Top Secrets Of Promotional Products Sales

When prospects don't respond, think in terms of what gets your attention, what gets you to respond? What makes you want to respond when someone else is reaching out to you? That can also be a great indicator of what you may want to be saying to the other person to try to get a response from them. Now, they might not respond to exactly the same things that you respond to. But it's possible they will, and it's not a bad place to start. David: Hi, and welcome to the podcast. In today's episode, co-host Jay McFarlane and I will be discussing why people don't respond. Welcome back, Jay. Jay: Hey, thank you so much David. This is something that frustrates me in the process when I've made a good faith effort, I'm expecting a response and I get crickets and it, you know, it's one of the hardest things to deal with in sales because you got to constantly be remotivation yourself and when you're not getting a response back, it's hard to stay motivated. David: It is. And it's hard to not take it personally sometim

I've seen situations like that where people are making excuses instead of sales. Somebody had planned to sell something and was talking about it for a long time, and all the dominoes had to be lined up just right before they'd flick it, you know, flick one of them and get it going. And ultimately nothing happened. Sometimes we have a great idea, but then it's like, "oh, it seems like too much work" or "I don't want to do it," or "I'm scared," or whatever the deal is. And unfortunately, you're building bridges to nowhere when you do that. David: Hi, and welcome to the podcast. In today's episode co-host Jay McFarland and I will be discussing making excuses instead of sales. Welcome back, Jay. Jay: Thank you so much, David. Such a pleasure to be here. And I'm excited about this topic. And I'm just going to be brutally honest upfront. I'm guilty of this very thing. As I've been involved in sales and sometimes numbers would drop, and the first thing I'm saying is, "well, it's this," or, "well, it's that."

To grow your client base proactively, you have to do more than just post stuff. It's about initiating conversations. And if you think of your social media content as your first contact, and you recognize that the goal of the first contact is to initiate a second contact (which means to get a response,) then your likelihood of success is going to be greatly increased. David: . Hi, and welcome to the podcast. Today, co-host Jay McFarland, and I will be discussing the topic of growing your client base proactively. Welcome, Jay. Jay: Hey, thank you for having me on. I'm super excited about today's topic. David: Yeah, it's great to have you here. Jay: Yeah, I, I know this is a big question for businesses. I've heard the phrase, if you're not growing, you're dying. And so growth is a constant thing that you have to be thinking about. How do you do that proactively? David: It's a great question because so often we get caught up in the day-to-day of what's going on. Particularly in the early stages of a bus

If you think in terms of seasonality and counter-seasonal selling, does your business have a normal seasonality? Something that you know and can plan for? It's important to look at that. Look at your history. See if there are peaks and cycles that you might not even be aware of. If it's random, if it seems to go in peaks and cycles, try to figure out why that might be the case. If you look at certain types of clients that do business with you in certain times of year, that might be a good clue in terms of what kind of counter-seasonal business you might want to look at. David: Hi, and welcome to the podcast. In today's episode, co-host Jay McFarland and I will be discussing counter-seasonal selling. Welcome back, Jay. Jay: Thank you so much, David. You can have those booming months and then all of a sudden the bottom drops out and are you ready for it? Do you have a plan? And can you even survive it? And I think this is where a lot of companies fall down. And they don't survive it. Because they're not

When we talk about selling beyond features and benefits, we did sort of discuss the idea of trying to elicit some emotions from people. try to find out what they really want. Then we can start to focus more on emotions and experiences. What is the emotion you want to have them feel when they are taking advantage of this purchase? What is the experience you want them to have after they've purchased it? David: Hi and welcome to the podcast. In today's episode, co-host Jay McFarland and I will be discussing the idea of selling beyond features and benefits. Welcome back, Jay. Jay: Thank you so much, David. This is an important topic for me because I feel like so often if we just convince them that the features are perfect for them or the benefits are perfect for them, then we'll get the sale. When as so often, what we've talked about, it's more about relationships than it is features and benefits. David: Yeah, and we did touch on this topic a couple of weeks ago in the podcast, and I thought it was worth

