Barbara Corcoran Headlines Women's Summit
More than 60 successful women in the advertising specialty industry gathered at the chic Millennium Broadway Hotel in New York City for the first-ever ASI Women's Summit – an exclusive, high-energy event specially designed for female professionals to network with their colleagues. Barbara Corcoran, founder of the Corcoran Group and feisty entrepreneur who parlayed a $1,000 loan into a $5 billion real-estate business, headlined the event.

Corcoran, who called herself a "relentless publicity machine" for her real-estate business, emphasized to attendees the power of the press is unmistakable. "When you get your name in an article, it's 10 times more powerful than advertising," she said. "You can survey a group of people, for example, on their preferences in lanyards or T-shirts, and then write a report and send it out to everyone in the press with your business name on it. You make yourself an expert in your field."

Corcoran, who has hired 5,000 salespeople during her 30-year career, said she had identified one quality all of her top salespeople shared: They fail well. "All of these salespeople came from different backgrounds, but what they all had in common was they shook off failure quickly – and got right back out there," she said. "So when I interviewed salespeople, I tried to find out what their biggest life challenge had been and how they dealt with it. I wanted to hire the ‘loser' who got right back up again."

To conclude the event, Rosalie Marcus, The Promo Biz Coach, moderated a lively networking session where attendees shared their top solutions for common business challenges. "What if you need to increase your client base?" she asked attendees. "To really get your name out there, you need to social network. So, if you have a Facebook page, that's great, but then you need to think about how you're going to get people to be your fans. Can you offer them a promotional product for fanning you?"

Watch highlights from the first-ever ASI Women's Summit – our cameras catch Barbara Corcoran's intimate book signing and Stitches Editor and Director of ASI Education Nicole Rollender talks to Corcoran after her inspiring keynote address.

Click here to watch the video.

ASI Show Update: Sales Tips, Barbara Corcoran, What Distributors Want
In this ASI Show Update, Counselor's editors get hot tips on website marketing and sales strategies from million-dollar sellers, meet up with Women's Summit keynoter Barbara Corcoran, and uncover a distributor's top three wishes for suppliers in 2010.

Click here to watch the most recent edition of The ASI Show Update news program. 

New Distributor Track: Build A Strong Sales Foundation
In his Education Day session, "Lay the Foundation: Strategies to Build Your Customer Base," Danny Friedman, vice president of Added Incentives Inc. (asi/106725), offered a packed room of new distributors ways to achieve their sales goals – by building a solid customer base.

To begin establishing a client base, Friedman told attendees to simply create a list of everyone they know. "Almost everyone you know works for some company, and every company can use promotional products," he said. "If they don't handle it themselves, they can likely point you to the people in their companies who do. Then, start making those calls."

Friedman also advised distributors to write down their goals for where they want to be in one, three, five or even 10 years as far as number of cold calls they want to make, deals they want to close and number of repeat clients they want to have. "If you don't write down your goals, you won't achieve them," he said.

Google Yourself
ASI Senior Vice President Dale Denham presented, "Website Marketing: Simple Strategies That Work," in his session on Education Day at the ASI Show in New York. He told attendees that they need to rank high with the right audience to increase prospect traffic to their company websites.

Distributors should first Google their companies to see where they rank. They should also Google their products and competitors. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) captures 90% of all growth, Denham said. "SEO refers to organic listings with no paid component," he said. "There's a 79.6% success rate for Google's first page."

To create a successful website, a business owner should first define primary and secondary goals, as well as conversion goals. "Do you want people to purchase products or fill out a form?" Denham said. "These are some questions you need to ask."

Some important must-haves for strong company websites include: executive staff biographies, a shopping cart, instructions for online and offline contacts and customer testimonials, "because they establish credibility," Denham said. "Also, create a strong brand identity and add pictures and videos."

Tips for website design, Denham stressed, are ensuring a consistent look on each page, with a company and brand colors; a logo anywhere on a Web site should always link back to your homepage. "Finally, choose a memorable domain name," he said.

Be A Consultative Seller
Selling today can be a tough business, so distributors should really evaluate how they sell to clients and see how they can make the process even more focused on customer needs.

"We have to get into buyers' minds so we can do and say what they're hoping we do or say," said Lisa Leitch, owner of Teneo Results, in her Education Day session, "Pump Up Your Profits: Powerful Consultative Selling Techniques." "Buyers buy differently these days."

