The Power of the Personal Sale for Industry Partners
It’s not enough, in these competitive times, for design industry partners to sell products. Today, more than ever, they have to sell themselves.
If you work for an IP company, think of it this way: it’s never been easier for interior designers and end users to get what you sell elsewhere. But there’s one thing they can’t get elsewhere: YOU.
The most important sale you ever make is the personal one.
In my work as a design industry coach and speaker, the most successful retailers, manufacturers’reps, and showroom employees I meet are the best personal promotors.
They’re as comfortable discussing themselves as they are discussing their services and products. They’re skilled at blowing their horns and tooting their flutes.
These leading vendors understand that personal promotion can help them build trust, convert single sales into long term relationships, overcome price objections and “upsell” more clients, more often.
Members of industry partner companies can distinguish themselves by discussing their special areas of expertise, accomplishments, awards, degrees and other recognition they’ve received.
They can share that information in networking situations, and in their personal marketing materials, company websites, articles, speeches, and even in voicemail messages and email “signatures.”
Self promotion begins with the personal commercial, the brief marketing message which defines what makes you special. The most effective commercials contain the word “only.”
To be able to say that you’re the only area sales rep who formerly ran a residential design firm, or the only local showroom manager with a degree in landscape architecture–that set’s you in a class by yourself.
Savvy industry partners write articles in print and online publications for those they seek to influence. Free publicity is the best advertising that manufacturers and showrooms can’t buy.
A fabricator, for example, can gain considerable visibility and credibility by writing an article in the appropriate outlet on what’s hot and what’s not in window treatments.
Speaking at industry events is another example of self promotion and smart marketing at their best. Design groups often seek speakers, especially if their programs are CEU-accredited.
In the book Sell Yourself! 501 Ways to Get Them to Buy from YOU, I present several strategies retail professionals and others can use to market themselves.
Here are some of them:
Document your deeds.
Maintain a written record of key accomplishments, sales, and career milestones.
The Host dvdrip Establish your expertise.
Become – and promote yourself as — the information source in your specialty area. Share your insights in articles and seminars.
Maximize your marketing materials.
Develop a “Sell Yourself” portfolio that includes a personal promotion photo, a bio sheet, articles by and about you, testimonial letters, and more.
Present yourself with polish.
Take a class to add pizzazz to your presentation skills. Master eye contact and body language.
Communicate with confidence.
Be positive in the words you choose to use, and accentuate the positive about yourself and your services.
Designers don’t buy from companies, they buy from people.
Why should they buy from people like you?
Your ability to answer that question, and to promote yourself, will determine how successful you’ll become.
