"Marketing and Sales 201"
 

Report from the Battlefield;

I learned, long ago, that....the absolute BEST WAY to sell "Corporate Accounts" (for MY type of services)
(It's how I sold the Walgreen Co and other Corps on using MY Alarm Co. when I had an Alarm Biz in Chgo))....
....was to offer a "FREE Trial TEST" of the program I wanted to sell them. (Nowadays, it's an "In Room Advertising" program selling Pizzas for a Pizza Chain of 27 stores...to Guests of Hotel/Motel rooms)

So...I would pick one of their "smaller locations" and offer a "Freebie Trial Test".

In the present case of selling a Pizza Chain on using MY program of selling their pizzas....I chose a VERY small town where one of their stores is located...got the 2 motels in town to allow me to set up MY "In Room TV Stands"....then sent the "Marketing Exec" at Corp Headquarters a fax, explaining what I am doing...along with a Sample of THEIR AD...asking that they simply "approve" my Sample.

Well....as I expected...the "Corporate Marketing Exec" DID respond...changed a couple of things in the ad and said, "Let's see what happens!"

So...it's now been over a month and I just now (Jan 11) got an "OK" from the BIG "Marketing VP" to "Go Ahead" with 7 other locations....in 2 other towns...
...that the "Trial Test" proved out to be (in HIS words)...."Beyond Our Expectations"....and they would be "Paying MY Fee for these locations and, when I was ready with OTHER towns to let them have "FIRST RIGHT OF REFUSAL!"

So....if you are contemplating trying to get business from large Corporate Accounts....the best way I've found that works for ME....is to offer them a "Freebie Trial Test" for a certain period of time (I usually use 30 days) and, if the Trial turns out to be "good"....you are IN.

thanks for letting me share my excitement with you and maybe this will help someone along the way.

Don Alm...."Marketing Guy"

Re: "Marketing and Sales 201"
 

thanks don..!

the free sample approach is good for almost anything...except life insurance !

thanks

Re: Don, as I stated in an earlier post
 

IT is not the pizza joint that needs to be sold and that is almost a waste of your time to concentrate so heavily on 1 pizza chain.

By this I mean, If you really have hotels that will allow you to place these in their rooms, why are you selling the pizza joints on it?
The pizza joints are SOLD already, and if they are not, they have their eyes full of pizza sauce.
I would create a scenario where the pizza joints would "bid" for my real estate!
Understand that if you have the real estate that they want, you are in a sellers market.
You are wasting time and concentrating on one pizza franchise.
Your time would be better spent jumping through the hoops that you say you don't have time for and trying to secure the real property you are after.
This real estate is a 4" x 4" spot on the night stand next to the remote.

For instance, if you were interested in setting this up as you described with a franchise, I would choose securing the real estate first (hotel) and then renting it to the leasor ( pizza joint)

How do you secure the Real Estate you ask?
Maybe through the proper channels ( no pun intended)
If you were interested in Motel 6 ( like the example you previously had on your site) I would go to the link below and fill out the form.

http://a1185.g.akamai.net/f/1185/110...pplication.pdf

This is how things are done in the real world of business.
You can't put the cart before the horse and expect to get anywhere.

Best wishes in '07

Interesting Jason!
 

I'm a little confused Jason and maybe you can shed some light on this.

Don posts on stuff he did and shares his personal experiences here.

You tell Don how he is not doing it right and how he should do things different.

How are you qualified to be preaching to Don?

Have you sold any Motels or Pizza shops a program like this?

If so, who, where and when?

I'm curious because as far I can tell you haven't sold much of anything but you sure are full of advice on how those out there doing it are doing it wrong.

What makes you think you are so right when you yourself haven't done it?

J. Robbins

Humm, excuse me Jason
 

I didn't realize....


how narrowminded young people are.

