Greetings 

Only seven weeks to Christmas, so here’s 7 marketing strategies you can put into place, and 7 sales management strategies you can put into place to manage your sales force, and 7 interesting business ideas. Enjoy!

 7 MARKETING IDEAS

1. Take a photograph of your team at an unusual location, looking all smiling, waving, and happiness, with a graphic sign "Thank you from us 2002", and then either scan the photograph into a jpg format and email it to clients to say thanks very much for your business during the year, or print off the photographs, attach them to an ordinary postcard or greeting card, and send them to clients with a personalised message appreciating the client’s business during the year, and that "our people thank your people".

2. Corporate gifts for Christmas customers – go through the customer base you have, and identify those customers those customers that are the most profitable, not necessarily the highest revenue, and determine a suitable Christmas gift, preferably with your logo on it, that is likely to be remembered long after the Christmas season. A Category customers should get A Category gifts, B Category customers should get lesser B gifts, C Category customers should get generalised C gifts.

3. Choose 7 good customers, and visit them, 1 per week over the next 7 weeks, to thank them for their business and communicate what business plans they’ve got coming up during 2003, and how you can assist them to achieve those business plans.

4. Set up amongst your sales reps, customer service, and customer interaction staff, a 7 week campaign to ensure that each week a different product or service is promoted, and there is something special for the customers happening. Create a product promotion or a service promotion email special, and send out, every 2 weeks 2 offers over the next 7 weeks, inviting customers to spend more.

5. Identify 7 key suppliers to visit and say thank you for their support during the year, and present them with an award plaque as a key preferred supplier.

6. Create a weekly theme for each week of the next 7 weeks around a Christmas story, Christmas event, Christmas celebration, and then weave it into a company promotion with the emphasis on the promotion and Christmas.

7. Create 7 different weekly signature themes to go on the bottom of your emails, talking about the coming festive season and holidays, and change it on a weekly basis.

7 SALES MANAGEMENT TIPS

1. Work with each of your reps to create 7 objectives to be achieved, 1 per week, with customers or product development in their sales territory, and then measure their results on a weekly basis.

2. Do a Features and Benefits analysis of your company, and identify 7 benefits that can be featured in sales presentations on a weekly basis, each week for the next 7 weeks.

3. Create a series of product-bundled offers to tie in with the details of the week, for example, on the 7th week create a bundle of 7 products with an offer, on the 6th week create a bundle of 6 products with an offer, 5th week – 5 products, etc, etc.

4. Identify with each sales rep, 7 key customers that they need to visit, and determine objectives to be achieved in the first quarter of the new year, write those objectives down, for each customer, calling on them 1 per week.

5. Identify 7 products, or 7 services, to be featured in sales aid promotion material by email, handouts, sales brochures – 1 per week for 7 weeks, as a way of expanding the range of products sitting in stores for customers.

6. Identify 7 key customers to ask for a referral, 1 per week, as a way of prospecting leads for the new year.

7. Identify 7 customers to invite to your own company Christmas function, so this can then be classified as advertising, rather than entertainment, for accounting tax deductibility.

7 INTERESTING IDEAS..:

1. Identify 7 customer service teams, amongst your customers, that could receive a thank you gift basket for the work they have done working with your organisation. Then visit one per week.

2. Identify 7 objections that your team gets, and develop a question and answer test to provide to each of your sales reps with the answers for overcoming one different kind of objection, every single week.

3. Determine your holiday roster, who’s going to be working when, making sure that sales reps take maximum time off, and your customer service cover both customer service functions and any customer sales calls that need to be covered during the coming Christmas/New Year break.

4. Plan a "Welcome Back to Work –2003" vision setting meeting, where you will enthuse the team with the wonderful objectives, activities, new products and services, strategies, and other exciting news, sometime in January, so that they start the new year fully focused as a sales team, ready to go!

5. Identify 7 time robbers in your daily business and set about reducing them and gaining some more time for yourself to use for pleasure.

6. Make a daily list of tasks you do personally [7 items] and then detail why you do them, then detail who else could do them, then detail who with training could do them, then start delegating the 7 tasks today.

7. Create a reward program for yourself to set as challenges that when you achieve them you reward yourself as you achieve them, with holidays or whatever rewards you choose….

Welcome to new clients !

• Valley Pool New Zealand – Pool table importers
• Collins Mitre 10, Robertson's Mitre 10 - Oamaru, Ashburton, Timaru
• Adcorp Agencies
• Malcolm Pacific
• Farmlands

A great big thank you to all of the friends of Geewiz who have supported my public seminars this year, at Auckland Chamber, Wellington Chamber, Wellington EMA, Canterbury Employers Chamber of Commerce, Tauranga Chamber, Enterprise Hamilton, and the many private, in-company seminars, workshops and conferences, which have allowed me to "Challenge for Change" with my ideas.

A big thank you for all those people who have supported the launch of my two books this year – New Zealand Sales Management, and Marketing and The Law.

And of course thank you to the many marketing consultancy and business clients who have given me the opportunity to work out some creative strategies to fix problems in their business or allow them to develop opportunities – it certainly was great stimulation working with you.

To my many overseas contacts and clients, in Australia, South-East Asia, Pacific Islands, USA, Switzerland – thanks for the opportunity of allowing me to work with you and present my ideas.

To the many friends of Geewiz who together combined give me an average 100 emails a day, with their strategies, queries, and requests for assistance – keep it up! I love the stimulation and the challenges!

Please note that my Telecom mobile is now 0274 720410 - only a small change from 025 to 0274 in front of the number....better voice clarity, and lots more toys for me to play with on my new Palm Pilot phone.....

Thinking of chartering a vessel for the America's cup or for client function on Auckland harbour? Then check out www.breum.co.nz a great vessel with lots of character and roomy decks..... they cater, are licensed, and best of all have on board the graphics TV system to show the place of the boats....they will also do daily bookings if space available, and the boat is at the Viaduct [next to Larry's boat just smaller, 22metres] Tell them Richard recommended and expect being looked after very well...Skipper is Neil, Owner is Wayne...

I can also recommend the Waiwera catamaran too! Check out www.waiwera.co.nz.

Coming soon to the website - details of seminars for 2003.

Look out for 2003 – Bigger, Better, and Even More Challenges. Merry Christmas for 7 weeks away!

Have a great day!

Richard Gee.