Episode 228: Six Distributors Answer the Question, "How Do You Attract New Clients?"

Welcome to Skucast, the podcast for entrepreneurs in the promotional products industry. Skucast shines a light on our industry's best work, features maverick personalities, and discusses what's really involved in running a modern promotional products business. Skucast is the official podcast of Commonsku.

Hi friends, I'm Bobby LeHew, Chief Content Officer at Commonsku, and welcome to our monthly episode called Open Mic. Once a month, we take your questions about a challenge you are having in your business and ask members of the community or a member of our team to help provide solutions. Today's question comes from Warren Shuya with Encore Promo based out of Edmonton, Alberta. Warren asks, in this crazy world of merchant promo, what is a unique but simple way to attract new clients? To answer Warren's question, I reached out to a few friends for their advice, all of them pros at attracting new business. Stephanie Taylor is with Hello Promo based out of Phoenix, Arizona. Stephanie and her fellow co-founder Jamie Moore are going through an incredible growth season right now. Stephanie said this: I always love to start by sending new clients one of our self-promo boxes, which is custom from head to toe. We send everything out in a custom box, which includes our new client welcome kit. I love this because it showcases our creativity and capabilities. I think some clients only think of you for a specific product category. This is a great way to show them that the possibilities are endless. It has worked great for me. Sarah Whitaker, an amazing entrepreneur from Branded, a division of Williams Advertising from Hopkinsville, Kentucky, said this: I think leading with our most creative product itself is always good, as it's a great way to cut through the clutter. We lean heavily on our content marketing, whether it's social media being real and engaging, insight on blogs that's useful or maybe repositions the way someone thinks about promo, or being consistent with email marketing to send out new product ideas. Good old-fashioned networking has worked for us as well, and asking for referrals from existing clients that we've made happy. I'm also really big on involvement in the places you want to be. So maybe that's a trade show or sponsorship. Maybe it's volunteering or serving in some capacity. I think whatever you do, it's got to be natural to both the way you do business and the way your customers consume information and participate in things that align well for you both. And Warren, I want to emphasize something Sarah Whitaker said. She said, asking for referrals from existing clients that we've made happy is one of the most important ways to open new business. 84% of new business opportunities come from existing clients. But if you ask for a referral from your client in the middle of their busy day, they often return with vacant or weak answers. Asking for a referral is about timing. The perfect time to ask for referrals is when you deliver at a heroic moment. You are always bailing your client out of a jam with either last-minute product ideas or maybe a high-profile project for their executive team. You're constantly being a hero to your customer. When you deliver on that special project, that's the time to ask for a referral. The client feels appreciative and wants to express their appreciation. Use that heroic moment as leverage. If you develop that as a regular habit, you'll develop a pipeline of active opportunities. John Vo is the president of LA-based Woopla and is one of the most respected creative minds in the business. He's known to create six-figure opportunities simply from his incredible and imaginative kits. His mission is to banish boring from business, and he does do that. John wrote, we attract and acquire new clients by sending a swag kit that is such an amazing experience that they can't help wanting to work with us. The kits demonstrate our creativity, resourcefulness, and shows that we have our fingers on the pulse of what's exciting and relevant. All the things you want in a marketing and merch partner. In fact, Warren, if you'll go to John Vo's LinkedIn page or Instagram @johngvo, you'll see his latest campaign, which is a tiki bar in a box. My favorite piece, the hibiscus syrup crafted by, of course, Trader Vo's. Jake Chanson is Chief Experience Officer at Meridian Direct, a 40-year-old company with 3 distribution centers based out of Chicago. Meridian offers a wide range of services, including printing and signage, and they strive to become a one-stop solution, which may help shed some light on Jake's answer, which is very solutions-driven. Jake wrote this: Meridian tries to identify the opportunity based on simple research about the company size and scale. Then we prospect based on the opportunity to provide a custom outreach to really capture their attention. This typically involves custom packaging to the recipient plus a Meridian brand book, plus custom merch or a gift, or even virtual custom merch. Our pitch always includes an overwhelmingly obvious solution to their needs. Essentially, we try to identify upfront what our partnership will offer: efficiency through technology, customized brand solutions, and price savings through vendor consolidation. Now, you didn't ask this, Warren, but we have a bonus question and an answer. After you've landed that client, the question is, what do you do? What do you do when you first land a brand new customer? I asked Naveen Bansal, president and CEO of Outreach Promotional Solutions. Naveen and his wife Sunita run a multiple award-winning agency based out of Columbus, Ohio. He spent 8 years in corporate strategy and finance. Naveen wrote this: Since new clients typically have worked with previous companies in our space, I always try to understand what they value the most and what pain points they've had with their service experience. This lets them know we are listening to their needs and allows us to align our team to deliver outstanding service. We set up a discovery meeting to go over the complete scope of solutions, branding needs, service approach, product interests, and more. For our store clients, we create a one-page guide to help our customers as they use our platform. That's it for this month's Open Mic. Thanks, Warren, for your question, and thank you, Stephanie, Sarah, John, Jake, and Naveen, for your responses. If you have a question you want to ask the community, email me, bobby@commonsku.com, or give us a shout on social. You can find us at commonsku. Today's episode was brought to you by commonsku, the work from anywhere platform that powers your connected workflow, enabling you to process more orders and dramatically grow your sales. To learn more, visit commonsku.com. Until next time, my friends.

Thanks so much for tuning in to this episode of SkuCast. Be sure to keep up with our latest content by subscribing to SkuCast on iTunes or to our blog at community.comandskew.com. Until next time, friends, thanks so much for listening.