10.27.10
Fantastic Product but No Samples
In a recent board meeting, a vendor requested an opportunity to share their fantastic, new fund raising product. He excitedly explained the concept and as he approached the heart of his presentation, he fumbled through his papers, looked around the table and picked up a sports catalog from in front of another member.
He explained as he pointed to the catalog, “Now this program is a great program. If you choose this fund raiser here is what it would look like.” Tracing imaginary lines and pictures on the catalog cover, he attempted to describe the “details” hoping that we would visualize his great product. I’ll admit that he spoke well but his pitch fell flat as we tried to follow the “tracing finger.” If he had the actual product to show and wasn’t counting on our imaginations, he could have made a greater impact.
I wonder… has a rep ever sold a product with the use of adjectives alone, with no samples or marketing materials? Perhaps a few have but the customer usually ends the conversation with, “Well, show me the samples when you get them.” It is vital for the success of a company that is selling fashion to give the customer something to see and to touch. Many companies look at a sample or marketing budget as a necessary evil, a drain on the bottom line and cut the budgets so bare that very few samples or marketing materials make it to the marketplace. And much to the surprise and dissatisfaction of management, sales are down, budgets are not met and inventory is not moving.
In a poor economy it is a balancing act to maintain sensible sample and marketing budgets against lower sales budgets but with the right approach it can be done. Here are a few ideas.
• Insist on having an abundance of samples/literature on your top performing products
•Measure the success of samples/displays/promotions against actual sales (if there are no metrics available, how do you know what was sold and why)
•Enforce fair sample/display budgets with reps; effective use of their budget should show increased sales numbers; if that is not the case, ask the rep, “Why not?” Perhaps the rep needs mentoring on the how and the where of placing samples and displays.
Regards,
Brian Boek
