29 Aug No More Cold Calls, Wow Your Clients With Promotional Products

If you have been in sales for even a week, you know about the dreaded gatekeeper. That is the person that screens phone calls and visitors from the management and the “decision makers.” All sales people know that you don’t waste time trying to sell to the secretary or random employees. You have to get to that person who is authorized to make the decision. Now sometimes that might be the secretary or it might be an employee who has been tasked with that duty. You have to ask to find out who makes those decisions, if you don’t already know.

The first answer that you almost always get on a cold cold when asking to speak to that decision maker is, “Do you have an appointment?” or “What is this in regards to?” or “Does he know you?” or some other similar screening question. When you don’t have an appointment or he doesn’t know you, then the standard response is a rejection.

But what if you wooed that gatekeeper from the start by giving him or her a gift? I’m not talking about a cheap pen or a koozie, but a nice gift such as a can cooler or a nice bag? There are thousands of great and useful promotional products to choose for this task. By starting off the conversation with a gift before even introducing yourself, you will be successful much more often in getting through that gatekeeper to that almighty decision maker.

This warming effect of gifts also works with clients as well. I recently met with a client and started off the meeting with handing out gifts to each person in attendance. Those gifts were custom cooler bags printed with the logo of one of our online advertising services, Emerald Coast HUB. The mood instantly changed to a warmer environment and that opened up the client to listen more attentively and respect my advice more. In addition, having some nice promotional gifts with your business logo on them adds a level of professionalism to your company. In the course of everyday business, we run across many different “businesses.” Some of these businesses are one man operations and “fly by night operations.” Professionally printed promotional items help to separate your legitimate business from those just trying to make a quick buck. If you make it a no-brainer for them to discern you from those “shady” businesses, you will instantly get credibility and be more apt to earn that order.

Good luck with your selling and don’t forget to bring plenty of gifts!