Reading People

A topic that often comes up in business and sales is one’s ability to effectively “read people.”  Those who are the most gifted at reading people seem to have clairvoyant, telekinetic, extrasensory powers.  They appear to have a crystal ball which provides them with insight and the ability to see into the future and know what a person will or won’t do in a given situation.  This gift saves them time and makes it possible for them to figure out quickly how to move forward with a prospect.  Essentially it gives them an unfair advantage in sales!

People are habitual and in most instances they don’t change over time unless they have a strong outside influence or they face a major life challenge and they decide they must change and then take action to do so.  With this power you can tell if a prospect will act quickly or slowly.  How the client will be influenced.  How much information and what specific information will be required.  What will be most important to them.  Based on the prospect’s character you will know whether they will be open, honest and forthright with their feedback, questions, comments and concerns.  You can even tell if you can trust them.  Generally speaking, what kind of person they are.  You’ll understand how you can create a stronger comfort with them.  You’ll know what messages and meaning is apparent in their body language, facial expressions and hand gestures.  If they have a clear understanding of what they really want and freely express themselves.  If they are cautiously guarded or they seem at ease with themselves.  What they are like under varying conditions.  How they handle pressure and stress.  What they are like when they are experiencing extraordinarily good conditions.

In the days of the philosophers, they began noticing patterns in people’s behaviours and actions.  They began to study these patterns and record their findings and observations.  Then they categorized specific behaviors, characteristics, human qualities, traits and tendencies.  They narrowed what they discovered into four primary personality styles.  In more recent times, recognizing the validity and value of this knowledge, companies like Xerox created training programs designed to teach their sales force about the four primary personalities.  They determined that if they empowered a sales representative with the necessary tools they could be me more self-aware of their natural tendencies, strengths and weaknesses.  They would gain an understanding of their personal likes and dislikes, needs wants and desires.  Then, they would be able to recognize a prospect’s personality style and the sales representative would be much more in tune with how to adjust their approach and deliver what the prospect wanted and needed in order to advance the sales process and successfully secure the business.  In essence, they could teach them how to read people and determine what it was going to take to turn them into a customer!

In ancient times the names that were used for the personalities were Choleric, Sanguine, Melancholy and Phlegmatic.  Today (in the same order) we use Driver, Expressive, Analytical and Amiable.  Over the years, many training organizations and individuals have developed their own version of the four primary personalities model.  The basic principles are the same, the only difference is the degree of depth that they may go into and the names they use to label each personality type.  Some use colours to distinguish, others use animal names and so on.

Both simple and elaborate testing is available today that is designed to determine which personality type an individual is.  Typically, a subject will score higher in one category compared to another.  This high scoring category is referred to as your primary personality, the second highest score your secondary personality and so on.  It is highly unlikely that a subject would score 100% in any one category in the testing results.  People are made up of a mix of the traits and qualities but one style usually stands out above the rest.  Understanding the four primary personalities give sales professionals a huge advantage in the sales arena.  There are many books available that go into greater depth on the subject and many companies offer training on this to help people better understand the subject and apply it in their field.

“To understand the world, one must not be worrying about one’s self.”
- Albert Einstein

By: Marshall W. Northcott 

Playing to win: Being a top-producer is about winning the game, not just playing

Winning athletes win games and winning sales professionals close business. In the games Michael Jordan scored the most points his team lost. Are you shooting but not winning? Do you have too many leads in the pipeline and no way to gauge how to close them? Like athletes sales people have to win to be considered successful, and in order to achieve the success we desire we have to hone our skills daily, weekly, quarterly and yearly. The difference between being a top-producing sales professional and a sales person just getting by is the effort they put into the game. If you are not getting better at your craft then you run the risk of having someone with more innovative techniques come along and take your position. The bottom line is if a sales person can not close the deal then they can’t stay in the game.  

The biggest problems sales professionals face in closing business are: a fear of rejection; too much emotional involvement; tough time selling product/service value; being unable to talk about money; and excuse making. If sales people can learn to tackle these issues they can become top-producing sales professionals and won’t need to be concerned about being cut from the team. 

I’ve been in this business over two decades and I’ve spent the last five years training sales professionals, sales managers, and CEO’s on achieving results. In all of these years I’ve never seen a company let go of a top performing salesperson. I’ve also never seen top performing sales professionals that aren’t constantly perfecting their technique, improving their attitude, and developing new behaviors. Unless you go outside of your comfort zone you will never grow. 