Your entire post wreaks of youthful sales ignorance. You clearly, do not have a handle on sales, unless it is in the form of a restrictive methodology. Which us "Old Timers" (Thanks James) know from years of DOING IT, one will not last long, if they do not have multiple ways of selling.

The other point which proves where you lack, is that in sales, every person throughout the deal is important. The pizza chain, the hotel/motel, the program, those that will be viewing the finished product, and yes even the lowly sales person.

Just like opinions, there are as many ways to sell. The real world is about trying different ways until you find something that works. It's not exclusively forms and documents.

If this were the case, then the Department of Defense, FBI, DEA, and IRS would not be clients of mine. They became my clients because someone from one of those agencies, many years ago simply called me out of the blue, because they were told I knew what I was doing.

I was willing to stop what I was doing and help them out with a problem they had. Then it began. One agency after another began calling. No forms, no documents, no Dunn & Bradstreet listing, etc...

You say you want to make this a positive thing, why don't you go out and start selling door to door and then come back here and share your knowledge as Don has done.

But at the end of the day Don has scored a large client, which gives him the opportunity to retrieve a testimony from them to put in his sales portfolio, and your opinion becomes mute.

Woody Quiñones
ImpactYourArea.com

Re: "Marketing and Sales 201"
 

Don,

I appreciate greatly your reports from the front line. You truly are someone who has the gumption to get thing done, one way or another.

Although our styles of selling are different, I have learned a great deal from you and I thank you.

This post has thought me ONE GREAT thing. I cannot be YOU. You cannot be ME. But, we CAN LEARN from each other.

Even though I made money with your restaurant guide in Branson, I would have had an EASIER job of it if I just did things within my personality and not try to be JUST LIKE you, a trusted mentor.

That is an important key that even people that have been around a while (like me) sometimes forget.... sheesh!

Thanks for being you!

Millard

Re: Interesting Jason!
 

Re: Humm, excuse me Jason
 

The question here is
 

What is being sold, the motel TV Guide with pizza advertising or the business opportunity

Re: Humm, excuse me Jason
 

Jason,
I am coming up on 38 years in two months. In those 38 years I've started 3 businesses, without a lick of sense, but somehow they became successful and then I eventually sold them all.

Thanks for asking
Woody Quiñones
ImpactYourArea.com

Re: Humm, excuse me Jason
 

Great, drawing on your 18 years extra knowledge than myself, maybe you could help me by answering one of the questions I asked a bit farther down in the same post.

The question my dumb **** can't understand is why would a Big honcho marketing exec from a 27 store operation need someone to help them once the cat was out of the bag?
I can understand that if Don had all of the Real Estate locked up through the relationships he had built they would need him, but why else?
Not being a smart ****, I really don't get it.
Thanks,
Jason

Re: You're excused Jason
 

Hi Jason, Why don't you ask your questions to someone who has been selling this program to Hotels and Pizza chains longer than Don Alm has?

His name is Don Clay and his website is: http://www.claypublishing.com/site_info.php?id=2

Maybe he will be willing to give you his secrets for free but it's not likely.

One thing about Don Alm is yes he sells info but he also gives much of it away for free and the fact is: His info works but only if one is willing to learn and apply it. Plus one needs to have a Can-Do Attitude. Most people have big Fat But's that stop them from doing much of anything but whine.

Cheers,
Steve Shulenski
www.PetPhotographyBusiness.com

Re: Humm, excuse me Jason
 

Good Morning Jason,


Sure, glad to help.


In a word, "VENDOR".


Being that I have dealt with large corporations over the years, I had wondered that very same thing. I use to think, that if the proverbial cat got out of the bag, I would lose business.

But one day a client of mine revealed something to me, which validates what Don does.

From your viewpoint "Why would this executive pay $65,0000-$70,000 a year to Don, when they could do it themselves."

Again, in a word, "Cost". If Don's program saved them one third to two thirds in corporation's expenses then $65,000-$70,000 a year is cheap from the pizza chains viewpoint.

