HOW TO DIFFERENTIATE YOURSELF? 1 customer at a time!

19,200,000 that's the number when I google 'promotional products' even if I narrow it down to Vancouver BC 945,000.

How do I differentiate myself? How do I build a data base of customers? A clientel list?

Well the best way is to start with 1 customer and do a good job. If that works, we do the same for the next customer. Hopefully my customers will actually mention my name to other prospects and they could become customers.

The ball is rolling now so don't get in the way. Be a part of the prospects solution and they will become customers too.

Look after them all. We used to have a little poem

Winter, Summer, Spring and Fall,

Big or Small, we look after them all.

Well it's not shakespeare but you get the idea.

Look after the small orders and the big ones will surely follow. Then when you get big, remember who got you there. Still look after those pesky small orders. That's where you really help the client.

-Take care of the clients needs.

-Make it easy for the client to deal with you.

-Be up front and tell the client what you're doing.

-People dealing with People.

So when does it change from customer to client? Good question.

I think the customer evolved from being a prospect and then they finally bought something and became the customer.

Then a funny thing happens. You get to know the people you're dealing with and they get to know you and comes an intra-trust between you and your customer which I believe brings about the feeling and change from customer to client.

In the same way I think the client will no longer think of you a supplier but as 'our promotional products company'.

PROSPECT - CUSTOMER - CLIENT = Clientel List

Always keep the pipeline full of propects so the customers can find you and the clients evolve.

Easy? No but it will happen with some steady effort on your part.

I'm Rod Winning

At http://www.winningfairways.com/ we try to do all the above. It's working. Please check us out and put us on your list to be your "promotional products company".

rod-fairways@hotmail.com

WHY WOULD PEOPLE BUY FROM YOUR COMPANY? There's lots of companies competing for the business.

My Company provides quality imprintable promotional products, from qualified manufacturers and suppliers with excellent delivery records.

My Company is ready to serve customers with quick, quality work. With personal visit and catalogs we continue to be competitive.

Why should you consider My Company?
There are many promotional products companies all competing vigorously, many offering the same products with excellent prices and service.

What does My Company offer that the others don’t?
The short answer is nothing.

There are many similar companies that are just as good as My Company, by any objective measure.

But bear in mind the following. You didn’t search the world over to find your best friends. Your best friendships are fundamentally happy accidents.. chance combinations of compatibility, shared experience and time.

Likewise, it is meaningless to try & search out the “very best” possible promotional products supplier. A more appropriate approach is to verify that the company meets your technical & financial requirements, and then use your intuition about who you will be comfortable with.

Many business relationships are long distance affairs, by phone, fax and email, sometimes doing business for years without the people actually meeting face to face yet forming strong relationships.

At My Company a primary goal is to do business with people we like and respect.
Our plan—‘give the customer more than they expect’.

How does Your Company stack up?

My Company is Winning FairWays Inc. We sell Promotional Products for Success.

Yours in Networking

Rod Winning
President
www.winningfairways.com rod-fairways@hotmail.com rod.winning@gmail.com

Idea Spotting - Tightly linked to Networking

While looking at new products & suppliers, and gathering speed for our Promotional Products business, I came across a neat book at Chapters.

I've been reading this book called - 'Ideaspotting' How to find your next great idea, by Sam Harrison.

It's one of those little books you can read and keep handy as a manual. 18 chapters with several sub chapters each, filled with life experience, how to, suggestions, self tests, pictures and diagrams, this book will be on my desk for a long time.

Sam's opening page is 'Be an Idea Spotter not a Trainspotter'.
'You can drift toward becoming the trainspotting type by sitting where you are, doing what you're doing and getting what your getting.
Or you can start becoming an IdeaSpotter by climbing aboard. Because this train is leaving the station.'

The first chapter (like all chapters) has a unique title.
NOBODY SPOTS HOT IDEAS IN COLD OFFICES. SO WHY SIT THERE?

Where, Why, When, What & How.

Even some encouraging words in the title of the last chapter. YOU CAN DO EVERYTHING WE'VE TALKED ABOUT.

I'll keep this book handy for ideas on how to get new ideas. The promotional products business is everchanging. Our customers are forcing us to change as most customers want something different than the last order. What's new?

Any way I look at it, we'll always be looking for that new idea so I guess we'd better be looking around at all times. If we get complacent and comfortable with our current successes, we could find ourself slowly drifting out of the loop.

Surround yourself with the right network of people you require for the particular service or product you have.

It is important to know that you can have several networks going at the same time. Not everybody is interested in everything you do just like you are not necessarily interested in everything all your network people do.

ie You may have a musical interest & business and have created a network which works very well for give and get.

You may also be involved with a multi-level sales organization and find that your products / services aren't suited for everyone in your 'musical' network. Simply start another network of people for that interest. Your data base for each network could include some of the same people but each network would be a different list.

I wanted make an opinion about 'Ideaspottin' being linked tightly to Networking. Don't sit by the railway tracks and watch the trains go by. Get on that train. Look around, meet people and see what's out there.

At Promotional Products 101 we'll keep on 'IdeaSpotting' thanks to Sam Harrison.

I'm Rod Winning contact me at http://www.winningfairways.com/ rod-fairways@hotmail.com