{"id":25995,"date":"2017-10-05T18:01:50","date_gmt":"2017-10-06T01:01:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/?p=25995"},"modified":"2017-10-05T18:01:50","modified_gmt":"2017-10-06T01:01:50","slug":"nontraditional-avenues-help-reinforce-dealers-sales-and-marketing-tactics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/feature-articles\/2017\/10\/nontraditional-avenues-help-reinforce-dealers-sales-and-marketing-tactics\/","title":{"rendered":"Nontraditional Avenues Help Reinforce Dealers’ Sales and Marketing Tactics"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cold calls, warm leads and hot prospects. It seems most office technology dealerships are fairly adept at taking the temperature of their clients and prospective business partners, but sometimes it takes old-fashioned and sometimes indirect interactions to help set the stage for future work engagements.<\/p>\n

The common denominator is a dealer\u2019s ability to ingratiate itself to the local or regional business community that can foster amity and perhaps lead to a signed contract.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Vince Colaianni, TGI<\/p><\/div>\n

TGI Office Automation of Brooklyn promotes itself through local, outdoor events, and it uses amateur or professional sporting events to get its name out to the business community. The company invites anywhere between 10 and 50 people to games\u2014including their family members\u2014to get to know clients and prospects in a more relaxed and intimate setting.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s had an impact on improving the business conversation,\u201d said Vince Colaianni, director of sales development. \u201cWhen you get to know somebody over a sporting event, whether you\u2019re cheering with someone or against their team, there\u2019s more authenticity in the dialogue going back and forth. That\u2019s when business problems get solved. It\u2019s not unusual to get a contract signed a day or two later.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"

Sandy Faber, Eakes<\/p><\/div>\n

Sports sponsorships have always been useful in increasing name recognition in the marketplace for Eakes Office Solutions of Grand Island, NE. The sponsorships sometimes include customer drawings to win game tickets. Eakes will e-blast the drawing to its client base, directing them to the dealer\u2019s site to fill out an entry form, according to Sandy Faber, corporate marketing manager.<\/p>\n

One of Eakes\u2019 college sports sponsorship includes a time-out activity where student participants compete for the chance to make a basketball half-court shot to win an 80\u201d Sharp television. Faber points out that throughout the activity, Eakes\u2019 banners are on display on the court and its name is announced. One of the lucky winners even made the local evening news, generating free PR.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Quality Digital Office Technology hosts networking events for clients.<\/p><\/div>\n

Quality Digital Office Technology of York, PA, doesn\u2019t use its philanthropy as an ulterior motive to garner more business, as the company is passionate about giving back to the community. Still, its Giving Thanks events have certainly raised the dealer\u2019s esteem in the eyes of its client base. It has donated nearly $50,000 and 17,000 pounds to food banks and soup kitchens in Southcentral Pennsylvania and also collects toys for children\u2019s cancer patients. The dealer also assembles blessing bags for people who are homeless or in shelters, notes Cindy Workinger, vice president of sales.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s something everyone can get behind \u001bbecause everybody wants to help the less fortunate,\u201d she said. \u201cWe sponsor a lot of nonprofits locally and we task every employee to get involved and donate their time to a nonprofit they\u2019re passionate about.\u201d<\/p>\n

