It’s actually no “secret” that a successful business is driven by knowledge. Knowledge is power in an increasingly more challenging business environment. My PPAI award-winning FreePromoTips.com industry resource program has been offering relevant business-building information and industry commentary for years.
We love sharing content from others. When I was doing education sessions at industry events around the country, I got to know David Blaise, who has created the Top Secrets of Promotional Products Sales that has helped thousands be more successful in our industry. His website offers a variety of content you can use to effectively grow your business.
Blaise will be regularly sharing his proven effective success strategies with the FreePromoTips audience. Here are his thoughts on ”Mindless Drones Selling Promos”:
In a recent teleconference with my SmartEQP and Inner Circle Members, we discussed strategies for growing sales and profits, how to avoid distractions and increase productivity and how to use technology to leverage communication and add clients. Part of what we covered was differentiation.
This topic was raised recently during one of my live training sessions at a major industry trade show. I was talking about the importance of differentiating ourselves from our competitors, when an attendee stated that it was “practically impossible” for any promotional products representative to differentiate himself or herself from the competition, since we all sell the same products.
Well wrong, double-wrong and triple-wrong!
If you can’t differentiate yourself from many of the mindless drones selling promotional products in our industry today, then what’s the point of getting up and going to work at all?
Don’t get me wrong, there are lots of focused, highly qualified, professional people in our industry, and I am happy and gratified that many of them are my clients. But there are also a lot of untrained, unskilled drones, quacks, hacks, sidlers, hobbyists, product peddlers and bottom feeders that alienate prospective clients, sell price instead of value and generally give our industry a black eye.
There, I’ve gone ahead and said it in print. But seriously, differentiation has nothing to do with selling the same products and everything to do with the way we sell them.
Sure, many people have access to the same products we do, fortunately, that means nothing!
Consider this: In medicine, hack doctors may have access to the same education, drugs and surgical tools as the most gifted surgeon. But that doesn’t put the hacks on equal footing, does it?
In legal circles, quack lawyers may have access to the same books and case law as master litigators. But that doesn’t make the quacks worth any more or the master litigators worth any less.
It is EXACTLY the same in our profession. We are not defined by our products …
We are defined by the way we prescribe and use those products to address the promotional needs, wants, desires and concerns of our clients.
We are defined by the way we use email, telephone, social media and industry research tools to create and present effective solutions to our client’s most pressing issues.
We are defined by our knowledge, our professionalism and our response to questions and problems that our clients want solved!
Let’s Face It, There are mindless drones, quacks and hacks in every industry, including our own … but they should never be permitted to define the market or diminish the value of the work done by true promotional products professionals.
That must be our focus … providing promotional solutions for our clients and behaving in a manner that is consistent with true industry professionals.
Many people in our industry want to do well. They want to attract more clients, make intelligent, targeted product recommendations, establish long-term profitable relationships and interact with other motivated, success-minded individuals. If that describes you, you should do the things it takes to make that happen.
If that doesn’t describe you—you’ve wasted your time reading this! If that’s the case, you should forget everything you’ve just read, x out of this window and just keep hacking!
You can learn more about the Top Secrets of the Promotional Products Industry here.
My goal in sharing relevant business building content like this is to do what I can to raise the bar in our industry. We really don’t need more mindless drones out there attempting to sell promotional products.
Jeff Solomon, MAS, is affiliated with a top-10 distributor company and also publishes the PPAI award-winning industry resource SmartEQP and Inner Circle Members, we discussed strategies for growing sales and profits, how to avoid distractions and increase productivity and how to use technology to leverage communication and add clients. Part of what we covered was differentiation.
This topic was raised recently during one of my live training sessions at a major industry trade show. I was talking about the importance of differentiating ourselves from our competitors, when an attendee stated that it was “practically impossible” for any promotional products representative to differentiate himself or herself from the competition, since we all sell the same products.
Well, wrong, double wrong and triple wrong! If you can’t differentiate yourself from many of the mindless drones selling promotional products in our industry today, then what’s the point of getting up and going to work at all?
Don’t get me wrong, there are lots of focused, highly qualified, professional people in our industry, and I am happy and gratified that many of them are my clients. But there are also a lot of untrained, unskilled drones, quacks, hacks, sidlers, hobbyists, product peddlers and bottom feeders that alienate prospective clients, sell price instead of value and generally give our industry a black eye.
There, I’ve gone ahead and said it in print. But seriously, differentiation has nothing to do with selling the same products and everything to do with the way we sell them.
Sure, many people have access to the same products we do. Fortunately, that means nothing!
Consider this: In medicine, hack doctors may have access to the same education, drugs and surgical tools as the most gifted surgeon, but that doesn’t put the hacks on equal footing, does it?
In legal circles, quack lawyers may have access to the same books and case law as master litigators, but that doesn’t make the quacks worth any more or the master litigators worth any less.
It is exactly the same in our profession. We are not defined by our products.
We are defined by the way we prescribe and use those products to address the promotional needs, wants, desires and concerns of our clients.
We are defined by the way we use email, telephone, social media and industry research tools to create and present effective solutions to our client’s most pressing issues.
We are defined by our knowledge, our professionalism and our response to questions and problems that our clients want solved!
Let’s face it, There are mindless drones, quacks and hacks in every industry, including our own, but they should never be permitted to define the market or diminish the value of the work done by true promotional products professionals. That must be our focus—providing promotional solutions for our clients and behaving in a manner that is consistent with true industry professionals.
Many people in our industry want to do well. They want to attract more clients, make intelligent, targeted product recommendations, establish long-term profitable relationships and interact with other motivated, success-minded individuals. If that describes you, you should do the things it takes to make that happen.
If that doesn’t describe you—you’ve wasted your time reading this! If that’s the case, you should forget everything you’ve just read, “X” out of this window and just keep hacking!
My goal in sharing relevant business building content like this is to do what I can to raise the bar in our industry. We really don’t need more mindless drones out there attempting to sell promotional products.
Jeff Solomon, MAS, is affiliated with a Top 10 distributor company and also publishes FreePromoTips.com, a popular industry resource. The PPAI award winning FreePromoTips.com. Its twice-a-month e-newsletters are packed with beneficial information, which you can opt-in to receive these informative twice-a-month e-newsletters here! Check out what’s new in the GP2: Good Products—Good Prices section of the site. Take advantage of free end-user safe product videos you can share from the YourPromotionSolution.com website. Like the FreePromoTips.com page on Facebook, follow it on Twitter and Pinterest, and connect with Jeff on LinkedIn.
