Being a Good Partner: How to Be Indispensable to Your Client
/
When mentoring new distributors in the industry, one of the most important pieces of advice I give is make yourself indispensable. When we’re all selling the same “stuff”, sometimes it seems impossible. I suggest that if you become the expert in all things brand, you have a chance to be the your client’s marketing partner and the solution to everything they need!
If a client comes to you and says they are organizing a conference (hopefully soon again!), and are in need of a gift for the guests, you would of course dig deeper to understand the reason for the conference, the message behind the gift, the demographic of the attendees, their budget, timeframe, etc. Those are the normal things one would ask a client before proposing a solution.
That’s where most distributors will stop. I instead will ask… how will you be presenting this gift? Do we have a little room in the budget to add some cool packaging? On another note, if attendees are coming in from out of town, what about an in-room gift waiting for them? How will your team be distinguished? Let’s get them some really nice polos for a professional, cohesive-team look. We can design and print your programs… or even better… how about a journal with the program printed on the tip-in pages? Have you considered the lanyards and badges yet? Let us provide the signage and floor graphics to direct people at the conference. Will you be presenting awards at this conference? We can do those too!
The list goes on and on… and when you’re coming up with creative ideas to tie the message of the conference together… you have become their indispensable marketing partner… not just the promo person!
President
PromoPros | IncentPros, Inc.
Promotions & Incentives Since 1946