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April 2011

The Business bait and switch......alive and well in today's corporate apparel market


 
Trust The business bait and switch........is alive and well. A client came in this morning to drop off an order of a hundred shirts. The client asked if I had heard of this "new" brand. I didn't recognize it so I opened the box. Upon further inspection I commented that the label had been removed and replaced. Further inspection revealed the hang tag had been removed as had all labeling from the box. Needless to say the client was surprised. Even more so when he ran the RN # through the FTC to find the manufacturer was in North Carolina. So he calls the company to learn that they would be more than willing to sell him the garments. He establishes an account and finds that the shirts will cost him $10.99 NOT the $19.00 that he was going to pay this other sales person.

Another sales rep playing fast with the facts. Doesn't happen too often but then when it does...  

Recently, on my blog small business 101, I wrote about the " trust" factor.. interesting connection. 

 


The Time Suck of Social Media, Why It's Worth it and How to Start

2945559128_53078d246b Most sales people understand the appeal of social media from a basic networking perspective, but what small business owners really want to know is does it drive business? Is it worth the time suck it seems to be? And finally how do I get started?  

The answers are yes, yes and keep reading, we'll show you how.

EU Inc. is a small company specializing in contract apparel decoration. We have a reputation for high quality embroidery and fast turnaround . We also have a new unique decoration process and pretty exclusive program ( laser etch and applique and the SanMar PSST free shipping decorator program) We also have extensive technical experience.

Here is our story. About 60 days ago we fully customized our euinc facebook page using Tabsite . Daily we post sales resources, tech tips, industry tools and news..( and on Fun Friday anything goes.. fishing pics, kid pics, recipes..). We use the page to stay in touch with clients and reach out to find new ones. And it's working. The reality is - as a small business owner you  think about business all the time.. things you should show clients, things you should tell them, tools to share etc.. this gives you a forum to do this quickly and efficiently and not just self promote.

The feedback from our clients has been positive, it's spurred new conversations and new business. We have received unsolicited new business leads via facebook and email. We are engaging our clients in a new and efficient way. We even get to show off our work, and the fact that we have a fun side when we are not pushing to meet deadlines. The presence of our fb page publicizes our openness to new ideas, new technology and new business, and this appeals to a certain demographic of new potential clients . The ROI? Absolutely awesome. 

Getting started with facebook is easy. The new business pages format allows you to interact more as a business. The digital photo album can feature your best work and be shared online. You can use tabsite or other apps to customize the appearance. A quick tip to get you started is to create an event as your personal profile announcing the new business page, thus notifying all your " friends". If you are a sales rep with a huge personal profile following of business contacts there is a now a facebook tool to convert your personal profile into a business page and begin with all of your friends as business page followers. This Download Socialmediaforbusiness will  give you a great visual to get you started in all things social media in one afternoon . You can read this Download Facebook page ebook2011 to see what works in the ways of all facebook business pages, and this to read true Twittertales  sales success stories evolved from Tweets. And to auto connect your facebook  page to a company blog , we like Typepad  for ease of use and getting started.

And finally to soak up some more social media strategy.., join  us tomorrow, April 6th . AZPPA is offering a free social media workshop  by Social Media Master, Dana Zezzo ( like that title, Dana?) . Dana will offer lots of great tips and tools and infectious inspiration to GET SOCIAL!  Don't miss it ! 

 Think smart. For more ideas on being a thought leader, social media and business 101, click here to visit Bruce's Business 101 Blog..