The New Year is upon us! While I am extremely excited about
the prospects for 2013 I am a little worried about how fast 2012 went by. Is it
just me or are the pages of the calendar turning faster?
Let me set those concerns aside and thank each and every one
of you for your role in making Vernon one of the Best Places to Work in the
promotional products industry. Five years in a row we have been recognized and
I think it goes without saying that we have earned this ranking every single
year.
It all starts with the account executive in the field
working hard to get that next order from their customer or prospect. We know
that it is getting harder and harder every year to get orders that used to be
gimmies. There are no gimmies any more in this business! I hear this loud and
clear all the time from our account executives.
I used to say “work smarter, not harder” in the past. I have
now revised this to say “work smarter and harder” when talking about ways to
get ahead or ways to steal that order away from the competition.
How about the impact of new technologies on our industry and
our way of doing business and our way of life in general. Wow! Where do we
begin?
Social Media sites like Facebook and Twitter and You Tube
and Pinterest and Instagram and .....OK you get the point! When does one have
time to actually sell something? It should be pointed out that there is an
attitude or a prevailing line of thought that if you are not staying up with
these things that you will be left out to lunch with no orders coming your way.
Is this true?
I don’t believe this to be the case! During some recent
meetings in the home office with our Business Development Advisor Group we had
some spirited discussions about the latest technology trends and what they mean
to us. One account executive became frustrated with the direction of the
conversation and he remarked that he did not realize that he was doing
everything wrong. The reality is (and I told him this) was that he was doing
nothing wrong.
His buyers were 100 % comfortable dealing with him without
utilizing all the latest bells and whistles in the technology world. A case
could be made that if he tried to force them to follow him on Facebook or
Twitter that he might actually turn them off and be less likely to get the business.
The bottom line in my opinion is that you need to be in sync
with the buyers that you are calling on. Do you communicate with them the way
they want to be communicated with? Do you meet their needs? Do you listen to
them? This is what really matters!
As we close out the 2012 calendar year and look ahead to
lucky 2013 I ask that you be keenly aware of how your buyers want to work with
you. If you are not sure ask them. If they mention a method of communication
that you are not up to speed with then you need to go out and learn it or say
good bye. We need to be aware of our buyer’s needs and we need to be flexible
enough and adaptable to meet them. The account executives that can do this on a
regular basis are the ones that will be in a position to reap the business. We
can no longer be one dimensional in our selling approach!
So the moral of the story here is “keep an open mind” and
“listen”. We will never stop learning if we can agree to do these two simple
things.
Have you made your New Year’s Pledge yet? I just made
mine....
1.
I will keep an open mind!
2.
I will listen!
Don’t delay, make your pledge today!