Technique
Perfecting your technique involves learning new ways to achieve better results. You should constantly be pushing yourself to exceed goals and expectations. The only way to exceed goals is to practice. Write new cold-calling sales scripts and rehearse them with a recorder, role-play with your manager or co-workers. You should map out scenarios so that when someone gives you an excuse you have your rebuttal. Long gone are the days where you can get back to a prospect in a few days with an answer to their question. The time it takes you to figure it out someone else will come along and snatch the sale. The marketplace is cluttered and no one dominates anymore, you have to be better, smarter and more efficient than the competition.  

Attitude 
Improving your attitude is about the way you view your company and your position within the company. If you don’t have a positive attitude towards your company then why do you still work there? How much more would your commission check be if you worked for a company where you believed in the products/services you were pushing? And even more important how much happier would you be? 

Behavior 

Changing your behaviors starts with having a plan – a map for your life. You should build your plan, track your results and fine tune as you go along. Everyone wants to win at work, in relationships, and in life but few sit down and map out where they want to go and how they want to get there. Living day to day without a plan is wondering around aimlessly. What team goes into the championship game without a playbook? Everyday we are playing in a championship and we need a plan before we step foot on the court. 

Once you have your plan, you need to set goals, both long-term and short-term. We should all be setting 90-day goals every 90 days and yearly goals every year. When you know that you must achieve a certain goal by a certain time frame you can focus on what you need to do, settle down and do it. When you truly focus on your goals your behaviors will change to mimic the results you desire. We are not talking about saying you want to do something or thinking about it, I mean actually writing down what you want to achieve in the long-term and short-term and putting them in a place where you will be reminded daily of the goals you set for yourself. 

Goals provide your why. Why are you doing what you’re doing, all of your actions should have a purpose. Goals provide your motivation. If you know that you want to own a certain home in a certain neighborhood by a certain time you will be motivated to succeed. Goals provide your energy. To be successful you need to be energized and the adrenaline you need to finish the game will come when you see that you are almost at your goal. Then when you reach your goal, it’s time to set a new one.  

In the process of improving yourself through techniques, attitudes and behavior you must ask yourself key questions:

• Am I mentally and emotionally tough?

• Is my self-esteem bullet-proof?

• What causes my comfort zone?

• Do I continuously challenge myself?

• What are my fears?

• What doubts do I have in myself?

• What destructive self-talk do I have?

• What limiting beliefs do I have?

We all want to win, but many of us don’t know how to get there. I see professionals every day who tell me they aren’t seeing results; they have a ton of prospects but aren’t closing business. I tell them they aren’t perfecting their technique, improving their attitude, and developing new behaviors. And without fail when they decide they want to get better and work on their technique, attitude and behavior they always see results

By: Karl Graf

What’s your Sales DNA?

Every company has a unique Sales DNA. This is the unique “sales code” that makes an organization perform at peak sales efficiency. Identifying your company’s genetic sales code is the key to achieving sustainable, profitable sales growth, the key driver for creating long-term business value.

Do you think that the ability to sell successfully is something that can only be found embedded in the DNA of the talent you hire? Think again.

Sales DNA is determined by a broad array of factors that go beyond each individual salesperson. And while we would all like to wave a magic wand and improve revenue, the reality is that building sustainable, great sales results requires the proper sales infrastructure.  Put another way, before a sales organization can consistently produce great sales results, it must in effect be “ready to sell”.

Experience shows that these sales readiness factors fall into five key areas:  (1) overall sales strategy, (2) sales methodology, (3) integrated sales & marketing, (4) performance management systems and (5) sales organization & talent. Great sales organizations have successfully identified, documented, implemented and optimized these areas; they have built a truly scalable sales infrastructure – rather than a collection of individuals – that will consistently produce superior sales results.

Unfortunately, identifying and, if necessary, changing the Sales DNA of a company is an extremely difficult undertaking. Sales managers have little time to think about revamping their sales processes (if they even know where to start) or developing effective sales tools, and sales professionals  are better utilized executing a sales strategy as opposed to developing one. Moreover, the key sales readiness factors mentioned above are highly interrelated and in some cases cut across multiple disciplines within a company. This means it may be necessary to involve representatives from Sales, Marketing, Operations, IT and HR when conducting an assessment of a company’s sales readiness. Given this level of complexity, companies that are committed to improving their sales readiness may want to consider using outside resources to help them manage this process.

