We’re proud to be a sales agency.

By Michelle Edelman, President @ NYCA

Some think that sales is a low-brow profession. We are proud to claim it as our profession.

At NYCA, we work as hard on our clients’ sales meetings as we do on their consumer marketing campaigns. The sales force is a key constituent. If they don’t believe, retailers won’t. If retailers don’t believe, our product will be competing with the cacophony of others for attention in already-crowded stores.

Working on sales meetings gives us a completely different view of products and the people who make them. We understand the insight and motivation of our brands so much more as a result. We hear the first questions, firsthand. If the sales force doesn’t understand what we’re saying, the consumer definitely won’t.

We’re honored that our brands trust us enough to engage us in sales meetings. The motivation we deliver in a short few hours or days, needs to last a whole selling season. Lots of our campaigns build up impressions over time. Sales meetings have but one chance a season to deliver the goods.

Top 5 things to remember while executing for sales meetings:

• Excitement is at least as important as ideas. Motivation is contagious – it exists in the skin, not really the brain.
• 1 idea, repeated many times. So much information flies around that having simple takeaways makes them embed better.
• Element of surprise – sight, sound, motion, change of venue, or people acting out of character keep the audience a bit out of balance. This heightens awareness – and adds to comprehension.
• Ask “what’s in it for them” – bring it into the language of the sale, not the product. They want it to be easier to sell and have less retailer complaints. How does the product compete – what’s that elevator speech that will make all the difference given 5 minutes with a key account?
• Follow up – what does the sales force receive when they get back to business as usual, that reminds them of those few key things you need them to do and remember?

It’s sales meeting season – and we’re in our element. Call us and we’ll help you out next time around.