To maximize trade show revenue, switch the mindset from, "I'm here to meet people and give away stuff" to "I'm here to collect leads." This changes the entire dynamic. When she did that, she came back from the trade show, we were having a conversation and she said, "I've never had a show like that. I got so many leads. I have all these people I'm going to be following up with. You know, we had great conversations." And all it is, is a shift in the dynamic, a shift in the strategy and the overall approach. Going from "I'm here to be here and to see people and schmooze" to "I am here to collect leads, follow up on those leads and make sales." If you do nothing other than that, you're going to maximize your revenue from trade shows. David: Hi and welcome to the podcast. In today's episode, co-host Jay McFarland and I will be discussing how to maximize trade show revenue. Welcome, Jay. Jay: Hey, thank you for having me on, David. I hope everybody had a wonderful holiday and have big plans for the great new

To hit the ground running in 2023, we can start by taking responsibility. Whenever we blame outside factors for things that go wrong, we immediately forget that there are things we can evaluate in ourselves to say, okay, well even if this is the case, even if this was just a terrible prospect, are there things that I could have done better and differently in this circumstance to create a better outcome? And almost inevitably, the answer is going to be yes. But in order for that to happen, we have to consider it. And we have to think, is this actually what I want to do? And if you do that, you're just going to feel better about yourself. You're going to feel better about your situation. Because you're allowing yourself some level of control in the situation rather than simply delegating the failure to outside factors and assume you're a victim and there's nothing you can do about it. David: Hi and welcome to the podcast. In today's episode, co-host Jay McFarland and I will be discussing how to hit the grou

Today, we'll discuss how to use the Big APE™ this week to plan the new year. Very often we say we're going to prioritize time with our family and our loved ones. And we do this every year, January 1st, going to spend more time with the people we care about, the people we love. And then by March, it's back to life as usual, right? So if we decide what we're going to prioritize, who we're going to prioritize, and again, the flip side, what am I going to deprioritize? Who am I no longer going to prioritize in terms of allocating time? Those things as well allow you to live a far more proactive life. And it allows you to really start living the kind of life that you want to engage in. David: Hi, and welcome to the podcast. In today's episode, co-host Jay McFarland and I will be discussing using the Big APE this week to prepare for the new year. Welcome back, Jay. Jay: Well, I'm so glad to be here. David. I have to tell you, after Christmas my number one tendency is just to kind of want to detox, you know,

I think the best holiday gift is to make the most of ourselves, when it comes to personal development, whether that means sales and marketing training, whether it means personal training, whether it means meditation, whatever it is for you, prayer, whatever it is that allows you to get to a place where you can really focus, really be present, and be your best for yourself, and those around you, is really important. David: Hi and welcome to the podcast. In today's episode, co-host, Jay McFarland and I will be discussing the best holiday gift you can give yourself and your family. Welcome back, Jay. Jay: Thank you so much, David, for the opportunity to be here. And I love this question. It's a little off track from some of the things that we normally talk about. But I think as we talk about running your own business and the amount of time that it takes, taking a little bit of time out to think about your family and how you can make their holidays special, I think it's a critical topic. David: Yeah. And o

When you think about the idea of quiet quitting, and sticking with it, that just seems to me to be a soul-sucking activity. If you keep going back to the same job that you can't stand and you're producing at low levels because you don't like the way you're compensated, do something better for yourself! David: Hi and welcome to the podcast. In today's episode, co-host Jay McFarland and I will be discussing Quiet Quitting. (Whispers) Hi Jay. Welcome. Jay: Yeah. Hey, David. It's great to talk to you. We live in a world where these new terms pop up and keeping up with the terms is so difficult. So I think, first of all, we should probably define it for people. If they haven't heard the term quiet quitting, what is it referring to? David: Okay. Well, I looked this up before we got on here because I wanted to have a definition that isn't just me talking off the top of my head. Basically what they said online, when you Google it, the first one that came up said, quiet quitting refers to a rising trend where

