Your Marketing Tools
Most products and many services sold require tangible sales tools such as samples, brochures, videos, and other devices. Your job as a Golden Rule Seller includes gathering and using these tools as part of your sales efforts.
Many of these components are available from the manufacturers or service providers and are given to you by your employer. However, don't assume that you have everything. In too many cases, wholesalers don't have the latest marketing literature from manufacturers. However, your competitors may. As possible, make sure that you have the most recent samples, printed materials, and other marketing collateral (media) available.
Imagine selling the latest computer when you don't have that model. “The new one's even better!” The customer logically asks, “Then why don't you have one?” For many products sold, one of the best sales tools you can have is one of the products. Even if you're selling industrial widgets by the thousands, a single widget can help a buyer make the connection and help you make the sale.
In some cases, a sample product isn't practical. However, you can use something that tactilely represents what you are selling. It can be a prominent component, a cutaway that shows internal components, or other visual aid. If the primary product feature is its sturdiness, the sample can be a piece of the sturdy material that it's made from. Your sample should be tangible.
Customers can become even more involved in the sales process if they receive a
Marketing
Sales brochures
Signs
Posters
White papers (research reports)
Pamphlets
Product data sheets
Sales scripts
Business cards
Manufacturers and service providers typically have a marketing department or a division called marketing communications, or mar-com, that is responsible for developing these sales tools. In some cases, outside vendors of marketing services develop and publish these collateral tools based on meetings with their client, the manufacturer. Big companies spend thousands and even millions of dollars producing printed collateral for one express purpose: to help salespeople market their products.
In the past two decades, more emphasis has been put on developing audio and video collateral for salespeople. A/V collateral is everything from PowerPoint presentations to video guides that customers can use to install or maintain purchased products. Audio/video collateral includes:
Presentation slides and programs
Audio sales tapes
Videotape and DVD presentations
Web content
Yes, web content is considered A/V marketing collateral. In fact, it is a powerful application of the Internet, helping salespeople know their products, inform customers, and build trust: KIT. Internet-based sales tools will be covered in greater detail later in this chapter.
Another component in your sales tool kit should be image collateral — things that help you establish your company's image. These tools include anything with your brand name on it: coffee mugs, T-shirts, hats, emblem jackets, key chain fobs, and football stadiums.
What does a football stadium have to do with image collateral?
Plenty. For example, San Francisco's Candlestick Park became 3Com Park in 1996 in a naming rights deal with 3Com, a computer network manufacturer. The license expired in 2002 and it became San Francisco Stadium — until Monster Cable (not
