The Promotional Products "Dating" Game

I bet that I got your attention...didn’t I? As the Vice President of Sales of a large organization with 325 account executives I am constantly amazed at the variety of “characters” that we have representing us.

There is an old saying that there is someone in this world for everyone and while I think this refers to a romantic link, I also think it is also true of promo salespeople and promo buyers. What do you think?

Do you ever look at someone walking the show floor and say “I wonder who buys from him or her”? Come on...be honest! 

To be fair I believe if you had a huge room full of promotional product buyers we would be equally amazed at the variety.

So every day all across this country, buyers are checking out salespeople to see if they are compatible. Can they get along? Will the relationship be mutually beneficial? Interesting angle...isn’t it?

I can imagine a number of readers are thinking of dirty jokes right about now. You should be ashamed of yourself.

Here I am trying to talk about the very serious issue of working hard to make sure that as a promotional products distributor you do everything in your power to make sure that you are meeting the needs of your buyers and you are thinking about sex. Wow! 

The reality today is that buyers do look for salespeople that compliment them. I talk about the fact that salespeople need to decipher to code, the secret code to find out what makes buyers tick. 

1. What do they want? 
2. What do they need? 
3. How do they like to communicate? 





Can I see you again?

Do you know? Do you care? If you do not know, do you know how to find out?

One solution would be to hire some high priced consultants to work with you and your salespeople. Of course, another solution might be to encourage salespeople to ask the buyers what they want and why? Ask them how they like to communicate.

 Let them know that you do not want to assume anything because you know that wrong assumptions can lead to wasted time or incorrect decisions that make everyone look bad.

One piece of advice that I give our managers is to always go into a situation with an objective in mind. It may be a short or long term objective.

My objective in the aforementioned scenario is that I want all of our account executives to get a “second date” with every one of their buyers. This is how the relationship will grow and develop!

Growing Your Business

I think that it is fair to say that everyone in our industry WANTS to grow their business. Maybe there is a small percentage, a very small percentage of people who say "I'm good" or "I don't need any more orders" but I do not know any of these people.

The iron in the statement "I WANT to grow my business" is that not many of the people who say this are willing to put in the work necessary to GROW their business.

I equate this to going into your backyard every day in the spring and looking to see how your garden is growing. You become frustrated because day after day all you see is dirt with no signs of growth.

Then you realize:

• You did not actually plant any seeds

AND

• You never watered anything.

Thinking of it this way, should you really be surprised that nothing is growing!

But I still hear people say "but I REALLY WANT to grow my business!"

So let's start with a plan.

1. What do want to grow? Perhaps it is your existing accounts. How about generating new customers in a particular niche market like construction or real estate? That might be it. Maybe it not about the company type but rather the size of the company. Are you tired of dealing with mom and pop businesses? On the other side of the coin you might be fed up dealing with the biggest customers, those fortune 500 type companies that put you through the ringer every day? We all know these types that seem to appreciate nothing that we do for them as if it is our obligation and privilege to be of service to them. This is like planting seeds.You need to decide what you want to grow!
2. How big a garden do you want to grow? Gardens take time and effort and resources in order to grow. This is why it is so very important for you to decide how many seeds you want to plant. How big will your garden be? How much can you handle? It makes no sense to prepare a lot the size of a football field only to find out that you can not actually do the work necessary yo care for it properly.
3. OK now we know what we want to grow. We know the size of the garden. But do we know what it takes to tend the garden? Our plan must include the details on how best to take care of the garden to assure that we get the desired results. We want to have a successful crop if we are going through the trouble of step 1 and step 2. This might seem like common sense however we have all planted flowers and watered them once per week only to see them die in a very short time. The, in the process of throwing the dead plants out we find the little instruction card that reads "For best results, water once daily". Now you tell me....

So as we enter a new year, 2013 we see many challenges and responsibilities that we are faced with but we also see opportunities! Let's not repeat the errors of the past. Let's learn from our mistakes! Let's not be here one year from now saying what happened? How come my business did NOT grow? We now know the reasons! Finding ourselves in this place would be insane and many of you have already heard or been told the definition of insanity.

"Insanity is defined as doing the same things over and over again but expecting different results. It NEVER works!"

We all need to change our game plan!

To learn more about planning or GROWING your business read more

Keep your eyes and ears open to the future!

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!

To check out The Vernon Company

A shameless plug...

It is rare that you will catch me doing this but I feel compelled to do this today.

I want to make sure that all PPAI members know that I am running for a spot on PPAI's Board of Directors.

