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Call Me When Your Dog Gets Too Tall, And Other Ideas To Radically Rethink Your Sales Approach
By: Michael Crooks
Issue: 2009aug
I was about to hammer a nail into a board when my eight-year-old son asked if he could do it. Without thinking, I handed the hammer to him and held the nail between my thumb and forefinger. With tongue sticking out the side of his mouth he began to take aim—giving me a moment to rethink the situation. “Hang on a second,” I said. I grabbed a pair of pliers and secured the nail between the gleaming steel jaws. “Go ahead,” I said. He swung with everything he had, the hammer landing precisely on the pliers—in the exact spot my fingers had been just moments earlier.
“Good thing you rethought that, huh dad?” my son asked sheepishly.
“Yeah,” I replied. “Good thing.”
Sometimes rethinking your position can yield an eye-opening or finger-saving revelation. In the world of promotional marketing and the use of promotional products, rethinking may not save a finger but it can—especially now—save your business.
Whoa! How do we go from saving a finger to saving your business? Easy. I sincerely believe the hammer is about to fall for promotional products distributors who sell on price.
Your Clients Don’t Need You
The internet has taken the mystery out of buying promotional products. No longer do end buyers need you to sell them a white, 11-ounce C-handle mug with a one-color imprint for .99 (C). They can find it themselves online for .79 net or less. Or, they can get it from your local competitor who’s willing to drop the price. In many cases this leaves you with two choices: either pass on the sale or drop your price. Either way, you lose.
There is, however, a third option. Offer your clients something they can’t Google and your competitors can’t lowball—your unique brand of effective, creative thinking. To rethink tradeshow giveaways is to look boldly in the face of the status quo and defy nearly everything for which it stands.
• Defy the belief that clients have giveaway goals. They don’t. They have marketing goals that you must help them achieve.
• Defy the belief that slapping a client’s logo and contact information on a product to hand out is effective marketing. It’s not.
• Defy the belief that the product is the most important part of the process. It’s not.
In order to separate yourself from those who offer a product and a price you must deliver a program and a product to your clients. In essence, you must deliver a product powered by a relevant message that is backed by an effective idea. To accomplish this, you need to take the following five-step approach:
1. Know your client’s business
2. Know what your client wants to accomplish
3. Develop an effective, creative idea
4. Based on the idea, create an effective message
5. Find a relevant promotional product to carry the message
Call Me When Your Dog Gets Too Tall
To better illustrate these points, let me tell you about my friend, Ken, a toy poodle breeder. Ken called asking about imprinted pens to give away at dog shows to promote his kennel.
“Why do you want to give pens away?” I asked.
“Well, there’s this lady at the shows and she’s giving out pens, and I thought it’d be a good idea.”
From previous conversations, I remembered something about height restrictions with toy poodles. “Ken,” I said, “let’s rethink this. Isn’t there some rule that when a toy poodle gets to a certain height, you can’t show it any more?”
“Sure,” he replied, “10 inches. Then they have to get another dog.”
“So give poodle owners a ruler imprinted with your kennel name, position line Breeder of Champion Toy Poodles, contact info and a line that says, ‘Call Me When Your Dog Gets Too Tall.’”
“Now that’s a great idea!” he exclaimed.
In this example, a ruler is much more effective than a pen. The ruler promotes Ken’s kennel and positions him as the go-to person in a way that is relevant to the target and speaks to something those who show toy poodles need to be mindful of—the height of the dog. The line “Breeder of Champion Toy Poodles” is powerful because the whole reason people show dogs is in hopes of ending up with a champion.
Assuming they use the ruler to measure their dog, the second that dog is too tall, they have Ken’s information right in their hands. That’s promotion! A pen in this case would be a giveaway—unless the pen happened to have a tape measure built in.
The Difference Between A Giveaway And A Promotion
The notion that simply giving stuff away at a tradeshow is effective promotional marketing may be one of the biggest bottles of snake oil our industry ever sold to business owners and marketers. It’s another status quo belief that must be defied. In order to develop an effective tradeshow program for your clients, you must first divest yourself from giveaway thinking. To that end, it’s vital to understand the true difference between a giveaway and a promotion.
A true giveaway is a one-way street. Your client basically spends money to fill up people’s junk drawers. You sell your client a cheap doodad, and he or she thinks it will create goodwill and effectively promote the business, mindless of the fact that the item is irrelevant to the business or the wants, needs or desires of the ultimate recipient. The recipient takes the item home and:
• Puts it in a drawer
• Gives it to the kids
• Throws it away
• Uses the item but never does business with your client
• Is so beholden to your client they fall all over themselves to do business with them and go out of their way to tell everyone about your clients’s existence.
