10 Surefire Door Openers
By Shane Dale
July 2010
Steal some ideas from real reps who put persistence and creativity to work to win their prospects’ business.
You can build up your Facebook fans, get LinkedIn and Twitter on about your business, but if you're going to build your sales, the cold-hard fact is you're still going to have to cold-call.
Brian Guest understands the importance of cold-calling – and he understands that he and his sales reps must change their cold-calling strategies as the business climate changes. The president of Mediacation Advertising Specialties (asi/267029) adds, "Although technology, social media and other methods of business development are essential, so is good-old cold-calling."
Indeed, whether it’s over the phone or door-to-door, salespeople understand that cold-calling goes with the territory. But creative approaches are essential if you’re going to win over a potential client who’s probably heard hundreds, if not thousands, of various sales pitches.
Here are 10 examples from distributors who have taken a fresh, creative approach.
1. Tell a Great Story
“There was an old grandpa who drove an old Chevy…”
Just because buyers might say that they’re happy with their current vendor doesn’t mean that Reginald Nash will hang up the phone.
“A company might say they have a preferred vendor or a sole vendor,” says Nash, senior account executive for Bob Lanier Enterprises Inc. (asi/249050). “I say, ‘That’s really nice. But have you ever heard of the story of the grandpa who always drove a Chevy?’”
Nash goes on to tell the story of a grandfather, along with his son and grandson, who all drove Chevys their entire lives. “And one day, the grandson went to college, and on his way home from college, he saw a Lexus dealership,” he says. “And they let him test-drive it. And the temperature control was better, every turn was so much sweeter, and it had a wood-grained steering wheel.”
This is when Nash drives his point home by telling the buyer, “A lot of times when you have your sole vendor, you get stuck in a rut because you’re so tuned in to only what they have to offer,” he says. “My story tends to make people say, ‘Wait a minute, let me see what this guy has.’”
The promotional parable helped Nash win several orders with McDonald’s. He knew someone in Illinois who worked there and was able to obtain a lunch meeting with a buyer through that contact. “I told him the Chevy story,” he says. “I showed them something completely different and they were totally amazed, and we got a ton of business from them.”
Since that initial meeting, Nash has sold McDonald’s all kinds of items, including jackets, pens and polo shirts. “Companies say, ‘Well, we’ve got our sole vendor,’” he says, ‘but a sole vendor just sells you stuff that you see all the time. I remind them that other people have creative minds, too.”
2. Buy Something From Them
“Might I buy your products back?”
Here’s a surefire way to warm up a cold call: Guest places an order with a client before the client places an order with him.
“Every situation is different and, let’s face it, many of our competitors sold programs, products and strategy with little idea of what would best help their clients’ initiatives,” Guest says.
This is why he implemented the following cold-call technique, in which a conversation may go like this:
Guest: Hi, this is Brian Guest of Mediacation Advertising Specialties, and I was wondering if I might introduce myself to whomever is responsible for the purchase of promotional products in your organization.
Prospect: We’re actually very happy with the companies we now work with, but leave your card and I’d be pleased to pass it on.
Guest: Actually, we were in the area not to sell, but rather to buy any remaining promotional products you have which may not be of use to you any longer.
The prospect, who is naturally taken aback at this point, typically agrees to this arrangement. After Guest buys the leftover promotional items, he donates them to a charity – allowing him not only to give his prospect a financial boost, but let the client see that he cares about the community.
Take a recent example of an order that Guest won with a national Canadian bank. “After our purchase of their leftover promotional items that were used as donations to children’s charities for the holidays, we learned of current opportunities immediately,” he says. “The first was an order for 1,500 stainless-steel frames.”
That initial order eventually included 3,500 tote bags, 2,000 wine charm sets, 1,750 awards and print work.
One of the biggest advantages to buying leftover promotional items is it allows Guest to draw attention to the shortcomings of the client’s previous distributor as a solutions provider. “Distributors must consider the weaknesses of their competition when designing effective cold-calling strategies,” he says.
3. E-mail a Value-Packed Video
Re-establish a personal connection.
Buzz Hill, owner of SourceMaster, uses a video e-mail tool that allows him to shoot a several-minute-long personal video greeting from his desk, upload it, attach it to an e-mail and send it to his would-be clients.
The tool, which is powered by CoVideo Systems, is customizable. “If you have a good digital catalog that you want customers to look at, you can link the digital catalog there and direct them to all of your specials,” Hill says. “And it only takes two minutes to customize your templates.”
Hill recently used this techno-savvy door opener to renew a relationship with a client. “Madelaine had been a customer since about 2007 and ordered on a regular basis, but then all orders stopped in July 2009,” he says. “I called and left messages and sent e-mails, but it looked like the relationship was done.