I feel uniquely qualified in that I have been in the promotional products industry since 1989. I worked my way up through the ranks to the position that I have today as Vice President of Sales of The Vernon Company.

I have been involved volunteering at the national level with PPAI for the past dozen years. Working with the Awards Committee, the Leadership Advisory Committee and currently the MAS/CAS Certification Committee has allowed me to get to know hundreds of association members, small and large, from the supplier side, the distributor side and service providers as well.

One of my current passions is the promotion of PPAI's education services. With issues involving product safety and legislation on the rise, staying on top of things with my own personal education (my MAS certification) and promoting education certification to our account executives is a top priority.

PPAI needs to continue to promote the value of their education tools and efforts. I am in a great position to help them to do this. Having an MAS degree enables me to push these efforts because I have been there. I am practicing what I would be preaching!

At Vernon, we have account executives located all across the country with our current roster totalling about 325 individuals. They are productive members of the industry with needs and concerns similar to any distributor in the industry. Vernon holds membership status in all of the regional associations and we are actively involved in many.

We have three of our AE's who are currently Presidents or President Elect of their respective associations. We have two people on the PPAI Committees with another two members participating on the editorial council in addition to the Woman's Leadership Team.

The bottom line, is that I am connected! 

 We are connected. 

I have long believed that we need to give back to this great industry of ours and my track record shows this.

PPAI Voting is open from September 4th through October 4th.

Have you voted yet? Every PPAI member firm gets one vote!

I encourage you to vote today. Do not delay! 

I would appreciate it even more if you select Dave Regan when you exercise this right. I am excited about the opportunity and I am "all in" because as anyone who knows me would tell you, I do not do anything half way!

Thanks for considering to cast a vote for me!

For more info on my background:
Dave Regan, MAS

To Vote :
https://eballot4.votenet.com/ppai/

You can make a difference!

Do you believe this statement?

I hope so because it it TRUE!

Whether we are speaking about making a difference by voting in the upcoming Presidential Election or voting in PPAI's Board of Directors Election to choose the new additions to the Board of Directors you play a role.

I am confident that I can make a difference and that is why I have chosen to run for the PPAI Board spot open to one distributor this fall. The voting begins September 3.

To learn more about me click here.

In addition to my passion for the promotional products industry, I am also very involved in helping special needs children. I must admit that I did not choose this path as much as it chose me with the birth of our second daughter, Katie, in 1994. Now 17 years old and quick to remind me (almost daily) that she is a senior in high school, she has opened up a whole new world to me.

This world has shown me that many of us, myself included, take way too many things for granted in this life of ours. Simple things are not so simple to many people in this world!

Things that many of us think are our biggest priorities in life really do not matter that much in the big picture. Perspective is a relative term but it greatly affects the way we view things around us and the way that we treat other people.

I am getting better at realizing this, with the help of my daughter Katie, as she helps me, my wife and my other daughter Erin (19) focus on the simple things in life. She has an incredible knack of finding the positive in everything.

We all know the old saying that weighs whether the glass is "half full" or "half empty". While I can understand that one might have a decision to make if they viewed an eight ounce glass with four ounces of milk in it however what if the glass was always full in your world?

What if you took it upon yourself to fill the glass up to the top so that there was no doubt to those around you? Do you add energy to those around you or zap the energy out of those around you? Think about this! Can you answer this?

For those of you that may have missed it, I reference a very personal story on perspective that I wrote about a few years back. Not a day goes by when I do not think about this story. It has been a life lesson for me.

I am not perfect, far from it, as I am reminded by the others around me at work, home and play but I know that I have a choice in how I act today. I know that I can make a difference. I can make a conscious decision when I get up each day to make a positive contribution to society in some way.

The picture at the top of this post shows Katie playing baseball in her Miracle League in Des Moines. Approximately 300 children with a variety of disabilities come together each Saturday in the spring and the fall to get out and have fun. Each game includes about 30 volunteers who choose to make a difference by assisting, and make a difference they do for a few hours each weekend.

Honestly as I watch the volunteers and their reactions as they view a young blind girl, a housemate of my daughter, hit the "beeper" ball that makes a sound as it is pitched, I wonder who is getting more out of this event.

In my mind this is truly a win-win where each participant, the child playing baseball with their friends and the "buddy" who is assisting them, gaining a great deal!

Don't ever question whether or not you can make a difference! There is no doubt that you can make a difference. The question is whether or not you will CHOOSE to make a difference!

Take the plunge. You will not regret it!

How are you?

