It’s always worth remembering ‘why’ you bought those Personalised and Printed Promotional Give-Aways… you know, the ones in the stationery cupboard that you insist your staff justify their use before you allow them to gain access!!!
I remember an old boss of mine, who simply wouldn’t allow access to his valuable assets cupboard. “Do you have any idea of how expensive those items are?” he’d tell us. For this, read the subtext, “No you can’t give one of our biggest customers a few pounds worth of promotional ballpens”. To be fair, he saw these give-aways as solely for giving away at the company big events… the golf days or trade shows…. never for use by account managers trying to build relationships. Bit of a shame that.
All of which made me smile when I took a call yesterday from a very happy client (Yes, it was a Sunday). He was expecting to simply leave me a voice mail, and was suprised when I picked up… but it led to a good opportunity to discuss his situation. He’s a ‘full-on’ kind of guy, on the go the whole time, so I need to grab these moments whenever I can. His problem????
More of an opportunity really (Do you notice people fall into either a problem kind of person, or an opportunity kind of person?). He has the unexpected opportunity to meet with a small group of key businessmen… really big hitters. The kind of opportunity you just dont turn down, and he wanted to give them each a personalised conference folder. My client uses them for his training sessions where each delegate receives one, and therein lay the problem. He had accurately calculated how many folders he would need and had purchased just enough to last him for the next few months… until this opportunity presented itself that is. How could he give away a dozen or so folders, this coming week, and compromise himself with forthcoming delegates in the following week? He was even asking himself the question, “should I give these VIP’s a folder each when I meet them, or maybe just give one to the organiser?”.
My client made the right choice. He’s giving them each a folder, and of course, my company will ensure that his replacements are with him in time, for next weeks training programme. Win – win.
Promotional products are for giving away, NOT for storing in your goodies cupboard.