One area that Leitch said many distributor salespeople have trouble with is asking the right questions. "Customers often want to move the discussion to price," she said. "But, you need to refocus the conversation on value – how you can really help that client achieve their marketing goals. Ask the questions that will get you there."

Good questions include open, probing queries, such as "What do you want to accomplish at this golf tournament?" rather than a yes-or-no question like, "Do you buy your golf giveaways from just one supplier?" Other useful leading questions include, "You said pricing is important, but how important is quality to your company?" or "What are the biggest challenges in planning a golf tournament?" Questions like the latter are great for getting customers to open up and say that, for example, management often asks for promotional giveaways at the last minute. "That's a great place for you to offer to stock inventory for that client throughout the year or set up a company store," Leitch said.

Promote Your Business Right Now
"People buy from people they know, trust and like," said Greg Muzzillo, founder and co-CEO of Proforma (asi/300094), during the panel session, "Create Wildly Successful Self-Promotions," on Education Day.

Counselor Senior Editor Michele Bell moderated the panel, which included Muzzillo and Donald Mennig, ASI's executive director of marketing. Bell began the session by noting that businesspeople who do self-promotions make more money, which was backed up by stats from Mennig. As for timing, Mennig said that tough economic times are actually the best time to get noticed because there's no saturation.

Muzzillo engaged the audience with numerous examples from his own successful self-promo campaigns for Proforma, such as the green-themed "Earth, Wind, Fire and Water" promotion and a box that held a fan with the tagline, "Be prepared to be blown away." Muzzillo said it's important to remember that "people who sell solutions can create price; people who sell products can't. We try to position our members as full-solution providers."

Another piece of advice from Muzzillo: "Your business card is your free ticket to walk into any business and ask what they do," he said. "If you walk into an office without a card, the receptionist will probably call 9-1-1."

Supplier Tips From Top 40 Distributors
Suppliers got an exclusive inside look at the way Counselor Top 40 distributors think with the luncheon session, "What Distributors Want from You: The Top 40 Wish List." Hosted by ASI Staff Writer Dave Vagnoni, the session featured a panel of distributors from Top 40 companies – Larry Cohen of Axis Promotions (asi/128263), Judd Karofsky of Zagwear (asi/36552), Mike Riddle of WorkflowOne (asi/333647) and Ross Silverstein of iPROMOTEu (asi/232119) – addressing some of the issues facing industry companies today.

When asked what suppliers can do to best make use of distributors' time during trade shows, Cohen said suppliers should avoiding showing distributors the obvious products. "Show me something that's new or different," he said. "Tell me a story how someone used the product. Make it stand out from the rest."

Looking toward the rest of 2010, Karofsky hoped that suppliers would continue to offer better customer service. With new technology, a lot of personal attention has gone out the window, he feels. "Get back to old-fashioned customer service," he said. He added that he'd like to see better internal communication in companies as well as more creativity and additional ideas – not always about the same products.

Commenting on supplier websites, Riddle said usability is a top priority. Quality of images, ease of use and good search tools are important parts of any quality website, he said. He added that having a "recommended items" feature can also be helpful to distributors. "The easier you make it for us, the more business you're going to get," he said.

On the market for eco-friendly products, Silverstein said they're definitely something customers are interested in, but buyers still aren't always willing to pay the associated costs. "It's not unusual for a customer to ask about eco-friendly products," he said. "It's something that people would like to focus on, but at the end of the day the ability to promote something as being eco-friendly isn't going to outweigh the higher cost. Generally speaking, the dollars are going to win."

New ASI Affiliate Offers Equipment Lease Lines Of Credit
ASI's newest affiliate, IntelliLease, offers members the opportunity to obtain equipment funding at the lowest rates available on up to $2 million, with instant approval on up to $6,000. Whether a member is looking to purchase or lease equipment to make their offices run more efficiently or is just starting out, they can purchase computers, copiers, fax machines, software and more, while increasing their cash flow. There are no application fees and there's a 90% lease line of credit approval rate. For more information, visit www.asicentral.com/intelilease.

Joe Show Day One
In this day-one episode of The Joe Show, from The ASI Show in New York, Counselor Managing Editor Joe Haley shows off some items that caught his eye on the exhibit floor this morning.

Click here to watch The Joe Show day-one edition. 

Fashion Finds Day One
Some of the hottest fashion trends are born and worn in the Big Apple. Nicole Rollender, editor of Stitches magazine and director of ASI Education, shops the show floor to find some of the most innovative styles on the market today.

Click here to watch the day-one episode of Fashion Finds from ASI Show in New York.