As an advertising sales rep, what are you known for? Is it for providing great customer service? Coming up with brilliant business strategies and ideas for promotions, sales events, or ad copy? Is it for helping your clients in other areas of their advertising beyond your medium, like digital, social, core customer mailings, etc.? Or… is it for being the sales rep that delivers cookies and treats, i.e., “The Cookie Lady”?
There’s nothing wrong with being nice and delivering goodies to your clients and prospects – once in a while! Just don’t become known for it! After all, people buy from people they like, and who doesn’t like someone that brings you cookies!
When you become known as the “Cookie Lady (or Man)” that delivers great cookies instead of the “Advertising Expert” that delivers great ideas, the problem isn’t that they won’t buy from you, it’s that they will never buy as much from you as they can or should. Why? Because you’re known for delivering cookies and not ideas and results!
There’s a true story behind this that I have used many times to make a point about being a professional advertising expert. Many years ago we had a rep that loved to bake, and she was very good at it. She baked often and delivered these fresh baked goodies to her clients. They loved the treats, and her, because of it. We finally had the conversation with her about this and the fact that many of her clients bought from her only because of the cookies. She didn’t agree, until one day while making calls with her, we walked into a business and the person at the front desk hollered out loud to the other employees… “Hey, the Cookie Lady is here”. I didn’t have to say another word and going forward, she saved a lot of money on sugar, butter, and flour, and her sales improved too.
The moral of this story is… become known as an “Advertising Expert”. Deliver VALUE to your clients by providing strategies, ideas, and solutions that in turn give them positive results on their advertising investment. They’ll love you every bit as much, or even more, than if you deliver cookies.
On the other hand, if you would like to deliver me some cookies, M&M are my favorite, and my address is below!