So how do you go about understanding and improving your organization’s Sales DNA?  The best results come from a process that consists of analysis, prioritization and implementation.

Analysis: a company should begin by conducting a candid, comprehensive assessment of their current sales function. This includes an analysis of each of the key sales readiness factors that impact sales results, and identifying strengths as well as areas for improvement. Taking one of these factors, Sales Methodology, as an example, a company might start the analysis by asking the  following questions:

• Have you developed a sales coverage model that deploys your sales resources based on customer segmentation and profitability?
• Does your sales organization have a  documented  sales process that is consistently followed by the sales team?
• Are there clearly defined rules of engagement regarding how the sales team should interact with prospects?
• How effective does you sales team manage existing customer relationships?
• Are you satisfied with the effectiveness of your sales force automation system? Is your sales team using it consistently?

A similar sort of checklist should be used to analyze each of the other areas impacting sales readiness.

Prioritization: based on this analysis, a company should develop a prioritized action plan in which targeted areas for improvement are stack ranked by factors such as return on investment, resource requirements, and time to completion.

Implementation: implementing the prioritized action plan requires developing, testing, and refining new systems, processes, procedures and tools. While the implementation phase can often take significant time and resources, it will result in your company successfully selling based on its unique Sales DNA.

While analyzing and improving an organization’s Sales DNA should be a top priority in building revenue, the truth is sadly the opposite. A recent report from CSO Insights titled 2010 Sales Performance Optimization Study confirms many companies have been cutting back on investments in their sales organizations despite the strong need to support them.
Unfortunately, a sales organization can’t cut its way to success.  Nor can it look to build a sustainable organization around a few superstars.  The ultimate key to sales success is improving your organization’s sales readiness – its overall Sales DNA.

By Norman Behar

Up or Out: A Tactical Approach to Managing Sales Performance

The old “80/20 Rule” states that 80% of results come from the top 20% of our performers. Unfortunately this is also true when it comes to our sales force. What is also interesting is that too often the sales of the bottom 10% of a sales force do not cover the cost of their base pay, perks and benefit cost.  If this bottom 10% were playing professional baseball, they would be quickly released from the team. In pro sports, as in sales, it is all about what you have done for me lately. If the answer is, “not much” an established process to improve the sales reps performance must be consistently initiated. But remember to always start with the worst first and be consistent.  If the sales rep’s performance does not return to an established acceptable level in a predetermined period of time, this same documented process will be required to discharge the underperforming sales rep.

Managing a sales force is like “herding cats”. Top performing sales reps are high energy, high chargers, high maintenance and highly successful.  The poor performing sales reps are low energy, slow charging, high maintenance and seldom successful. These poor performers represent about 10% of a sales force but take up 90% of a sales manager’s time. Dealing with these people is drudgery. It is no fun confronting poor performers and their array of personal problems along with all the other excuses they have for not selling.

For this reason these performance people problems are continually pushed down our “things to do list” until the next thing we know we are telling ourselves we should have done something about them months ago. But the worst is yet to come and that is when the CEO starts asking questions. The best way to avoid hearing those dreaded words from the big boss, “why is this guy still here” is to simply have the right tools and a tactical approach to managing sales performance.

Sales Performance Expectations

To begin with sales performance expectations (sales activity and quota achievement) should be defined during the interview process and made part of the sales representative’s written and signed performance requirements along with their commission and compensation plan. This document should also be included as part of the new employee’s offer letter packet.

Corrective Action Guidelines for Sales Representatives

1. If a sales representative’s rolling month average falls below 80% of their quota, or he/she has two consecutive months of not achieving 80% of their quota, the manager should conduct a formal counseling session with a follow-up email or written memo to the employee that documents the verbal counseling.

