Not should he, he MUST...
In good times or bad, there is a universal truth that applies to selling:
SELLING IS TELLING
You need to tell your story often and tell it effectively. Telling your story effectively details the compelling reasons which exist for customers to give you money; and involves:
4 essential strategies:
- Your ad better must grab the recipient's attention right away. The average person is inundated with thousands of marketing messages every day. From roadside billboards to unwanted emails to ads on the evening news we see or hear sales pitches designed to interrupt our thought pattern. Your ad better cut through all the clutter and grab attention in a few seconds or it is wasted.
- Offer real value. How many ads do you see that mean nothing to you? Probably most of what you encounter every day. But a wholesale distributor has an advantage; that is, he is marketing to a known audience, customers or prospects who buy what the distributor sells every day. In general wholesalers sell commodities; so their customers can buy the same product from a number of wholesalers. The question is: Is he buying it from you? So give that customer real value, make sure your ad features something of importance, something the recipient will find useful or interesting. Give the customer real value in your ad, and the customer will subliminally give you permission to keep reaching out to him.
- Advertise consistently. You need to contact your targeted prospect on a consistent basis. Most of us forget most of what we read, saw, heard within 24 hours. Repeated contact is essential.
- Ask for order or some form of action. Why go through all the trouble if you're not going to sell something. So give them a reason to buy or contact you every time you create an advertisement.
In today's economic environment there is less business to go around, margins are being squeezed harder than ever, customer loyalty is at an all time low; survival depends on getting every piece of profitable business available. The wholesale distributor who advertises effectively has a definite advantage over his competitors.
Increase your market share:
Ten percent unemployment, shrinking markets, construction is dead; we've heard it over and over. So what do most businesses do in tough times? Cut back any unnecessary expenses; line item by line item reduce expenses wherever possible.
Unfortunately these cuts often include marketing and advertising; the sales tools designed specifically to sell, to grab whatever business is available in your market. If you want to increase market share you need to outsell your competitors and that means contacting every viable customer/prospect on a regular basis. It means doing a better job of marketing than your competitors.
Within the marketing mix advertising too often becomes the red headed stepchild and dissolves into passing out calendars, pens, logo golf balls or some other item designed to "keep your name out there." But if you are working on a tight budget, a hat or note pad with your logo is a luxury you may not be able to afford. To increase market share you need to direct your advertising dollars where results can be measured directly in increased sales; that means setting a goal and creating a plan to accomplish that goal.
Plan to tell your story of products, services, benefits, and advantages to every customer and prospect in your marketing area and do so on a regular basis. And plan to ask for an order every time you send out an advertisement. Now nothing would be better than delivering that message with a salesman making personal contact with every live buyer in your territory. But we know personal sales contact with every customer/prospect is physically and economically impossible. A good advertising plan, however, can call on everyone for pennies and back up your salesmen's calls as well.
Don't go through the motions - Plan:
Plan what? Plan to answer the question: How will customers and prospects find out about you? How do you contact all those customers and prospects without spending a fortune? Email, direct mail, counter posters, trade magazines, radio/TV; what is the most economical and effective way to advertise.
Some combination of all of the above probably fits the bill for most wholesalers with emphasis on the media that fits your particular seller/buyer relationship. However, a strong recommendation can be made for direct mail.
Direct mail is statistically more effective than e-mail:
While email is generally regarded as inexpensive, it is statistically more likely to be caught by spam filters or deleted immediately in comparison to direct mail being dumped in the trash. Good direct mail is several percentage points more likely to be read than email; so while there is additional cost; if direct mail is done right it will pay bigger dividends than email. On average US advertisers spend $167 per recipient, which yields a 13 to 1 return on investment and $2095 in goods sold. Since 2004 email advertising has seen a 52% decrease in ROI while direct mail has seen a 14% increase.
Print advertising is green:
Believe it or not, print advertising is green. The US paper industry plants 3 trees for every tree harvested; is 2/3 energy self sufficient, and produces more biomass for energy then all wind, solar and thermal combined. You can back up your direct mail with email for virtually no cost by simply copying your direct mail piece and emailing it to your targeted customers.
Incentives, the special reason to buy:
Non-cash rewards answer the age-old question "what's in it for me." Incentives give that special reason to accomplish what isn't normally done; and they pay dividends far out of proportion to the investment in time and dollars.
Here lies the answer to the question: "How can I make a fair profit when everything is sold on price, price, price?" When the economy looks the blackest this often seems to be true, but don't kid yourself. A good incentive will enable your salesmen to do what you didn't think possible. Your customers and prospects will buy in volume you didn't think feasible. How? Simply by giving you business that traditionally went to your competitors. You have given customers a better reason to buy from you than their other choices.
Theory or fact:
The above statements are not just theory; they are fact and are proven daily by The GRA Group clients. A good incentive can increase business by tens of thousands of dollars in a month long promotion and millions over a year long promotion.
This shouldn't be surprising because all the incentive did was to give someone a reason for taking action. That is usually all it takes: add a little emotion into the selling strategy and put a little fun into doing business.
Incentives cost you nothing:
What does an incentive cost? Actually nothing if planned correctly. Incentive programs can all be accomplished on a self-liquidating basis where no prize, award or gift is given unless the increased sales goal is reached. When the increased goal is reached the incentive is paid for and the wholesaler goes to the bank with extra profits. And just in case you are wondering: "where is my customer going to find this extra business in today's market?" Don't kid yourself into thinking you get all the business from your customers, they buy from several sources, you need to motivate them to give you business that normally goes to your competitor.
Make your advertising pay:
Promotional and incentive advertising will pay off. It is what The GRA Group has been creating for wholesale distributors successfully since 1962. Give us a call; we will be more than happy to discuss how promotional and incentive advertising, direct mail, e-marketing, incentives, travel promotions and reward programs can give you an EDGE over the competition.