Top Nine Tips for Success in 2009:
How not to just Survive, but Thrive in 2009
by Kay Kotan

While many businesses are tightening their belts or even laying off employees, Promotional Product Distributors and Consultants can poise themselves to not only survive 2009, but thrive in 2009.  It’s time to get back to basics, ladies and gentlemen.  Make sure the basics of your business are running like a well-oiled machine.

Here are my top nine tips to guarantee success:

Answer the Phone
While other distributors leave their answering machines to pick up calls, answer your phone and answer it promptly.  This tip sounds so rudimentary, but it is the number one mistake distributors make!  Customers appreciate not having to leave a message and having someone on the other end that can actually answer their question without having to leave a message.

Extreme Customer Service
Go beyond just giving a verbal thank you for an order.  Don’t just send a holiday card.  Send birthday cards and/or anniversary cards to your clients.  If your client or your client’s family appears in the newspaper, clip out the article and send it to them with a note of congratulations.  Call after the order is delivered and make sure they are pleased with the order and it arrived as expected.  Call a customer before they call you to help them start planning their annual event with some fresh, new ideas!  Think beyond the norm!

Goals & Goal Measurement/Assessment
Now is a great time to be assessing the goals you made for 2008.  Did you come close?  What goals are still important and need to be made a part of 2009 Goals?  Now plan your 2009 goals.  Be sure to include not only business goals, but include goals around your health and relationships as well as personal and professional growth.  Make sure your goals are measurable and set up benchmarks either monthly or quarterly to track your progress.

Niche Marketing
Decide the industry that you prefer to work in and have experience with.  Now immerse yourself in this industry.  Read their trade magazines.  Visit with people working in this industry.  Find out what their needs are.  Find out what their biggest obstacles are that they face.  Now go about creating solutions for their problems.  Write articles and submit them to their trade publications about the advantages of promotional products.  Write about a success story using promotional products.  You will then become the expert solutions provider within this industry.  You will be the automatic “go-to” person when anyone in this industry needs promotional products.

80/20 Rule
If you believe in the 80/20 Rule otherwise known as Pareto’s Principle, then 80% of your productivity comes from 20% of your efforts.  Determine what activities provide your greatest productivity (i.e. which activities drive the most profitable sales).  Then concentrate on those activities.  Don’t continue to play around with doing the 80% that does not results in your best productivity.  This is a continuous evaluation process in all aspects of your business.

Systems & Procedures
Each time something routine happens in your business, there needs to be a standard operating procedure for how to handle that task.  For example, every time an order comes in there is a checklist of all the steps needed to submit the order to the supplier, artwork requirements, follow-up, delivery, etc.  Not only does this keep things from falling through the cracks, but it also allows freedom for you to be out of the office and allow those tasks to be completed by others.  You need systems and procedures for taking in orders, tracking bids, following up on delivered orders, keeping in touch with customers, reminders to customers to start planning for routine events, getting new products and ideas out to new and existing customers, etc.  Having these procedures in place is not only imperative to day-to-day business, but can also make your business much more valuable if you decide to sell later.

Solutions Provider
Promotional Product Distributors/Consultants are not people pulling around wagons with trinkets to sell to those we can convince they have a need for them.  We are solution providers.  Don’t rely on the customer to tell you what they need.  By being an expert solutions provider, you can ask a few key questions and then offer the right solution for your customer.  Why would our CPA expect us to know the best tax advantages for our business?  We don’t.  We expect our CPA, the tax expert, to tell us the best tax strategy for our business.  Our clients should expect nothing less from us as solution providers!

Delegation
Determine what skills you have and what tasks you excel at.  Then delegate the rest.  Don’t spend time on those tasks that do not create income.  Find redundant tasks that can easily be done by high school students or entry level employees.  Spend your time doing those items that promote revenue, sales and results.  Delegate everything else.  Employees or contractors are investments not expenses.  When you can be investing more time in sales and less time in non-incoming producing tasks, your bottom line will show vast improvements.

Extreme Self Care
By extreme self care, I am not referring to just regular doctor and dental check-ups.  These are daily, consistent care items that make you feel your best.  These care items may include caring for yourself physically, emotionally, spiritually, relationally, mentally and more.  To get the energy flowing in your business, you must have energy flowing through your body.  What feeds your energy?  Make sure you identify those sources and include them in your self care routine.

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include this blurb with it:  Kay Kotan is a Coach, Author & Speaker serving the Promotional Products Industry.  Are you having trouble honing in on your target market?  Claim your FR*EE gift - a free special report detailing the hottest niches in the promotional products industry, go to her site at www.kaykotan.com/niches.html! Ask Kay a Promotional Product Distributor business question at  kay@kaykotan.com.

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