At this point you may be asking why not 100% achievement of quota? In this example 80% was chosen to make the point that the optimum minimum threshold of performance should be based on a level that represents financial justification for keeping a sale representative employed. Not all sales people are created equal.  A few are capable of consistently performing at 100% of quota while most will consistently perform at a lesser yet acceptable level.  
Defining the minimum performance threshold is a simple process. After determining the cost of a sales rep to the company, add the minimum profit contribution you will accept to reach the minimum percent of quota a sales representative must sustain month to month to keep their job. Anything less is unacceptable.

2. If the sales rep does not make at least 80% of quota for the month following the Verbal Counseling, he/she should be placed on a Sales Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) which begins with a Written Warning.

3.  If an employee does not make 80% of quota for a 3rd consecutive month, further disciplinary action should be taken that will normally consist of a Final Written Warning.  Should the employee make no reasonable attempt to improve their sales performance the Manager may chose to discharge the employee any time during the PIP process.
Once an employee has been placed on a verbal warning or a PIP, they will not be removed from the warning until they have 3 consecutive months of at/above an 80% quota performance.

4. Once removed from a PIP, if an employee’s performance becomes unsatisfactory again, you should not go through each step to affect discipline, but you can intervene at a level appropriate for the situation.

Sales - Performance Improvement Plan

Our Sales Management team is committed to setting clear and specific performance goals and sales quotas, provide ongoing and meaningful feedback to help develop appropriate sales skills and to address performance issues on a timely basis.  In turn, we expect our sales representatives to meet and/or exceed their goals and sales quotas and to operate with the highest degree of integrity. Additionally, all sales representatives are expected to conduct themselves in a manner that contributes to an effective team sales philosophy of achieving maximum operational effectiveness, productivity, safety and a harmonious working environment. 

(Check one of the following levels of Performance Management)

___ Written Warning -
___ Final Written Warning

TO:  

FROM: 

DATE: 

RE: Recap of Sales Performance Management Discussion 

At our meeting on _____________________, we discussed your sales performance over the past __________________ months (include specific months) has been unsatisfactory in the following one or more areas (please check and provide a description for one or more of the following):

___ I. Sales Activity Level – As we have discussed during our one-on-one meetings, I am concerned about your level of sales activity.  The average number of customer contacts per day (____ number of contacts) is not up to the criteria for success set for your position.
Comments:

___ II. Number of Appointments – In the last month you have only been on _____ new appointments, which is well below the standard of _____ new appointments per day.  In addition, based on your __ /__ / 2010 Forecast, I do not see an acceptable improvement.
Comments:

___ III. Failure to meet quota - You have failed to meet your minimum monthly sales quota for the following month(s) of ________, __________, __________.
Comments:

IV. Other-

Based on my observations, I am placing you on a __written warning __Final Written Warning and want to see immediate positive improvements in the following areas:

1. Maintain an average of _____ calls per day.
2. Make _____ cold calls per day.
3. Set a minimum of _____ new appointments per day and/or an average of _____ per week.
4. Sell a minimum of $_______ for the months of ________, ________, ________.
5. Other:

We will meet weekly to review your compliance to these performance requirements and to determine if further corrective action is necessary.  A meeting to further discuss your performance will take place no later than, ___/ ___/ 2010 (indicate the date of the follow-up review; should be no later than 30 days from the date of this warning).  However, further discussion and corrective action may occur prior to that date if you do not take immediate corrective action. 

If you do not take immediate corrective action necessary to meet the performance requirements as described above, the next step in this Sales - Performance Management process will be:
___ Final Writing Warning (final step prier to discharge)
___  Discharge

Reinstatement of a Sales Performance Management Plan
Once you have met or exceeded the requirements of your monthly quota for three (3) consecutive months this document will be deemed inactive but will remain as part of your employment record. If at any time in the six (6) month period following your successful release form this plan you fall below your minimum monthly sales quota for two (2) consecutive months you will be placed back on a Sales Performance Management beginning at the second level with a Written Warning.

I believe that you have the talent and skills to be a valuable member of our team and I will assist you in any way possible to help you achieve the goal outlined above.

________________________________________
Sales Manager’s Signature           Date

I have received a copy of this notice, and understand the specific requirements explained above.