With a giveaway, return on investment can seldom be measured. Practically nothing meaningful is gained, certainly nothing on which your client can actively follow up. And as far as building business, few will say, “Wow! They gave me a thingy with their name on it! I’ve really got to do business with them.” Seriously. The last result rarely happens as a result of handing out inexpensive giveaways at tradeshows.
A Promotion Is A Two-Way Street
The recipient’s life is affected in a manner that’s meaningful and relevant. Careful thought is given to what your client wants the target to do—then you determine an appropriate way to get them to do it or, at least, keep your client in the forefront of their mind. And, you build a component into the tradeshow protocol that allows your client to, at the very least, attempt to get something in return such as a business card or other actionable data by which to follow up later. With a promotion, there’s a connection between your client, the promotional product and the current or near-future want, need or desire of the target.
In Ken’s case, a promotional ruler is relevant to the fact that when a poodle gets to a certain height, he or she can’t show it anymore. Is there any guarantee that everyone he gives a ruler to will call him? No. But very few will turn down his request for their business card or contact information in exchange for the ruler. That’s the beginning of the two-way street. And here’s what makes this so meaningful:
Once Ken has the prospects’ contact information, he can keep them informed of his dogs’ standings, when he has pups available and when his males are available for stud.
The ability to communicate with his target market puts Ken in a much better position to benefit from the relevancy of his promotional product to the wants, needs and desires of his prospects. And mind you, he’s only giving his ruler to those who show poodles—that’s target marketing.
But sadly, the giveaway mentality dictates a lot of tradeshow protocol and the mindset of many promotional products distributors. Distributors encourage their clients to continue to give away something—anything—to everyone who stops or walks by. But when you rethink it, your clients should only care about those who are:
• Interested in their product or service, and
• Can afford to pay for it.
I know that sounds coldhearted. But think about it. The major advantage of a tradeshow is the ability to enter into a two-way interaction with people in a way that simply doesn’t exist with other forms of media such as TV, radio, newspaper, billboard, magazines or direct mail. Smart marketers offer something of value only to those who give their business card, fill out a short needs-assessment sheet or an entry form for a drawing. This is how prospects are qualified and meaningful, actionable data is obtained.
Here’s another example. A financial planner who’s giving pens to everyone would do better to offer an imprinted booklet titled “Managing Your Finances” to those who fill out a short interest form. Sure, the booklet costs more than the pens. But, the financial planner obtains follow-up information, the return on investment is measurable and the prospect has a meaningful item that is relevant to his or her interest.
How To Stop Simply Giving Stuff Away
To keep well-financed online distributors and your local competition from eating away at your margins, you must offer your clients something other than a product and a price. If low price has been your crutch, you must abandon it. If the old mantra was, “We’ll beat any deal,” the new mantra is, “Stop simply giving stuff away!”
Let me be clear. By asking you to help your clients to stop simply giving stuff away, I’m not suggesting they simply stop giving stuff away. Read that line again. Where I’ve placed the word “simply” carries great meaning. What I’m saying is, your clients must stop simply giving stuff away without:
1. Getting something from their prospect¯such as a simple interest evaluation, business card, an appointment or other indication that the prospect has an interest in what your client offers and can afford it. Unless your client gets something from prospects with their name and contact information, your client cannot follow up and is simply giving stuff away.
2. Having an effective, relevant idea to support product selection. Remember my friend, Ken, and the difference between a pen and a ruler? Make sure the promotional item is:
• Relevant to the wants, needs and desires of your client’s prospects
• Relevant to your client’s business, product or service
• In a perfect case, relevant to your client’s business and to the wants, needs and desires of your client’s prospects
3. Ensuring distribution is targeted. Even in cases when Ken may not get contact information from the recipient of his ruler—he’s giving his ruler only to toy poodle owners and handlers.
A tradeshow protocol that incorporates any one of these three points is good. Two are better. Incorporate all three and you’re on your way to shutting price sellers out of your client’s life.
Determining What Your Client Wants To Accomplish
What does your client want to accomplish by participating in the tradeshow? Many end users respond, “Um … we just wanna get our name out there.” And then they buy a bazillion of some cheap thingamabob and hand them out left and right at the tradeshow. Most of this junk ends up in a drawer, in a wastebasket or in a child’s toy box. And that’s funny because as often as I’ve asked people, “What do you want to accomplish by participating in the tradeshow?” No one, not one person, has ever answered, “Give away a bunch of cheap stuff and determine my tradeshow success by how much stuff I gave away.” But that’s exactly what they do.
