What better way to attract attention than by using a puppet to entertain and talk with show attendees while they try to win prizes at Society's a pop-a-shot game. The booth is one of the most popular attractions at the show. 

Society is the third B&M client to use a pop-a-shot as an interactive exhibit traffic builder. Here's how it works. I keep the crowd amused while subtlety and humorously qualifying game participants for Society's sales people. (Okay, I'm not always so subtle about it.) I find out where the player is from, what kind of business they own or manage, who their insurance carrier is and who's the decision maker regarding insurance.  If they're already insured by Society (which is the case the majority of the time), the player is given extra shots or they receive a special prize.  Another benefit is that even other exhibitors, who are potential customers for Society, are swayed to stop by to talk with me and shoot some hoops.

Improving Email Newsletters and Email Marketing Efforts - Part 2
Email marketing or employee newsletters should put "power" in the hands of your recipients via "preference centers."  Make sure recipients can alter their information and preferences.  If you already have a preference center in place, perhaps it's time to add features such as giving recipients the choice to indicate specific topics or products or interest to them or the ability to decide how often they want to hear from you. If you don't know how to accomplish these things, give me a call. I'll immediately wake up our IT department and have them answer your questions. Believe it or not, they have significant experience in creating email preference centers.

(Next - Give Newsletter Recipients What They Want)

Executive Access Letters Can Work
It's possible to attract the attention of hard-to-reach executives via properly formatted and packaged business letters. However many sales people find writing these types of letters to be difficult, time consuming and frustrating. My response: "Get used to it. It's hard. If it were easy, great letter writers like myself would be out of a job."

Sales people often make two common mistakes when writing pitch letters to executives.

1. They focus too much on selling the virtues of their company. After explaining how great their products and services are, they conclude by saying, in effect, "Gee, if I haven't said enough about me and my stuff in this letter, I'd like to schedule a meeting with you so I can tell you more about me and my stuff." "Whump," the letter can be heard hitting the bottom of the circular file.
   
2. The second mistake is to serve up a bevy of clichés like, "In today's competitive environment ..." or "Busy executives like yourself ..." Another two pointer into the circular file.

So what should an executive letter look like? Check out part two in my next blog. (I already wrote it, but I want to keep you in suspense.)

Chip Shot
Yesterday Dale told Leslie, "A man is like wine; he gets better with age." So she locked him in the cellar.