________________________________________  
Employee’s Signature Date

CC:
President/ CEO
VP Sales
Director of Human Resources

CONGRATULATIONS - Closure of Sales Performance Improvement Plan

To:  [NAME: EMPLOYEE]     CC: President/ CEO
VP Sales
         Director of HR
      
From: [NAME: MANAGER] 

Date: [DATE: DATE PRESENTING TO EMPLOYEE]
____________________________________________________________

Congratulations on your improved performance! You have met or exceeded your quota for the past three months.  As a result of your meeting and sustaining the specific objectives outlined in your Performance Improvement Plan, dated [DATE OF LAST PIP], I am removing you from Performance Improvement status, effective [DATE]. 

Your removal from Performance Improvement status is with the clear understanding that you will continue to meet or exceed the performance objectives outlined in the Performance Improvement Plan referenced above, other Company documents, or as stated by your manager. If, in the future, you fail to meet the acceptable performance levels, the Company may place you on an additional Performance Improvement Plan or apply additional corrective action, up to and including termination of employment.

I look forward to your continued progress and sustained quality work performance.

M. Jonathan Hackett has a BS in Business Administration from Christian Brothers University in Memphis Tennessee and MS from Auburn University. Hackett has five years experience in business to business sales and sales management.

By M. Jonathan Hackett Michael E. Hackett

Quit Being So Darn Nice!

By Jill Konrath

"I really care about my customers," Terry told me as we were driving to an appointment. "I try to do the very best I can for them and make sure that their needs are met."

"Sounds good," I thought to myself. "But I wonder if it's true."

Most sellers I know go to great pains to point out to me just how customer-focused they are. They want to make sure I know that they're not pushy or manipulative or sleazy in any way. Yet when they get into meetings with prospective clients, they quickly switch into a seller-centric mode of operation before they even know what's happening.

That's exactly what occurred in my sales call with Terry. Before we went in, I asked her to tell me what she'd said to get the appointment.

"I told him that we'd introduced some exciting new services that I thought could help reduce turnaround time in their production area," Terry told me

While the meeting appeared to have a customer-centric agenda, what actually played out during our time with the prospect was an entirely different matter.

After a few minutes of genial exchanges and a bit of data gathering about the business and operation, the decision maker asked Terry about her new offering.

Excited to learn of his interest, she started talking about it. Then she pulled out brochure. And she kept on talking - answering his questions, one-by-one, in excruciating detail.

Before we knew it, her time was up and we were escorted to the lobby. The decision maker thanked us for our time and instructed Terry to keep in touch.

Out we walked. Empty-handed. With no hope of ever selling anything.

But Terry was customer-focused, right? She graciously answered all his questions and told him exactly what he wanted to know about her offering.

I'm sorry. I beg to disagree. Terry wasted that man's time. She wasn't one bit concerned about his business operation. She just cared about being perceived as a service-oriented and helpful person.

If you want to truly be customer-focused, then stop being so darned NICE!

Mind you, I'm not talking about being rude, mean or ornery to prospective clients. Instead, your job today is to help customers figure out how to improve their business operations. That means increasing or decreasing something - and especially "something" that's tied in to one of their key business metrics.

Here are several ideas on how you can truly be customer-centric in today's marketplace:

1. Become an expert in your client's business.

Nothing beats an immersion course. Roll up your sleeves and become an apprentice for a week. Identify the goals and objectives, mission-critical business imperatives and critical success factors. Find out what's happening in their industry.

Learn how your product or service fits into their work flow. Discover where the gaps are - what kind of problems occur in their current process or methodology. Explore the business ramifications of these problems and the value of solving them.

Some sellers tell me they can't take the time to do this ... that they need to be out making sales calls and signing contracts. Or they say their boss won't let them do this.

Yet their customer knowledge is so shallow - and I mean incredibly shallow - that they can't even hold an intelligent conversation with a key decision maker for longer than five minutes.

You can't be customer-centric if you don't understand your client's business. You can only show them your offering, albeit in a very nice manner, and hope that they understand the difference it makes in their organization.

2. Sidestep early discussions about your services.

Many sellers inadvertently set themselves up to talk about their services right away. In phone calls to prospective buyers, they mention their new "stuff" to get their foot-in-the-door. This type of lead-in guarantees that they'll to be asked to talk about their offering. Requests for appointments should always focus on business results.

When asked about your services in a first sales call, answer very briefly and guide the conversation back to the prospect's business. It's not nice to waste your customer's time talking about something that may be entirely irrelevant to their business.