From the apropos to nothing department comes a gem that certainly generated style points with the customers of Consolidated Copier Services in McDonough, GA. Late last summer, leading up to the solar eclipse, the dealer ordered boxes of the highly-coveted glasses and handed them out at target accounts right around the time they became difficult to find. While the glasses were ordered weeks in advance, Consolidated Copier Services had no idea they would be such a hit with customers, notes Jordan Roberts, marketing director.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Jordan Roberts,
Consolidated Copier Services<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cEveryone loved the glasses, and it\u2019s such a good way for the reps to get in and target accounts that were maybe cold or a little standoffish towards them,\u201d she said. \u201cBecause of the success we had with them, we\u2019re looking at doing a giveaway once a month. October is National Pizza Month, so we might hand out coupons, for example.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe serve ice cream and have games at networking events. During ribbon-cutting ceremonies, we plan to hand out gourmet chocolate. We\u2019ve also hand-delivered breakfast to customers. It\u2019s all about creating relationships and making it fun to do business with us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Value-added incentives also prove popular with customers. Adam Gregory, owner of Jacksonville, FL-based Advanced Business Solutions, provides custom video tutorials to its clients after the sale. The videos are sent to each individual users of Advanced\u2019s product, which are often not the purchasing agent.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat has not only built customer loyalty, it has kept us in front of the actual users of our product,\u201d he said. \u201cThis has greatly helped with secondary sales of the consumable items.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cold calls, warm leads and hot prospects. It seems most office technology dealerships are fairly adept at taking the temperature of their clients and prospective business partners, but sometimes it takes old-fashioned and sometimes indirect interactions to help set the stage for future work engagements. The common denominator is a dealer\u2019s ability to ingratiate itself to the local or regional business community that can foster amity and perhaps lead to a signed contract. TGI Office Automation of Brooklyn promotes itself through local, outdoor events, and it uses amateur or professional sporting events to get its name out to the business community. The company invites anywhere between 10 and 50 people to games\u2014including their family members\u2014to get to know clients and prospects in a more relaxed and intimate setting. \u201cThat\u2019s had an impact on improving the business conversation,\u201d said Vince Colaianni, director of sales development. \u201cWhen you get to know somebody over a sporting event, whether you\u2019re cheering with someone or against their team, there\u2019s more authenticity in the dialogue going back and forth. That\u2019s when business problems get solved. It\u2019s not unusual to get a contract signed a day or two later.\u201d Sports sponsorships have always been useful in increasing name recognition in the marketplace for Eakes Office Solutions of Grand Island, NE. The sponsorships sometimes include customer drawings to win game tickets. Eakes will e-blast the drawing to its client base, directing them to the dealer\u2019s site to fill out an entry form, according to Sandy Faber, corporate marketing manager. One of Eakes\u2019 college sports sponsorship includes a time-out activity where student participants compete for the chance to make a basketball half-court shot to win an 80\u201d Sharp television. Faber points out that throughout the activity, Eakes\u2019 banners are on display on the court and its name is announced. One of the lucky winners even made the local evening news, generating free PR. Quality Digital Office Technology of York, PA, doesn\u2019t use its philanthropy as an ulterior motive to garner more business, as the company is passionate about giving back to the community. Still, its Giving Thanks events have certainly raised the dealer\u2019s esteem in the eyes of its client base. It has donated nearly $50,000 and 17,000 pounds to food banks and soup kitchens in Southcentral Pennsylvania and also collects toys for children\u2019s cancer patients. The dealer also assembles blessing bags for people who are homeless or in shelters, notes Cindy Workinger, vice president of sales. \u201cIt\u2019s something everyone can get behind \u001bbecause everybody wants to help the less fortunate,\u201d she said. \u201cWe sponsor a lot of nonprofits locally and we task every employee to get involved and donate their time to a nonprofit they\u2019re passionate about.\u201d From the apropos to nothing department comes a gem that certainly generated style points with the customers of Consolidated Copier Services in McDonough, GA. Late last summer, leading up to the solar eclipse, the dealer ordered boxes of the highly-coveted glasses and handed them out at target accounts right around the time they became difficult to find. While the glasses were ordered weeks in advance, Consolidated Copier Services had no idea they would be such a hit with customers, notes Jordan Roberts, marketing director. \u201cEveryone loved the glasses, and it\u2019s such a good way for the reps to get in and target accounts that were maybe cold or a little standoffish towards them,\u201d she said. \u201cBecause of the success we had with them, we\u2019re looking at doing a giveaway once a month. October is National Pizza Month, so we might hand out coupons, for example. \u201cWe serve ice cream and have games at networking events. During ribbon-cutting ceremonies, we plan to hand out gourmet chocolate. We\u2019ve also hand-delivered breakfast to customers. It\u2019s all about creating relationships and making it fun to do business with us.\u201d Value-added incentives also prove popular with customers. Adam Gregory, owner of Jacksonville, FL-based Advanced Business Solutions, provides custom video tutorials to its clients after the sale. The videos are sent to each individual users of Advanced\u2019s product, which are often not the purchasing agent. \u201cThat has not only built customer loyalty, it has kept us in front of the actual users of our product,\u201d he said. \u201cThis has greatly helped with secondary sales of the consumable items.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":166,"featured_media":25997,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1650,82,1638],"tags":[2192],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25995"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/166"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25995"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25995\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25999,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25995\/revisions\/25999"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}