Are you invisible to your target market? Do they even know you're alive? This goes back to the idea of money versus time. Because one of the advantages of social media is that if you have more time than you have money, you can spend more time posting and contacting people directly on social media. If you have more money than you have time, then you can run ads and you can get your ads in front of people without having to sit in front of the computer all day. So there are definitely different ways to accomplish this. If you want to become visible though, you have to have one or the other. You have to have time or money. You can't be out of both. Well, I have no money and I have no time to do this. Well, at that point, you're out of business. David: Hi, and welcome to the podcast. In today's episode, cohost Jay McFarland and I will be discussing the topic of, Are You Invisible to Your Target Market? Welcome back, Jay. Jay: Thank you so much, David. This one is tough for me because when you know you ha

To become a 100K a month producer without losing your marbles means building your business properly. The issue that I've seen with a you-centric business is it's almost like you're building a cocoon around yourself. You're starting out with this business and you're doing things, and the more things you do, the more you're weaving this cocoon around yourself, and you sort of isolate yourself in the middle of everything. And then when it comes time to grow, you don't really know how to do it because you're stuck in the middle of this whole thing. And so for most people who want to grow beyond what they're just capable of doing themselves or who want to create a business that could exist separately from them, where they could say, "I own that business, but I'm not operating in it every single day of the week." That requires an entirely different mindset and entirely different approach. David: Hi and welcome to the podcast. In today's episode, cohost Jay McFarland and I will be discussing how to become a 100K

When you think about what top performers do better and differently, consider this. It's almost impossible to overfill your sales pipeline. So if you focus on making sure that you've got more there than you actually need, you're going to be in much better shape. Just look at the numbers, if you've got a hundred people in your pipeline and 1% of them close today, you made a sale. If you've got ten people in your pipeline and 1% of them close today, you did not make a sale. So from that standpoint, just the basic numbers say you want to make sure that you've got enough qualified leads in your pipeline so that somebody can close today. David: Hi, and welcome to the podcast. In today's episode, cohost Jay McFarland and I will be discussing what $100,000 per month producers do better and differently. Welcome, Jay. Jay: Hey, thank you so much, David. I really can't wait to talk about this, because it will allow people to look at what they're doing and compare themselves. And sometimes when you don't have th

In a special Saturday edition of the Top Secrets podcast, David Blaise explains to co-host Jay McFarland why 100K per month in promo sales is not just doable, it's also a decent, worthy goal for promo distributors who aren't there yet. Comment below and let us know if you agree or disagree. David: Hi, and welcome to the podcast. In today's episode, cohost Jay McFarland and I will be discussing the significance of each $100,000 in promotional product sales. Welcome back, Jay. Jay: Hey, it's great to be back with you. David, and I really want to talk about this topic a little bit. I know you've put a lot of emphasis on that first hundred thousand dollars. What makes that so significant, so special? David: Well, that's a great question. I mean, it's the first hundred thousand dollars, it's every a hundred thousand dollars thereafter. And there's no real magic significance, I don't think. But if you bring in a thousand dollars sale or a $2,000 sale or a $5,000 sale -- and I'm talking in the promotional p

Hi, I'm David Blaise and over the past few days, I've been sharing some resources designed to help professionals in the promotional products industry to achieve some of the financial goals that are important to them, including your next 100K in promo sales. Last week, I released a free ebook entitled How to Make $100,000 Every Month in Promotional Product Sales. To some people, that sounds like a lot of money. To others, particularly those who've already achieved it, it might sound just like another day at the office. So on Monday of this week, I released a video entitled "Your Next $100,000 in Promotional Product Sales." If you're brand new to the industry, your next hundred thousand in promotional product sales might be your first hundred thousand. If that's the case, then hopefully that topic might seem pretty exciting to you. If you've already done a hundred thousand dollars in promotional product sales, then your next 100K will get you to $200,000. That would be double. So hopefully the idea

