Mike Cohen
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COW Coin
Forum Replies Created
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Well, they did get Mr. T. That was a pretty expensive looking video, with the makeup, glass jars and the Mr. T. who was probably $50K minimum.
Do you know if this was used at a corporate sales meeting type event?
I think everyone agrees that it is the vendor’s job to help the client figure out what they want, because often what the client thinks they want is not what they really want. What the client wants is effective communication. What the client knows about is what the client has seen before.
Good thread.
Mike Cohen
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Please be more specific.
Your next steps would vary – do you have potential investors/buyers/sponsors/tv stations for your programs? Are you going to put these on the web – paging Dr Grinner. Did someone suggest these ideas to you? Is there a need for these programs in your market?
There is often more to an effort like this than people think.
Mike Cohen
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It seems that just like there are young people who feel entitled to a good salary without working hard, there are unscrupulous companies looking for cheap labor, knowing that there are likely people who consider $50 good money for a day.
Do you see a lot of this crap in LA?
Why don’t you replay to the ad…might be a hoot.
That being said, Craigslist tends to have something for everyone – and I mean everyone.
Mike Cohen
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We have daily regular pickups from FedEx and UPS, as well as a morning delivery most days.
There is also a FedEx and UPS office 15 minutes from here.
FedEx has bought us 3 Dell computers over the years, based upon volume of shipping over the previous year, so that’s been a plus.
We have had a bigger issue with freight shippers. When we ship our exhibit booth around the US and Canada, we try to use one reliable shipper, but the reliable part can be difficult. You ask for a truck with a lift gate, and they send you one without. Our loading dock is Uhaul height, not 18 wheeler height.
Then there is shipping freight to and from Canada and convention centers. Sometimes the shipment first goes to a warehouse then to a graving yard or some such thing for staging. You gotta make sure every box is labeled, even if shrink wrapped in a pallet. And make sure your return shipping paperwork is in order, otherwise the convention center will use their own shipper at higher cost and less efficiency.
We use a customs agent in Canada for such purposes.
Recently we purchased one of these – works great for shipping freight and is much sturdier than a wooden pallet:
https://www.uline.com/BL_8205/Collapsible-Bulk-ContainersA good way to ship production gear, say for a multi camera shoot – ship it to the receiving dock at your location or hotel.
Another shipping scenario is to hotels. For instance, we may ship most of our gear to a convention center, but late additions such as posters, brochures or new products go to the hotel. Smaller hotels keep packages behind the registration desk. Larger hotels have their own shipping department. For instance, a frequent place for us the the Hyatt in Chicago. To get a package, you go down about 6 levels underground, beyond the tunnels where Batman races the tumbler, to the shipping department. There, a little man in a little booth gets you your package. Then of course you need to lug your boxes upstairs, to a taxi then through the cavernous McCormick place.
Another good reason to pack one of these with your underwear:https://www.rocknrollercart.com/products.htm
Mike Cohen
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I love Ted. I have listened to the past two years of Ted podcasts. There are some great lectures. Even Al Gore sounds smart!
Mike Cohen
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I thought that post was going to conclude with…”and I didn’t have a contract.”
In other words, being a preditor is a situation that can lead to being taken advantage of, if your compensation does not keep up with your responsibilities. Look out for numero uno – yourself. David is spot on, make your skills highly refined and you will eventually earn your keep.
I guess I am a preditographectmanager.
Mike Cohen
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Milton – we are a sarcastic bunch.
Personally I have a stack of a half dozen sales books at home. Nearly all of them make promises of sales success by following the author’s rules or guidelines. But most of them repeat the same things we have been saying: know your customer.
Mike Cohen
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I guess it depends upon what you are selling. If you are selling a service, it is less black and white than selling, say, merchandise SKU’s to a retailer. When selling products for sale, it is usually about price and features vs the competition. When selling a service, often you need to first convince the potential customer that they need the service you have on offer. This is for either cold calling or warm calling.
On the other hand, when a potential customer contacts you looking for your service, because they have heard about you or they looked up your service in the phone book or google/bing/dogpile/altavista/mandy etc, the hard part is done, then it is often a price discussion.
Regards followup, an e-mail is not followup. A phone call is followup. If all you do is send emails and wonder why you have not heard back from the guy, you are not doing your job. If the tables are turned and this person is trying to sell you something, you can be sure you will get phone calls on a regular basis until you either buy something or tell him to stop calling you.
A few years ago when I was renewing my music contract, I sampled the offerings of a few vendors. One in particular did not have exactly what I needed, but the sales guy called me weekly with various offers to try his product. While I started to get annoyed, I took it as a lesson in direct sales techniques, and now follow a rule of frequent phone calls with occasional emails, within tolerance levels, when trying to get new business.
The best advice I have taken from sales books and my boss – learn about the customer’s needs then tailor your pitch to match those needs. Customers tend to have some idea of what they need, or what they think they need, but a Chinese menu of services is not what they want to look at. They want you to understand their needs and tell them what you can do for them, but they don’t always know that.
Mike Cohen
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I started in the mail room. It was my one job offer and I was thankful to have it. I got a low rent bachelor pad in swanky Naugatuck, CT and put my best foot forward.
Thankfully I had learned how to operate and troubleshoot CMX and Sony online edit bays in college and could use a waveform and vectorscope to time decks, and when an opportunity became available, I was given a shot.
Nowadays technical skills are not in as great demand, but an entry level job remains elusive for many recent graduates because either they have nothing to show for their studies, they are not assertive, or some combination.
Mike Cohen
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Jeff,
Most local commercials that run in my market have the Best Buy / Windows Movie maker look to them. Unfortunately local tv commercials are usually very cheaply made if not included in the price of the air time, so it is an uphill battle to convince customers that there is any value in doing a higher end commercial. When was the last time you saw an ad for a local car dealership or pawn shop that did not resemble a Monster Trucks commercial?Mike Cohen