3. Prepare your questions ahead of time.

You may not know this, but top sellers always prepare a list of questions to ask before they go on the call. In fact, these questions are carefully planned to elicit very specific types of information about the customer's business, goals, objectives, current situation, challenges and more.

You can't be customer focused unless you write your questions down. Otherwise, when you're talking to a prospective client you'll continually be thinking of what you'll SAY next.

If you're not listening and totally tuned into what your customer is saying, you're not being nice - you're being rude!

Honestly, the real key in selling is to not delude yourself into thinking that being nice is what customers are looking for. They don't need more friends. Nor do they really care about your service offering.

Customers want someone to help them improve their business. They want a seller who brings them ideas and insights. That's what's valuable today - it's the new NICE!

State Fair

As the annual state fair dates approach, the event coordinator finalizes the larger plans and needs ideas for giveaways and items for vendors. After hearing about your wonderful ideas for another client planning a technology conference they contact you for insight.

Based on last years attendance, the event coordinator is estimating about 1,000 attendees this year over the course of the fair. Everyone will get welcome gifts as the enter the fairgrounds, so volunteers can hand out backpacks filled with a state fair t-shirt, a kids toy and customized water bottles. This is a great opportunity for any of the businesses that are sponsors for the fair to promote themselves by splitting the cost of all four items and having their logo printed on all of them.
Since there will be about 50 vendors selling food or products, split the cost of booth necessities. Food vendors can assist in the costs to purchase cups by putting their logo or name on them. Another perfect giveaway is customized hand sanitizer for customers, so they can clean up before and after they eat. Product vendors can offer visitors personalized fans, which will be convenient if the weather gets too hot, and bug repellent simply makes sense at an outdoor event.
As the night sky begins to to set in, make things fun for families by providing accessories for the evening. Glowing items are sure to to be a hit with the kids, so try finding a youth organization like 4-H club to split costs and give away glow-in-the-dark glasses. Kids will enjoy the cool effects at night. Lastly, volunteers can provide complimentary mini flashlights, which always come in handy, both at the fair and thereafter.

Ideas for welcome gifts:
Try a drawstring backpack as a great item for parents and kids alike!

This squeezable foam big ball shooter is fun for the family!

20-oz reusable water bottles that fold flat are new enough that people will enjoy the concept but still remain a product they will want to keep!

Focus on Small Business

I don't know about you, but I'm getting plenty tired reading about this dicey economy. Seemingly every week I'm hearing the same messages and hand-wringing about jobless claims, consumer confidence, housing prices, manufacturer activity, the price of oil, Wall Street's reaction to just about anything. the debt crisis in Europe, the deficit, the Fed and unemployment going up or down by a tick or two.

It's time for promotion products to come to the rescue! How? By distributors banding together and concentrating our efforts on helping small business. I keep hearing from the experts that small business is the sector that really drives the economy. Consider these statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau:
- 7 out of 10 new jobs in the private sector come from small business
- 91% of business out there have 10 or fewer employees

There are 51 million small businesses that need our services. Sometimes we as distributors miss the forest for the trees, looking for that bigger company we can hook into, the Fortune 1000 firm or the Inc. 500 company we can hit a home-run with. A bunch of singles with small business can push your sales across home plate as much as those occasional home runs.

The Keys
The key to your success with this target market is to position yourself as a small-business owner yourself who is attuned to the needs and challenges of growing a business because you're trying to do the exact same thing. You are a small-business specialties (I'd put it right on a set of your business cards) ready to offer your expertise in helping them build their business.
When I'm dealing with a small business, I break their potential promotional product needs down to three buckets:
- Staff/Employee Needs - What work-related branded apparel, head-wear or accessories do they need in doing their work; or what branded lifestyle apparel might they be interested in wearing away from the workplace?
- General Marketing Needs - branded premiums to increase their name exposure and impressions
Customer Reward Needs - gift with purchase or customer appreciation premiums that drive customer loyalty, sense or satisfaction and probability of repeat business.

This last bucket is especially important because this is where the small business can actually return on investment, which it probably isn't tracking with it's other marketing and advertising activities. We've all seen the industry studies that show empirically the positive effect that promotional products have on customer feedback, referrals and repeat business.