Large businesses are not in the business of doing it all themselves. They contract the work out and are always open to ideas that will save them time, money and manpower, but will make them money and build their business.

Being that there was a free trail period, this gave the pizza chain the time to do a cost anaylsis and measure pizza sales on a daily basis in the targeted cities. There was probably a projected increased amount desired.

For example, if the pizza joint was selling 10 pizzas every friday night for the past 6 months, the desired projection might be 13-15 pizza every friday night during the free trial period.

Even though Don promised 8. A good marketing director uses the +/- when calculating precentages.

If the increase reached or exceeded the projection then Don's program has proven itself. Now the company is ready to move forward and institute Don's program on a contractual basis.

And even with all this raw data, along with program knowledge and advertising locations, successful businesses trust their vendors to keep doing or improving on what they deliver.

This is one less thing they have to do, along with using their personnel to do what a vendor can do for them, faster, cheaper and more efficiently.

As for the real estate end of it. The executive won't upset the balance, if he is in a prime location. The mentality of it says, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it!"

Being that Don has the "IN" with the hotel/motel, sending in someone from corporate, which doesn't have an established relationship, could cost them that prime spot in all the rooms, that is increasing their sales.

Let's also not forget that this marketing director, now has a connection into the hotel/motel chains via Don. It wouldn't be reaching for the executive to consider having Don go into other regions to promote their pizza chain using his methods. My mug program did that for a flooring company, that advertised on my mug.

I hope this makes it a little clearer for you, but more importantly, I hope we can start hearing of your projects and the progress you are making.

Woody Quiñones
ImpactYourArea.com

Re: You're excused Jason
 

I don't disagree with anything that you said above.

With that said, would it be acceptable for me to grab a few of the images from the claypublishing site throw them up on my own site and then tell fantastic stories of how I have been doing this and for a few bucks I will sell you a package that will teach you how to do it?


Or even closer to home, What if I were to lift a few of your portraits from one of your sites and set up a page where I sold similar info via telling stories of what a great photog I was and you to could be great if you bought my info.
What would you do if this happened?

Remember when it did happen?
Did I help you in that case Steve?

Jason

(Looking forward to hearing your promo this Wednesday on Millards show)

Re: "Marketing and Sales 201"
 

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jason
The question I can't understand is why would a Big honcho marketing exec from a 27 store operation need someone to help them once the cat was out of the bag?

Re: "Marketing and Sales 201"
 

Hey thanks Millard....although I'm VERY agressive when "selling" (I "take no prisoners)....YOU did PRETTY GOOD with the "Menu Books".

1) You got the Locations to agree to accept YOUR Books (even though you showed them mine)
2) You got restaurants to participate AND pay YOU
3) You put the Book together and got them to the locations

Now...when "Renewal Time" comes around you will have an easier time.

Also...I just sold another of my Menu Book Programs (this makes the 2nd town) to a "Graphics Business" owner.

The 1st Town was a "fluke" where the owner of a Graphics business contacted me. AND.....this gave me a thought that possibly Graphics Business Owners would be interested in THIS in the other towns I had.

The next town I sent a PostCard to all the Graphics businesses....informing them my "Menu Book" program was "Available" and if they wanted more info to phone my 24hr Recorded Message (This "Recorded Message" thing STILL works like a charm)

To those who left their Name & Addy I sent my "Offering Letter"...giving them the details of what I had set up...what I was charging...how many accounts I had....how many locations....AND...even asking them to "GO TO THE LOCATIONS AND ASK THE PEOPLE AT THE FRONT DESK HOW THEY LIKED THE MENU BOOKS!

Wound up that 2 people were HIGHLY interested and it became somewhat of a "Bidding War".

It would've never dawned on me that the owners of Graphics businesses would be interested in my Menu Books.

So...you might consider selling the Menu Book business that you set up in Branson. I've been meaning to call you and will try to find time this week.

Later....Don Alm