Saying Goodbye

Next Wednesday, April 30th is my last day at Progressive Design Apparel.  I submitted my letter of resignation and have been wrapping up my business.  One of the main things I wanted to do was continue to train our new addition.  I’ve also started saying my goodbyes.  I’ve been with PDA for 10 months and it’s amazing how many people can touch your life in that short period of time.

As a teacher, 10 months would be enough time to make a world of difference.  There’s something special about bringing in kids and watching them grow in front of your eyes.  In 10 months at PDA, I’ve not seen as much personal growth, but I have seen a lot of relationships form, change, and even end.  Ten months is a rather short life cycle, but the beauty of short life cycles is they’re easily observed.  And now I have to say goodbye.

I already sent an email to my biggest client.  She’s just a sweetheart to work with.  I’ll miss the fact that no matter what craziness happens, I could get the job done and make her happy.  She’d probably be embarrassed to know how much I like working with her.  And I’d be embarrassed for her to know, too.  But how often do you get a huge client that’s also your nicest client?

I emailed the one client who seems I can never make happy; also a big client.  I walked in 10 months ago picking up the pieces of someone else’s mistakes and couldn’t ever get on this client’s good side.  I bent over backwards the way none of my colleagues could or would have and still couldn’t make her happy.  Of course, I’ve never let on to her that she’s the only person I can’t please, so I did the respectable thing and sent her an email of my departure.  I was sure to include a line about how much I enjoyed working with her.

Although, it’s not the same as saying goodbye to my kids, it’s still hard to say goodbye.  Where will my clients end up down the road?  Will they be taken care of?  Will I ever again cross paths with them? 

I’ll likely never know the answers to those questions, but right now I’ve got bigger questions on my mind.  Where will I be in a year?  Will I be a success?  Will I be happy?  I’m excited about moving forward and growing, but there’s always that uncertainly before embarking on something new.  But you know what?  No one ever found the next great thing in life by staying in the same place.  I have to get out there and explore the world and discover things for myself.  I have the best support system I need, a great wife and a couple of pups who don’t care what I do as long as it involves petting them.

I haven’t decided what to do with this blog yet.  I’ve been doing it for a couple months now, so I’m starting to get decent traffic.  At the same time, I’m going to be less marketing and more sales in my next position.  So my options are ditch this blog, start a new blog more about me personally, start a new blog more about me professionally (like this one), or drop blogging altogether.  I generally say give the people what they want; problem is, I don’t know what you guys want.  I’ll let you know what I come up with, but if you have any suggestions please let me know. 

Sink or Swim at Your Tradeshow

As I mentioned the other day, I attended a tradeshow last week. Now, most tradeshows are arranged so that you can look out over the floor and see a bunch of vendors at the same time. This means your (potential) customers or competitors can watch you; and you can watch them. Just like a predator can tell that its prey is weak, others at the tradeshow will be able to tell whether you’ll sink or swim. How you perform at tradeshow is indicative of how you run your business. I said in my last post that with everyone offering virtually the same product will make price easily the defining factor that separates you from your competition. But it’s really service that should be the big indicator. Taking it even further, in a word, what makes you a winner or a loser in business—or sports; or music; or life—is preparation.

When you show up to a trade show do you have all of your materials? Do you have samples or a demonstration model? Do you know your new products cold? If not, you’re in trouble. Someone will surely ask what makes the ’08 version better than the previous. Or they will think your spiel is great, but if only they could try one or take one with them to show the person who makes the decisions. If people stop by and you don’t have even some literature to show them, you’re just plain out of luck.

On Friday, everyone I met was knowledgeable about their product. That’s obviously a minimum requirement. Past that, there were some people who had a table full of samples; some who had a stack of catalogs and other information; some who had a big presentation setup. In a few cases, the company’s representative had all of these things. I bumped into many of my suppliers and it was easy to tell which ones would get an increase in business from me.

