Top Secrets Of Promotional Products Sales

Last week, we talked about the sort of entry level awareness that’s required before you can start selling to anyone. This week, we’ll kick it up a notch and discuss the type of awareness you’ll need to create if you want to truly make a name for yourself, become a recognized force in your market, […]

If there’s one ability necessary to begin creating an environment in which the people best suited to doing business with you have an opportunity to do so, it’s not bonding, it’s not rapport-building and it’s not schmoozing. It all starts with awareness. Simply letting people know you’re alive. One of the biggest issues that I’ve […]

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been talking a lot about the idea of dominating your market. It’s a topic that resonates with a lot of business owners and salespeople, but it also appears to make some people uncomfortable. So today, instead of talking domination, I’d like to talk to you about leadership. Every market […]

A few weeks ago, I posted a podcast and conducted a live training session in Chicago on the topic of Total Market Domination. Since then, I’ve gotten a lot of great feedback which made me realize that some people might not be comfortable with the title. To me, Market Domination is not a bad thing. […]

So what happens after a customer buys from you? “Thank you, have a good day. Bye-bye!” If the purchase is the end of your sales process, you’re doing it all wrong! I’m back from the ASI Show in Chicago, my last major industry trade show of the year. It’s always such a pleasure seeing our […]

How well does your current prospecting approach work? On a scale of one to ten, how confident are you that your current approach to prospecting — that is, identifying and bringing new clients through the door like clockwork — is completely dialed-in and as effective as it can possibly be? Do you have a clear […]

Most people starting out in our industry have no experience selling promotional products. That’s understandable. Maybe they had previous experience selling other services like print or embroidery, or maybe they had some customer service experience. That’s all fine. But there’s a disturbing trend in our industry now that I would like to see ended as […]

Would you believe that some people thought from last week’s episode that I was saying not to cold call? However did you get that impression?   

Some people hate even the idea of cold calling. Other people swear by it. But generally, at least once a month, someone will either talk to me about the problems they’re having with their cold calling efforts, or ask me my thoughts on it. So today, here’s my two cents. Cold calling. Just saying the […]

In our last episode, we discussed the fact that you can only really build and sustain a profit-focused business if you are consistently creating exceptional value for your customers. What’s a good gauge for whether or not you’re doing that? Ask yourself this: Are you being paid enough for the time you’re putting in? The […]

Recently I was explaining to our Inner Circle and AIM SmartEQP members about how to maximize their revenue within the 3 areas of customer contact, and more specifically, within the 9 focus areas that ensure profitability. Most distributors don’t even know what the 9 focus areas are, let alone how to maximize them, which gives […]

When your best clients talk to other people about you, what do they say? Do they say you’re creative? Do they say you’re responsive? Do they say you’re excellent at coming up with recommendations that make perfect sense for the objectives they’re trying to reach? What if they’re not saying anything about you at all? […]

One of the most important lessons I’ve ever learned in business, is that just because I’m capable of doing something — either well or poorly — doesn’t mean I should do it. And like most business lessons, I learned this one the hard way. In the early days of my career in the industry, I […]

It’s interesting to me that some people in our industry spend so much time talking about selling, thinking about selling and worrying about selling, that they rarely find the time to actually do any selling! The best salespeople I know are essentially machines when it comes to performing the most important and profitable tasks associated […]

In business and sales, we frequently talk about the importance of persistence. And it can certainly be a valuable trait… but only when we’re doing the right things. When we’re doing the wrong things, persistence can be harmful, detrimental or even deadly. One afternoon a few weeks ago, my wife noticed something strange going on […]

As a professional in our industry, you probably differentiate between your online activities, and your offline activities. You may further differentiate between your personal online activities and your business online activities. Or you may just find the whole thing a gigantic distraction. In any event, today I’d like to talk with you about why you […]

Every day in our lives, there are things that need to be done. Sometimes we feel like doing those things and sometimes we don’t. But one thing’s for certain. If you rely on discipline alone — forcing yourself to do things you don’t feel like doing to get them done — you’re probably making things […]

Most experienced salespeople are at least somewhat familiar with the idea of selling to a client’s needs. So how do you do that when prospects feel like they don’t have a need for promotional products? For decades, business owners and sales managers have encouraged their sales teams to sell to the prospect’s needs. Find a […]

I’ve had quite a few buying experiences recently that have left me feeling frustrated, annoyed and kind of sad. Frustrated that people can be so blasé about business, annoyed that I’ve spent money with people who really don’t seem to appreciate the business I’ve given them, and sad that as a society, we seem to […]

Some salespeople in our industry are very good at what they do, but they don’t get to do enough of it, so they don’t get to sell as much as they could, because they’re afraid of coming across as pushy. And that fear can slow them down or even stop them dead in their tracks. […]