I think for people who are looking to compete with internet sellers, one of the things they can do is say, "Yeah, you know, now anybody can set up a website. Anybody can say anything they want. But what if something goes wrong? Who are you going to talk to? You know, if you and I are working together, if there's a problem, I'm going to be the one to handle it. Do you know who'd be handling it on the other end?" David: Hi, and welcome to the podcast. In today's episode, cohost Jay McFarland and I will be discussing how to compete with internet sellers. Welcome back, Jay. Jay: Thank you, David. So glad to be here, and this is a big deal. I've found sometimes I don't even know that there's an internet seller that I'm competing with. In fact, the other day I was trying to send somebody to our website and we found out somebody had grabbed a domain very close to ours. They're offering a close product of ours. And now, every time somebody mistypes in our domain, they're going to go to one of our competitors.

If you recognize that more is never the solution to too much, then you can really start to think about what actually has to be done? What could potentially be eliminated so that I can focus my time and attention on the most important things that are actually going to move the needle for myself and my business? David: Hi and welcome to the podcast. In today's episode, cohost Jay McFarland and I will be discussing the topic more is never the solution to too much. Welcome back, Jay. Jay: Thank you so much. I love the title of this podcast and I think it embodies something that we all do. Sometimes we think that because something's not working, it means we're not throwing enough at it. So let's just throw more and throw more and throw more, and that will solve the problem. And perhaps we're making it worse. Or at the very least, we're wasting a lot of time and money that could be used more effectively in other places. David: Yeah, so often people talk about, and we've talked about in the past, time managem

I think just the idea of initiating first contact versus cold call is a lot more exciting. It's a lot less intimidating in most cases. I started using that phrase after I saw an old Star Trek movie where they referred to first contact as being your first contact with an alien species. And I just thought, wow, that has a lot of correlations with sales. Where you're approaching somebody and you really don't know what you're getting into. Strange new worlds and all that sort of thing.... David: Hi and welcome to the podcast. In today's episode, cohost Jay McFarland and I will be discussing the idea of initiating first contact with a new prospect. Welcome back, Jay. Jay: I'm so glad to be here, David, and I'm excited to talk about this issue because to me, personally, this is one of the hardest things to do. I'm fine once that first contact has been made. I feel like I'm really good at building relationships and closing. David: Mm-hmm. Jay: But I'm terrified about making that first contact and I'm not re

I would say the number one thing that helped me the most with overcoming call reluctance is when I realized the people who are likely to yell or scream or be angry or be obnoxious or belligerent, they're not the people we're doing it for. We are doing it for the needles in the haystack. We're doing it to find that perfect-fit customer that needs what we have to offer, and who was waiting for someone like us to come along. David: Hi, and welcome to the podcast. In today's episode, cohost Jay McFarland and I will be discussing the idea of overcoming call reluctance. Welcome back, Jay. Jay: So glad to be here, David. And I really want to hear your feedback on this topic, because this is something that I struggle with. I've been put in sales positions in the past. I have a list of leads. All I have to do is pick up the phone and dial those numbers, and I can't bring myself to do it. Which is funny. I can do it, if it's a qualified lead and they're expecting my call, or if they've set an online appointment

Uncovering customer needs is critical. Essentially, Maslow's hierarchy of needs implies that when one need is satisfied, another one is likely to pop up. Once I've got this satisfied, then I'm going to be working on this, and then I'm going to be working on this. It's human nature. So if you recognize the fact that the needs are constantly going to be changing and you adopt a policy of constant requalification with your people -- staying in touch, building that relationship, and finding out what they need next -- you're going to be in much better shape. David: Hi, and welcome to the podcast. In today's episode, cohost Jay McFarland and I will be discussing the idea of uncovering customer needs. Welcome back, Jay. Jay: Thank you so much, David. It's such a pleasure to be here. I think that this is another great topic because a lot of times we just decide on our own what we think the customer needs, right? So we formulate that in our mind and we try and force that square into a round hole. You're probably