sending quotes or contracts, keep in mind this is an email that will be saved so make sure you put some context into the email itself.
Talk about what you CAN do.  Can’t run 100 pieces?  Tell the prospect you can run 250 and 100 is not in their best interest due to the high cost.
Follow up.  Not one single company has followed up on their information. It was left to me to handle.

Don’t make things hard for customers because they won’t do business with you.  Instead, make it easy because service is everything!

Marketing and Sales are clearly different.  In marketing, you get your name out there, make prospects aware of you, and generate leads.  In sales, you close the deals.  But how can the two functions work more closely together?

I love to build marketing messages based on sales objections.  You already know what issues people bring to the table and how to answer it, so do so before they even get there! Leading with those objection-answers gives you a chance to show you do understand your customers and why they should make the call.  These can be done as a series of emails, a series of blog posts, testimonials that give the reader insight into why the customer was skeptical and how you overcame it, or voice mails that are left for prospects.  Here’s an example of how to work this:

I recently met with a client who’s prospects don’t trust them.  There are some unscrupulous people in their industry and they are always fighting an uphill battle to overcome those concerns.  We developed a list of what other companies have done wrong, and used it as our messages.  We did an email marketing series as well as used them in voice mails.  We pointed out that there are some companies who have experienced X.  We don’t do that – we do this.  It was extremely effective and yielded 40% more inbound contacts.

It was tough for this customer to come up with marketing messages in the past, but now that the sales team is giving them objections and answers, the possibilities have really opened up.  Try this technique and then let me know how it goes!