“Then, I got the video e-mail program, and I made my regular follow-up phone call to her as usual. I got the voicemail, but this time, rather than leave a message to please call me back, I just left a message that I sent a personal video e-mail to her in-box, and to please view it. In the video, I told her I appreciated her business, and although she had not ordered in almost a year, I still wanted her business and appreciated her as a customer.”
Almost immediately, Madelaine sent an e-mail reply to request pricing on 24 imprinted duffel bags that would promote the website of a youth health program. “Frankly, I believe without this video program, I would have lost her business forever, but the video made the contact personal and saved the relationship,” Hill says.
4. Consider Yourself “Awesome”
It’s all in the attitude.
How’s this for an “awesome” door opener?
When Angie Gallo-Hughes, owner of Awesome Advertising, is lucky enough to have a buyer on the phone, she opens up by asking the buyer the standard, “How are you?” question, which always leads the buyer to reciprocate by asking how she is. “I answer, ‘Awesome,’” she says, “and they love the fact my company name is Awesome Advertising. So, right off the bat, from the very second sentence, the client is usually laughing. Some say, ‘Good answer.’”
In future phone conversations, Gallo-Hughes says buyers are sometimes inspired to respond with an “awesome” of their own when she asks how they are. “I reply, ‘Hey, that’s my line,’ and again, more chuckles,” she says.
Sound too simple? Maybe, but it works for her – specifically in regard to a recent order. The owner of an auto-body shop beat her to the punch. “I called and got the pen buyer on the phone,” she says. “When I asked her how she was, she said, ‘Awesome.’ I replied, ‘Hey, that’s my line.’
“After both of us finished laughing, I asked if they did imprinted pens or key-tags for their shop. She said yes, and asked what I had that was so awesome. I pitched the Bic Clic stick pens and got the order on a first-time call.”
Since then, the auto-body shop has placed keytag and sticky-note orders with Gallo-Hughes, “and the buyer calls me Awesome Angie,” she says.
5. Suggest a Product/Slogan Tie-In
“We’re a cut above.”
Gallo-Hughes is also an expert at coming up with marketing taglines during cold calls.
“The beginning of this year, I cold-called a credit union in Illinois,” she says. “I started asking about their annual meeting coming up.”
Specifically, Gallo-Hughes asked if the meeting had a theme. The buyer mentioned that the credit union was thinking about a “slice of life” premise, but he couldn’t find a suitable promotional item to tie it together. “I immediately thought of Mi-Line’s pizza cutter and asked him if he minded me e-mailing him a thought I had,” she says.
So, Gallo-Hughes e-mailed the man a picture of the pizza cutter, and in the subject line, she typed in quotation marks, “No matter how you slice it, we’re a cut above.”
That was enough to sell the buyer. “He loved it and purchased 600 pizza cutters,” she says. “Not only did I profit about $500, but I gained a new customer.”
The key to this particular success story? “After asking questions about what they use and listening, I offer my help with upcoming promotions,” she says. “With every single item, I try to suggest a slogan to fit the item.”
6. Send a Bouquet
“Take some time to smell the flowers.”
Teresa Moisant, owner of Moisant Promotional Products (asi/275276), tried numerous times to get an appointment with a buyer for a major retailer. “Her continuous response was always that she was a very busy person,’” she says.
So, Moisant sat back, did some brainstorming, and decided to give it one more shot. “That phrase we’ve all heard so many times, ‘Sometimes when you are really busy, you need to stop and smell the flowers,’ just kept coming to mind every time this lady explained how busy she was,” she says.
The phrase eventually inspired Moisant to send the buyer a spring bouquet of flowers from the local florist, along with a card that included the saying. “I just wanted her to slow down a moment, relax, and let me explain how I could assist her with all her chaos,” she says.
Once the flowers reached the client, “She called me immediately to thank me and arrange the appointment,” Moisant says. “Several days later during the meeting, I was able to pitch the concept that I could be her assistant in getting ideas together for her to take to upper management. It would free up time for her to handle her other responsibilities, and I could make her look good to management with a professional-level presentation.”
In this instance, Moisant took an approach so simple that many distributors just don’t think of it. “I think the easiest way to figure out how to get a buyer’s attention is to ask yourself, ‘What would get my attention?’” she says.
7. Add a Signature Touch
Signed artwork sealed the deal.
It’s common practice among many distributors to bring a freebie for potential customers when going door-to-door. Wayne Gibson just likes to add a more personal touch to his gifts than most distributors: He hands out autographed prints of some of his artwork that he created over 20 years ago.
“Instead of giving them a ballpoint pen, I give them prints, which is a lot more unique than other promotional items,” says Gibson, president of R&W Gibson Promotional Products (asi/303831). “They are letterhead-size and leftovers from that time period.”
