Dodo Loves Marketing

‘Every time a friend succeeds, I die a little.’

Promoting the sale

You have provided dynamic, written material, you have had a successful appointment and the potential client seems pleased by what you have to offer. However, he or she is wavering about giving you the business project and, as always, you realise that you have hungry competitors wanting the business, too. In this case, a special offer on your part can make the difference. It says, ‘I really want your business.’

The essence of sales promotion is that it must be easily understood and relevant to your product. It will seem ludicrous to consumers to receive a free embroidery kit if they are buying a puppy! With this principle in mind, let’s look at some examples.

Promotional techniques

In hairdressing you can promote your business using hairdressing products. In fashion, you can use accessories or perfumes. With books you can offer membership to a book club. Your offer must always sound right and be related in some way to your product or service. Here are a few types of special offers you can consider; they represent some of the best promotional vehicles I’ve seen in the past few years, with the exception of competitions, which I have included for discussion only. ..more

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Mailing and phoning around 200 people over a three-month period (60 working days) means you only have to make a few mailings and follow-up phone calls per day.

Never mail a huge amount all at once as you will get so far behind in trying to contact people for an appointment that you will be overwhelmed and stop trying. Instead, mail three or four each night and, after an interval of about a week, phone those three or four people. If you don’t reach them on the first try, try once more that day.

If you reach them, terrific! If you don’t, send a note-card saying, ‘Sorry I missed you.’ Just keep moving. Do not get bogged down by worrying about the 200 people as a whole. Simply see them as small lots of three or four mailings and a few phone calls per day. ..more

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‘I like life. It’s something to do.’

There is another very important step in this quest for winning new business, that of persistence. Almost anyone can put these steps into place but not many people will keep on for days, weeks, months and years afterwards. Nothing replaces persistence. Persistence is what makes the other steps so powerful.

Perhaps it seems a formidable task to put the new-business system into place and it may be so at the beginning. However, the advantage of persistently pushing those barges down the canal is that you incorporate into your daily operations a system for bringing you continual new-business opportunities. ..more

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