Million-Dollar Sellers Meet In Chicago
The ASI Show in Chicago opened yesterday with a full slate of education sessions, all highlighted by the Million-Dollar Sales Summit. The afternoon-long session brought top distributor salespeople together to share best practices and learn new strategies – including online marketing. “One thing top salespeople know is that you can warm up any cold call by engaging in social networking for business,” said Dale Denham, senior vice president for ASI, who co-moderated the Million-Dollar Sales Summit yesterday. “Use Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter to connect with your prospects and clients on a very personal level – you’re basically promoting yourself to them.”

For example, attendee Larry Pelzer of PromoRetriever.com (asi/300434) created a Facebook page to promote his business. “Self-promoting to clients like this is an inexpensive way to get my company’s name on everyone’s lips,” he said, adding that he doesn’t sell anything but his brand on social networking sites. Self-promotion was the hot topic at the exclusive event. “In your self-promos, you need to convey the uniqueness of your brand and your company culture,” said panelist David Hawes, brand architect for Geiger Central. “Using videos is a great way to make your self-promos interesting and interactive. You’re basically selling your creativity to your clients.”

Making direct-mail and online self-promos memorable is key, and part of that is “focusing on one simple message,” said panelist Andrea Smith, industry relations manager for The Vernon Co. (asi/351700). “There’s got to be a call to action, and if you’re doing a physical direct-mail package, incorporating a product into that promotion is key to ensuring the recipient understands the power of ad specialty items as essential marketing and advertising tools.” And, it pays to make that extra effort: Denham pointed out that 42% of promo product recipients looked at the advertiser more favorably, according to ASI’s Advertising Specialties Impressions Study.

Watch Nicole Rollender, Stitches editor and director of ASI Education, talk to Million-Dollar Sales Summit attendees about what they learned during the event. Click here to watch the video.

Show Update: Education Day
In this episode of ASI Show Update, Counselor’s cameras capture the opening-day festivities at The ASI Show in Chicago. We covered Education Day events from distributor and supplier sessions to networking receptions that provided opportunities for attendees to learn from each other. Click here to watch the first episode of ASI Show Update from Chicago.

Sell More Decorated Apparel Today
Want to really get your clients sold on decorated apparel? Start showing your customers YouTube videos of embroidery or screen-printing processes in action while you’re making your sales calls. “You’ve got to bring these processes to life for them,” said Dana Zezzo, vice president of sales for Pro Towels Etc. (asi/79746), during his interactive Education Day session yesterday, “Ultimate Wearables Crash Course: Everything You Need to Know About Selling Apparel in 120 Minutes.” “This is your career – you’re a branding specialist. You’ve got to know these processes inside out.”

Smart distributors are also able to show clients why the decorated apparel they offer isn’t run of the mill. “You have to be able to visually tell clients why the embroidered logos you’re going to put on garments are higher-quality than the next guy’s,” said co-presenter Jimmy Lamb, manager of communication at Sawgrass Technologies. He advised attendees to work with their contract decorator to produce all types of imprinted logos, from sublimated to rhinestones to laser appliqué, to take on sales calls.

In addition, knowing how to handle price questions honestly is vital to making the sale. “You can’t avoid talking about price,” Zezzo said. “But what you can do is tell your clients, ‘I offer retail-grade merchandise up to $50 a piece.’” Lamb added that by then showing clients three choices per item in a good, better, best scenario, distributors will up their chances of making the sale. “You make it easy for them to choose an item,” he said. Zezzo noted that the “better” item should be one that’s mid-range in price, has a wide size range and is available in a variety of colors, since that’s the item the client will likely choose.

New Distributor Success Track: 10 Top-Selling Promo Campaigns
In his Education Day lunch session, Dale Denham, senior vice president of ASI, addressed a packed room of distributors with tips on creating successful promo campaigns. Denham moderated the panel, comprising of Christopher Duffy, senior vice president of marketing for Bag Makers (asi/37940), Jeff Lederer, executive vice president of Prime Line (asi/79530), Jane Munro, co-founder of As You Wish Promotions (asi/125450) and Dan Townes, president of Shepenco (asi/86850). Shepenco/Shelbyville Pencil also sponsored the lunch.

Munro discussed her successful promotion, a "Love versus Cancer" imprinted campaign for Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia. The social media campaign was aimed toward uniting patients, families, friends and doctors around the common message. She was able to print on low-cost items, such as T-shirts, buttons and magnets. Some of the other top-selling promo campaigns featured were the "Water is Life" campaign, the string-a-sling backpack and Rubik's nine-panel full custom cube.

Tim’s Take: State Of The Industry
Gauging the pulse of the market right now, ASI President and CEO Tim Andrews yesterday revealed some of the top trends and statistics from Counselor’s State of the Industry report. Click here to watch Tim’s Take from ASI Chicago.

Unexpected Ways To Get New Clients
When Dave Balter, founder and CEO of BzzAgent Inc., spoke during his Education Day session yesterday, he knew he had to start off with a bang. In his session, "Become a Lead-Generating Machine: Unexpected Ways to Get New Clients," Balter stressed the importance of starting with a memorable product. As he showed the "man groomer," a tool for men to shave their backs, he easily captivated the crowd.

Balter discussed ways to increase buzz for your business, using key tools for generating word of mouth using social media. Some of these methods included generating status for the item, making it scarce and providing exclusivity. Finally, Balter spotlighted some ways to enable inbound marketing, like optimizing a website for lead generation.

Selling To Five Top Markets
Attendees in Chicago yesterday learned about the top five markets in the ad specialty industry for sales and how to target them with creative promotions. The panel session, titled Innovative Promos For Five Top Markets, was moderated by ASI’s Joe Haley and included Carol Coram of Boundless Network (asi/143717), Mike Riddle of WorkflowOne (asi/333647) and Paul Zafarana of Easy Green Shop. The diverse background and expertise of the panel afford a wide range of insight and creative solutions for distributors in the audience.
The markets, as revealed through this year’s Counselor State of the Industry survey, include (in order from one to five): Health/Medical/Hospitals, Financial/Insurance/Real Estate, Education/Schools/Universities, Associations/Clubs/Civic Groups, and Non-profits. Panelists urged distributors to find the many buying centers within the markets and to look for solutions for their marketing and advertising challenges. For the education market, Coram implored distributors to organize buying groups within schools to offer lower prices. If they’re buying the same pen anyway, she said, they might as well order them together to get that lower price.

Joe Show Day One
As the trade show in Chicago opened this morning, Counselor managing editor Joe Haley scoured the aisles for the hottest products. What caught his eye? You’ll have to check out this episode of The Joe Show – straight from the trade show floor. Click here to watch the video.

Fashion Finds Day One
Want to know about the latest styles to present to clients this summer and fall? Nicole Rollender, editor of Stitches and director of ASI Education, found some cool apparel as she visited supplier booths in Chicago this morning. Click here to watch the Day One episode of Fashion Finds.