Two of my children have started a business selling holiday baked goods (note: these are their pies!) Valentines Day is right around the corner, so it’s a good time to be marketing chocolate and cookies, or anything family members might gravitate toward, to express appreciation to each other. But how do my children build their call list? The food is great (see picture), but getting the word out is difficult. “It’s a process of list building,” I tell them. “If you spend all of your time in the kitchen, experimenting with truffles and flavors, you’ll never sell anything”. But, no matter what I say, their tendency is to spend their time on the part they love, sometimes letting the business die a slow death.
Building the list takes time. In fact, you can’t really wait until the list is built, because it never is. It’s a process that takes a lifetime. Every contact should be a consideration, and every contact is, or knows someone who is. With this in mind, we have developed cards with pictures of the treats they prepare, with simple directions to access their “Buy Now” website. And every time they enter a store where they know someone, or meet a new prospect, they should be asking for referrals, handing out extra cards, and collecting more names. It must become their passion to collect and maintain these names, treating each one with respect and gratefulness.
This is the process every sales person must go through as they look to spread their value and identify new prospects. Event marketing depends on it, in fact, any marketing today depends on it, simply because people don’t want to hear from someone they don’t know. In 2012, your business depends on great marketing – events, webinars, campaigns, and referrals…
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© 2012, David Stelzl