I’ve had one supplier that’s gone through the fire to get one of my jobs done and make my client happy. He was there. And you can bet he was prepared. We’ll call him “Adam;” because that’s his name. My coworker, Traci, came in with me to check out Adam’s setup. He had a giant presentation board with multiple samples of everything his company makes. And when Traci wanted to know if Adam made headphone clips, he filled her hands with samples for her to use. Adam knows it’s a two-for. If he’s prepared and does an excellent job, Traci and I will work with him again. But he also knows if Traci and I are knowledgeable and have samples of his product, we’ll get him even more business because we’ll be prepared.

So the next time you need to go to a tradeshow or send someone to a tradeshow, remember that you can’t fool people if you’re unprepared. Alex Rodriguez couldn’t succeed in the playoffs if he didn’t go to batting practice. And you can’t succeed in business if you aren’t prepared.

Insights From A Trade Show

On Friday I attended a trade show for those of us in the promotional products industry. It was here in Indianapolis, actually just a stone’s throw away from PDA. My fellow colleagues and I headed over, put on the obligatory name tag and began to circulate. Below are the take home messages from my latest trade show experience:

• Hosting a trade show in rooms of a hotel is incredibly aggravating. The rooms are too small to allow adequate flow in, around, and out of the set up.
• The promotional products industry is full of copy cats. Everyone seems to offer the same product, making the only thing that differentiates one company from another is price or service. Some clients will choose price, but in my experience service should be the clear winner. There isn’t enough money in the world to make you look good when you deliver an empty promise of a promotional product the day after an event.
• Despite what it seems like, there is more to the success of a promotion than just buying pens. There are lots of options; you just have to make sure your supplier isn’t lazy and will work to find the right solution for you. For example, there are lots of new and innovative products and ways of making products that might work for you. It just might be worth it for you to spend the extra x% and get your product sublimated.
• The trend in 2008, as I’ve mentioned before, is green promotional products. Pens made out of corn, travel mugs made out of potatoes, tote bags made with organic cotton, 100% biodegradable plastic Frisbees; eco is everywhere this year. I saw each of these items at the show on Friday and even got to take a few of them back to the office. Think about going green so that you’re seen as a leader in your industry and not just the next guy to jump on the bandwagon. You’ll then be able to say, you were green before green was cool.

Environmentally Friendly Promotions

Environmentally friendly (“green”) behaviors and products have fallen in and out of favor in the U.S. for years. I’ll spare you the history lesson, but if 2007 was any indication, 2008 will surely be a big year for being green. There was a time when being green meant sacrificing. It’s likely many people still think they can’t have the best of both worlds. But in 2008 we’ve started to reach a place where luxury, functionality, and environmentally friendly have intersected.

I recently learned about Dell’s new site geared towards promoting being green, while reading a recent blog entry by Lewis Green (last name completely coincidental).

Aside: Even since I read Lewis’ post, there’s been another green post over on Marketing Profs Daily Fix, this one by Stephen Denny; also very much worth a read.

The first thing that struck me about Dell’s new site was “the wall” at the top of the page. In a font that looks like it was handwritten, scrawled across the wall were people’s answer to the question at the top of the page: “What does green mean to you?” Intelligently and completely answering that question is the key to having a successful green promotion.

In addition to answering the question, you’ll need to decide why you want a green promotion. Of course all promotions are designed to increase sales, but is the primary goal of choosing an environmentally friendly promotion:

• to convey to your clients or prospects you share their concerns about environmental issues?
• to retain customers and increase referrals by showing that you’ve taken socially responsible action?
• to break stereotypes of the people and companies who would invest in green ideas?

Certainly I think each is a justified reason to consider a green promotion. However, I do think the most important message to convey to your clients and prospects is proof you’re more than just a buzzword magnet. People want to work with companies and people who “walk the walk.” I think sharing concerns with any group of clients or potential clients is a great way to build value-based relationships and breaking stereotypes is always a noble cause.

To me, green means accountability. No more pointing the finger, we are the only ones responsible for our own actions.

I’ll probably be featuring more green topics in the future. More and more vendors are offering an increasing number of green products that can be used as part of your solution. Just remember a successful promotion depends on more than just finding the right product.

I invite you to both leave your comments on the post and answer the question, “What does green mean to you?”