Face to Face
Obviously, with small business it's much easier to get face time with the decision maker. And that's important because small-business owners like personal attention. They want to feel they are being taken care of. I've done it both ways: hitting the streets and just cold calling small business in person asking for five minutes with the decision-maker, and cold calling on the phone. Either way, the message is the same:
"I'm a small-business owner in town like you and I see you have this _________ business. I like to do business with other small-business owners because we think alike and face the same challenges. My specialty is helping small businesses like yours. Can I have just a few minutes of your time?"

Package Deal
I'm a big proponent of going into these selling situations with opportunities for small-business owners to purchase packages of promotional products that address all three of my aforementioned buckets. I call them business-builder packages. They may be at various price points - $299, $399, $499 or $599. The owner doesn't have to choose from 10 or 12 different items. Here are multiple packages to choose from to just start out. Maybe there are some writing instruments and/or refrigerator magnets for general exposure; some hats or t-shirts for staff; and $3-$5 customer gift or appreciation items with higher perceived value. These packages are also positioned so there is a value component to them.

Obviously, I'm flexible and able to substitute items based on a customer's preference or type of business. But the package concept remains the same. I have found that many of my small-business customers like the package concept to begin with. It allows them to reap the benefits of products in different promotional categories and then narrow their focus going forward on the products they feel are the most effective for them.

The one challenge for traditional distributors in dealing with the small-business market is the competition against the online sellers that are so prevalent now with hundreds of products only a click away. There is certainly a generation of young people involved in small business who are quite comfortable with B-to-B commerce. But again, you need to brand yourself as that small-business specialist with expertise that you can offer from your own experience and your familiarity with your and your prospects local business environment. This expertise is a resource that an online seller can't match.

By: Pat Cavanaugh

API Staff Update

To all API Staff: API does have power at this time. Everyone should plan to report to work as usual in the morning. Check back for the most recent updates.

Thank you.
API

Personalized M&M's for Business!

Get noticed with logo's, words and even faces printed on everyone's favorite chocolate candy. It's more important than ever to stand out from the competition - and with My M&M's, it's easy to make a BIG impression.

With our personalized packaging options, as well as 5 lb or 10 lb bulk boxes, these memorable treats can be used for any occasion, big or small!

Call us or email today for your order of custom candies!

www.apisource.com

1.800.507.7007

9 Facts Clients Need to Know before Purchasing Food Gifts

1. Convenience! Instead of sending an employee to the local store or having that employee spend hours on the internet trying to find the right gifts, clients can purchase food gifts from the same person who provides their promotional products and business gifts. Here at API we even take advantage of this resource. Every Christmas season we create to die for truffles in beautiful packaging to send out!

2. Gifts promote your and your client's company and brand, not ours. When someone opens their gift, the first thing they'll see if the logo you want them too.

3. Value driven pricing. Volume purchasing allows clients to purchase fine quality gifts for less than they would have to pay elsewhere.

4. Fresher gifts taste better (and say something nice about the sender)! Our gifts are packed-to-order just before the order is shipped, NOT made up many months in advance.

5. Our gifts are jam-packed full of the finest premium chocolates, fresh-roasted nuts and other gourmet treats. They are not filled with inexpensive fillers or fluff.

6. We can arrange for shipment to the client or directly to each recipient. We will even enclose their greeting or business card.

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Ways to Play

Sorting through the variety of game and toy items

If there's one thing humanity takes seriously, it's leisure time. Looked at across cultures and age groups, there is an almost uncountable variation in human play, from retired and rich Massachusetts socialites playing a game of polo to a bunch of SoCal tween hoodlums fooling around with a pack of matches and "borrowed" lighter fluid for the first time. All along this long and varied scope of human play (the "polo-to-pyromania" span if you will), at every task and every game and every activity, there are about a billion different invented tools out there to help people with their fun.

Different mallets and stirrups for the same game of polo. Different matches and cross-state fireworks for the same harmless youthful pyromania. Human inventiveness has created so many tools and toys, drilling down to a ridiculous level of detail and ornate quality, all for the sake of having the maximum amount of fun. Awesome if you like having fun, sure, but certainly complicated if you're planning a promotional campaign involving play.

There are more kinds of toys than there are magazine pages in the world, but here are a few different types of toys along with some handy tips on how to best work with them. Because make no mistake, the only thing more serious than fun and games is when fun, games, marketing and money meet.