How are you? Really?

We hear it all the time. We probably even say it all the time, every day to friends and co-workers.

How many of us listen to the answer that comes back. My guess is not too many because we really do not care. We are caught up in our own little world with all our own issues and problems.

People that know me well have probably heard my answer to the question "how are you?" many times.

I quickly respond that I am doing GREAT but it is still early and lots of stuff can go wrong!

Who knows why I say this? I think initially I was just tired of saying F-I-N-E, especially when I wasn't fine as I was unhappy about something in my life. Eventually I was responding like this because of the reaction I got from people. Most people stopped in their tracks. I then tell them that actually I am doing well. I am having a good day.

We all have a choice in what kind of day we are going to have. Hopefully you believe this! If not, I feel very sorry for you. You can focus on the things that you have control of or those that are out of your control. This one decision will dramatically influence what type of day you have.

Control or No Control...that is the question!

Almost 25 years ago, after going through some significant personal struggles, the light bulb went on in my life that if I could just stop myself long enough to ask this question when I find myself in a situation or dilemma...

Can I change the situation that I am in or is it out of my control?

Being able to ask this question and answer it honestly will guide you though your days. This does not make them or assure that they will all be perfect but I guarantee you that will give you a lot more good days than bad days.

How are you today? I am good and I mean it!

The Power of a Smile

It is mind boggling when you consider the "power of a simple smile". At Vernon we recently kicked of a new initiative called Get Your Smile On. This is a simple program encouraging all employees to accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative in the workplace.

It has long been known that attitudes can be contagious, both good ones and bad ones. Many times in the past I have written about this while focusing on the negative attitudes.

We are only a few weeks into this company wide initiative and I am blown away by what I am calling the multiplication factor of a smile and a positive attitude. It is a special thing when two people work together on a problem or a project where they both are smiling and positive. It is even more amazing when three or four people come together. This is where you really start to see some great things happen.

We all have those negative people in the workplace. You know what I mean. Everyone knows who the person or persons are at their company....right. Everything always stinks in their mind! Everyone else is out to make their day miserable!

What happens to this person or persons when the three or four people around them are smiling and positive all day long? To be honest we are in the early days of our program but I really only see a few options.

#1 They start to think about it and they begin to change their attitude and they actually smile. This may cause you not to recognize these people and you may in fact need to be introduced to them as the contrast will be so significant that it may appear that you have a new employee!

#2 They do not change anything. Their attitude remains crappy and in fact now they have something else to complain about...all the positive people around them who appear to be enjoying their jobs. You may even hear them use the word "brown-nosers".

#3 This last option really is related to 2. Their attitude remains lousy but since they really stick out like a sore thumb one of the positive people in the department actually speaks up and calls them out on their bad attitude.

Options #1 and #3 seem to be positive to me while #2 could be problematic if the employee is not dealt with.

At this point in time I feel very fortunate to be working for a company where the majority of the people are smiling. They are genuinely positive! The kickoff of this new program has resulted in most all of us looking in the mirror, literally and figuratively, to see how we look and how we are approaching the workplace. Are we happy? Do we act it? Do we look like we are happy? We are also taking more note of how our attitude impacts others around us?

This is a real revelation to a lot of us. The prevailing thought was that what I do and how I act only affects me but we now know that to be DEAD wrong!

Vernon's Get Your Smile On Program is a simple one but a powerful one that can and will dramatically change the company in how we work with each other as well as our dealings with those outside the walls of our company.

It has me SMILING all throughout the day!

Get Your BRAND On!

At the Vernon Company we believe in keeping our eyes and ears open to see what is hot in the world of new marketing methods and techniques. Here is one that you just have to see to believe…

I Wear Your Shirt

http://www.iwearyourshirt.com/

Jason Sadler and his team have received attention from many of the mainstream media giants who are paying attention. They have been written up in the NY Times and the Wall Street Journal in addition to receiving exposure on CBS and MSNBC to name a few. Jason is one of the most unique individuals that I have ever met. He is creative to the nth degree and certainly one would classify him as a consummate promoter of his services as well as any of his clients. Today we have asked Jason’s team to help tell people about The Vernon Company.

Check out their site as their team comprised of other interesting characters Deandre (TX), Sarah (CA), Sean (MI) and Bimini (NY) do what they do to tell you more about who we are. When you visit www.iwearyourshirt.com you will see how they utilize their creative talents to tell a story. We know the Vernon Company has a good story but we hope you enjoy how they tell it today.

Thanks for taking a minute or two to see what they do!