Branding

Marketing face-to-face can be difficult for many (most?) people. I know I feel a sense of envy when a door-to-door salesman appears completely at ease talking to me about their product on my front porch!

Welcome to Full Contact Marketing.

Full Contact Marketing is any face-to-face meeting with any (potential) customer. It can be door-to-door sales or working a trade show booth or taking orders over a counter. Often, Full Contact Marketing is considered just customer service.

But it is so much more!

Your poeple on the front lines represent your business brand more than any advertisement or PR campaign ever could. People relate to people. And if that relationship goes bad…

Front line people = Your brand

Are you inspecting your people before they go out to represent you? Do you offer coaching to help them polish their pitch, service and appearance? How can you inject confidense into your Full Contact Marketing program?

All of your vendors have a vested interest in your success. After all, the better you do, the more you’ll buy from them. And the more you will rely on them.

Most of your customers have a vested interest in your success as well. People like to support success (even if they are rooting for the underdog). People will root for you to win because if you win, they can claim part of your glory. And they will share in that glory in their own small, vicarious way. (“I was there!”)

So now that everybody is behind you, your business should take off like a rocket right? And survive the tough times - no problem! Right?

Only. Only. Only if you lead the charge. You cannot take the support of others for granted. If you do, the work will become harder. People resent being taken for granted. And they will distance themselves from you as a result (even if it hurts them).

It is your job to keep things moving. To give your people a rallying point. To give them something bigger than themselves to be part of. And with that, gain their loyalty.

Your product is not what you sell. It isn’t the thing-in-the-box. It isn’t the quality of the thing-in-the-box either. Or how the thing-in-the-box is better than your competitors things-in-the-boxes. Your product isn’t even the experience of using the thing-in-the-box!

Your product is the experience the customer has after they are done using the thing-in-the-box: satisfaction, wealth, belonging… Your product is as intangible as the idea it came from! Your product is a feeling.

What feeling are you selling today?

Is it in your advertising? How is it reflected in your brand?