In Paul’s last blog, he discussed the critical elements of being a superior distributor salesperson and named the first two Ps of Marketing Plus. Today he will discuss the final two components of marketing. Click here to read part 1 of this piece.
Place: Traditionally, our “Place” has been in our buyers’ offices or maybe a showroom. Today, many buyers prefer the place be on their computer screens. How have you adapted to that shift? How is your “place” defined? How do you set it apart from anything your buyers have ever seen before? Rainforest Cafe took a restaurant and turned it into a jungle adventure experience. Is there a way you can turn your showroom into an experience? Distinguishing yourself with ultra creative open houses, with a trade show experience in a parallel target industry, or with a web experience that makes your clients’ jobs easier are a few ideas of how you can work on your third P and make Place a competitive advantage. Even your visits to your clients can be a Place Experience if you focus on how you can bring positivity, creativity, innovation and smiles into their offices every time you visit.
Promotion: How are you making your clients and prospects aware of the powerful solutions that you offer? You are in the promotion business. Hopefully, you are not just in the products business. As a promotion expert, your work on your own promotion marketing should be communicating constantly that you know what you’re doing. If you can market yourself creatively, your prospects will see what you can do, will recognize how you caught their attention and will want you to do for them what you do for yourself. If you want to sell more trade show traffic-building solutions, put on a trade show or participate in one and show your clients what you’ve got. If you want to sell more direct mail campaigns incorporating creative products, put together a direct mail campaign for your distributorship. If you want to sell loyalty programs, put together a loyalty program to reward your best customers. If you want your clients to have a promotion budget and spend it, have yourself a promotion budget and spend it.
These are the classic four Ps of Marketing. I like to add People, Purpose and Passion for a total of seven. When you get very clear about the first four and engage your People around your vision and give them something more than business, like a Purpose or meaning to their daily efforts, you can inspire a Passion that will drive your business to new levels of success.