STUFFED ANIMALS
Capitalizing on the human need to look at and squeeze "cute wittly wubsy-bubsy" things, stuffed animals are excellent promotional toys perfect for a wide range of demographics and purposes.

WHAT TO LOOK OUT FOR:
"The most important thing is how soft a plush animal feels," said Jenny Straub, director of marketing forVitronic Promotional Group, Mason, Ohio. "The 'fur' should not feel waxy or rough," she explained. She noted too that it can be worthwhile to request samples to check and see how an animal is stuffed. "There are different ways in which an animal can be stuffed," she said. "Some animals are stuffed heavier in the arms and legs, while others have more stuffing in their bellies or backsides."

A CASE STUDY:
Straub related an anecdote where one of Vitronic's stuffed animals, Tucker the bear, was used in a pinch to calm a panicked, elderly hospital patient. The 101-year-old mother-in-law of one of Vitronic's sales reps was seriously ill at the hospital and in need of an I.V. line. She was too uncooperative for the nurses to restrain and give an I.V. to, until the sales rep remember the stuffed animal he had in his car.

Quoted Straub, "Our rep said, 'When I gave Tucker to Lena [the mother-in-law], everything slowed down. The fighting stopped and the lab people did their work. Tucker stayed with her in the hospital for 10 days. The doctors and nurses commented on how this little bear made such a difference. Sometimes, we just think about the sale and forget the power of our products.'"

THE MOST IMPORTANT THING:
Versatility. "When you give plush, the pleasure the recipients feel transcends age, gender and nationality," said Straub. "Plush is versatile enough to show creativity, tenderness, friendliness and a sense of humor."

LIGHT-UP TOYS
Put a tiny blinking light in something and you've created a guaranteed human attention hook (see: goofy party bracelets, laser pointers and all of the best toy robots). Pair a blinking light with a toy, and now you've got something so entertaining it ruins the risk of wholly absorbing a person's consciousness.

WHAT TO LOOK OUT FOR:
"First and foremost, distributors should only buy toys that are CPSIA-compliant and carry mercury-free batteries," said Michael Bistocchi, senior vice president, sales and marketing, CleggPromo, Gardena, Calif. He explained that it is also important to know how long you need the batteries for the lights to last. "Battery life is dependent on the number of lights and the length of activation every time it activates," he said. He also mentioned not to worry about bulb life, as most toys use L.E.D. lights. "L.E.D.s never burn out," he said. "Usually the toy or product is no longer used before the L.E.D.s stop working."

DEMOGRAPHICS TO CONSIDER:
"Kids love light up products in general," said Bistocchi. "Financial institutions, automotive companies and [high tech] are the biggest purchasers," he added.

THE MOST IMPORTANT THING:
"Safety should be your first priority," stated Bistocchi. "The repercussions are far too extensive and everyone can potentially lose if an unsafe product gets into the wrong hands. It is definitely not worth the risk."

ARTISTIC TOYS
Maybe because the crushing despair of the 9-to-5 work grind hasn't wholly crushed their spirits yet, or maybe because their tiny minds are simple enough to be delighted by drawing a lumpy orange circle and passing it off as the sun, but kids love to draw. More than just crayons (though they certainly play a part), there are plenty of artistic toys out there to make the most of children's love of expressing themselves.

WHAT TO LOOK OUT FOR:
"The first thing is always product safety," said Josh Goodelman, vice president of Liqui-Mark Corp., Hauppauge, N.Y. "Any product in general in the industry, keeping up to date with the new regulations the government's imposing, child safety laws, and having all the proper testing documents for nontoxicity and CPSIA-compliance is a serious issue."

A CASE STUDY:
Goodelman detailed a recent promotion Liqui-mark had done involving three companies promoting themselves together. Pairing decorated crayons with imprinted packaging and an insert card that told a story promoting two of the brands together, they were able to create an item that pleased all three companies. "The final product came out beautifully," said Goodelman. "We were able to get creative with custom packaging, and then it's simply taking a retail product and turning it into a promotional one."

A PROMOTION IDEA:
"Banks," said Goodelman. "Banks use crayons as incentive gifts. A child comes in and deposits 10 dollars in his or her savings account, they get a new crayon with the bank's logo printed on it," he explained. "It's enticing the child to continue to save money to get another crayon gift."