Sometimes a brush off will pay off

Good morning and welcome to another bright and sunny day in the wonderful world of marketing. Unless you're reading this in the afternoon in the rain, but then there's still no reason to not approach your day with glee.

Why am I so cheery? No particular reason - it just seems to me that given a choice between being a grumpy old sod and injecting a little mirth into people's day, it pays to go for the latter.

This week, I'd like to speak to all the sales people out there. You know who you are - actually, some of you don't. Some of you still think that you work in creative departments or marketing or admin, and that sales is someone else's responsibility, but the fact is that if you deal with customers and help them to do business with your company, then you really are in sales.

To the more traditional sales people, let me ask you a question. How many times a day do you get told to "send in some information". Loads? Me too. Next question - how often do you actually do it? Interesting - I imagine that for many people, that second digit is lower than the first. Don't feel bad, we all do it because we think of such things as a brush off.

Nine times out of ten, they are exactly that. Some polite person who wants to get you off of the phone without simply telling you to go away. Now in the olden days, sending information to everyone who asked for it was a costly business. Catalogues can typically cost a company around £5 per head and so it was often thought of as not being worth the money.

But now we have email, everything has changed. A template introductory email costs nothing and takes next to no time to send. Now some of you don't believe in email as a means to introduce your company but think about it - if that potential client isn't going to read your email, then they're just as unlikely to read that glossy expensive literature.

Hold on though. Do you remember I said that nine times out of ten you're being brushed off? That's probably quite generous, but what about that one out of ten that's still out there?

To site personal experience, a few weeks ago I called a major organisation in the hope of doing business with them. This was a cold call - I had no leads whatsoever. The lady on reception not only told me to email in, but she also gave me some generic, impersonal email address. That combination would be enough to put off most people, but as I already had the email written I sent it off, made my notes and then forgot about it.

Imagine my surprise when, a couple of days later, that company's marketing executive got in touch and made an appointment to meet me. We're now speaking regularly and we're hoping to do some very big business together.

The moral of the story? Seriously? You mean you didn't work it out already? OK then - some marketing is FREE. The only investment that you have to make in it is time. Certainly, a clever piece of promotional merchandise can and will open more doors for you, but if you don't position yourself to handle the work in the first place, what would be the point?

Now I may well have just shot myself in the foot. My job is to sell promotional merchandise, but the truth is that I don't see it that way. My job is to help you with your marketing, looking at as many angles as I can and once again, I am happy to dispense this advice for free.

Have a good week in business and please do place a comment here if you feel so compelled.