Let’s rethink it. Getting your name out there is a desirable by-product of focusing on what your client really wants to accomplish. Think about it. It costs no more to print an effective, action-oriented message on a product than it does to print a non-effective message. For example:
Imprint No. 1:
www.StansPlumbing.com
555-555-5555
Imprint No. 2:
7 Plumbing Secrets
Every Homeowner Should Know
www.StansPlumbing.com
No. 2 is much more compelling yet costs the same as No. 1. If you want a better shot at selling product at full margin you need to help your client accomplish something meaningful at the tradeshow. To that end, when you ask your clients, “What do you want to accomplish?” their answers should be along the lines of:
“Drive tradeshow traffic to my retail store.”
“Drive tradeshow traffic to my website.”
“Collect actionable data from those who are interested in my product or service.”
“Generate qualified traffic to my tradeshow booth with a pre-show mailing.”
“Nail down appointments.”
You can dramatically increase a client’s return on investment and his or her reliance on you simply by finding out what your client wants to accomplish and using that to dictate the imprint on the item.
Let’s use a key and key tag as an example for these promotion ideas:
Drive traffic to a retail store: A key on a key tag imprinted with, “Bring this to Jerry’s Mart. Open the meat locker and win.” Data Collection: Sign in when trying key.
Drive traffic to a website: Same key tag without the key, imprinted with, “You’re the key to savings at Jerry’s Mart. Register for weekly drawings and discover valuable services only Jerry’s provides at JerrysMart.com.” Data Collection: Data collected when target registers.
Increase booth traffic via a pre-show mailing: Send the key and the key tag inviting people to unlock the prize trunk at the show. Data Collection: You have some data in order to mail promotional products to them. Your client gets a business card or has attendees register or sign in when they try their key. Once they’ve won their prize, they’re in a good mood and more open to answering probing questions regarding their need for your client’s product or service.
Or, you could revert back to just imprinting “Shop Jerry’s Mart” along with the address and phone number on the thing and get your client’s name out there.
Do that while your competitor is delivering effective, creative ideas to all your former clients and imagine yourself sitting under the hot studio lights as Dr. Phil asks you, “How’s that workin’ out for ya?”
If you take the time to rethink your promotion, you’ll give your clients something they can’t get from anyone but you: an effective, creative idea. But you must dig deep and find out what your client really wants to accomplish.
From Product Distributor To Promotional Marketer
As markets continue to consolidate, online access to promotional products becomes easier and pricing issues put even more pressure on your profitability, it’s the promotional products distributors who become promotional marketers who will have the best chance of surviving. To that end, a greater knowledge of marketing and advertising should be your immediate focus.
I’ll be the first to admit that it’s easier to sell a client a boatload of inexpensive giveaways to be simply handed out. But, at the risk of insulting you, why does your client need you to do that for them? Anyone with a pulse and an IQ above room temperature can find a 25-cent item to imprint and simply give away at a trade show.
The most money is made by those who provide a product or service that people cannot or will not provide for themselves.
Your competitors are after the same money-spending clients and customers that are you. Sooner or later, someone is going to rethink what they’re doing and become more effective by taking the selling focus off of product and price and placing that focus on that which can’t be Googled, lowballed by your competitors and found by clients for themselves: effective, creative, marketing solutions that provide real benefits. I hope that someone will be you.
Michael Crooks is a 26-year advertising copywriter and promotional marketer and founder of Crooks Advertising Alliance (UPIC: Crooks), a creative strike-force specializing in creative problem-solving. He’s an author and a speaker with more than 50 articles to his credit, His latest project is an eBook, ReThinking Trade Show Giveaways: Stop Simply Giving Stuff Away. He can be reached at www.PromoReThink.com.
Book It
Expand your knowledge as a promotional marketer with these author-recommended books:
•Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind by Al Ries and Jack Trout
•A Whack on the Side of the Head by Roger von Oech
•A Kick in the Seat of the Pants by Roger von Oech
•Then We Set His Hair On Fire by Phil Dusenberry
Hear Michael Crooks At The PPAI Expo 2010“Rehinking Tradeshow Giveaways: A More Profitable Approach Than Simply Giving Stuff Away”
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
10:45 - 11:45 am
Mandalay Bay Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada
Free to all show registrants
This powerful workshop rethinks the status quo, exposing tradeshow and industry myths, fallacies and popular misconceptions that hurt distributor efforts and profitability. Learn the advertising and marketing strategies, tactics and insights to turn tradeshow giveaways into powerful, profitable promotions that position you as a new breed of promotional marketing professional.
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