The tactic worked with the owner of a coffee shop in Vermont who wanted to combine the shop’s logo with artwork on promotional mugs. “I did a series of three coffee mugs for her with local scenes, and every six months we’d do a new scene,” Gibson says. “She’d serve coffee in them, but she’d also sell them as collector’s items.
“I do dry-brush on canvas, large-size them, and then reduce them down to printing size, so it’s a unique style. My artwork, plus their information, was incorporated within the art.”
Gibson says he enjoys the fact that his talent gives him a tactical door-opening advantage. “The prints are something that others are unable to do, and it establishes my ability as an artist, which backs up my claim of being good with graphics,” he says.
8. Drop a Line
Don’t leave a notepad naked.
Greg Emmer, vice president and chief marketing officer for Kaeser & Blair Inc. (asi/238600), used this crafty technique to open doors to new orders. He left notepads all over the place, imprinted with his name, contact information and a description of his company. And he wrote a note on those pads similar to the following:
Bob: Thanks for the terrific order for coffee mugs. I know you had great success building your business with the last order, but I never expected the order to double this time. I guess our great sale price had something to do with it!
“I would selectively leave the notepads by telephones in hotels, at convention centers, in the lobbies of major corporations and at hospitals,” Emmer says. “The return on that investment was amazing. I got almost a 10% response rate.”
One example of the success of Emmer’s sly technique was with the Kroger food store chain. “They had their headquarter building in Cincinnati, and it was normal for me to leave a pad like that near the telephone,” he says.
One day, Emmer got a call from a man who worked in one of Kroger’s seafood shops. “He said, ‘It looks like you’re doing work for one of our other areas, and I’d like you to come see me,’” he says.
The note led to a large amount of printing and promotional business between Emmer and Kroger. “The whole idea is that people feel like they’re getting privileged information,” he says. “They’re thinking, ‘There’s something good going on here, and now I know about it.’”
9. Team Up
Help others help you sell your services.
Jason Mallin, owner of The Garage Promotional Group, doesn’t actually do the cold-calling himself. He and his wife are members of an international networking organization called BNI Group. The whole idea is that for $335 a year, he has BNI do his cold-calling for him – a member of the organization calls ahead to a prospect, introduces Mallin’s company and tells the prospect to expect his call.
“You go in once a week and educate them on what you do, so when they’re out in the world selling and doing business, they can essentially become a sales force for you,” Mallin says. “The best thing about it for me is that it makes the cold call warm every single time.”
BNI Group helped Mallin earn a sale with Gettin’ Ziggy With It!, an advocacy group that works with the Minnesota Vikings to help the Vikings and owner Zygi Wilf create enough fan support for a new football stadium for the team. “Basically, a woman from BNI told the association’s organizer, ‘You need to talk to Jason over at the Garage,’ and she introduced us to the organizer,” Mallin says. “They’ve asked us for several different contributions and ideas, and we’ve responded to many of them already.”
If all goes well, Mallin stands to earn a substantial $20,000 to $30,000 in promotional item business with the group. “It’ll be business that I essentially did nothing to get,” he says.
10. Do What You Love
Use your personal passions to connect with prospects.
Ken Cantor discovered a sea of opportunities by volunteering for something he loves to do. “My wife and I are volunteer diving supervisors for a 110-foot live-aboard dive boat that takes up to 30 divers 120 miles out into the Gulf of Mexico for two- and three-day diving trips,” says the sales manager for Studio Graphics Inc. (asi/338425). “We usually work six or seven weekend trips during the course of the summer.
“In addition to my love of diving and the ability to ensure that others dive safe, I learned long ago that, while out to sea, I have up to 30 captive, potential customers – and 120 miles out at sea, there are not many places where they can run from me.”
During the normal course of interactions on the boat, divers inevitably ask him about what he does for a living. “I’ve had the opportunity to discuss my true job many, many times, and it’s landed a few nice orders – from dive shop owners wanting dive-related embellished garments and promotional products, and from general business owners wanting specific products for their businesses.”
On a recent five-day trip, Cantor had a number of great conversations with the owner of the dive shop. “I don’t take my sales tools with me on the boat, but I do take my business cards,” he says. “Within a week of getting back from the trip, I received an e-mail from him inquiring about pricing, selection, embellishments and turnaround times. He wound up placing a really nice order with me for embroidered sweats and screen-printed tees, and he also placed a few reorders, as well.”
Cantor says that any way you look at it, his ROI on these diving exhibitions is 100%. “I was going to be there anyway, doing something I love to do,” he says.
Shane Dale is a freelance writer based in AZ.
