David Daniels Blog

Author: Thotsaporn Khumwaree
The second thing we did to make it easy for our salesmen to sell new safety products was to help them get in the door in the first place with strong advertising and public relations support. In industry, Cadillac has a well respected name for plastics. We wanted to capitalize on this goodwill as well as let the world know we had the finest line of safety products available anywhere.

We chose to advertise in both horizontal and vertical markets, repeating our message over and over again, “Cadillac Plastic is THE SOURCE for safety products to meet OSHA requirements.”

For some industries, such as construction, we grouped certain products together to make a kind of mini-safety products package. Our salesmen really liked this because it made it easy for them to organize the call. And dollar sales figures proved we were right.

Through our public relations department, we offered our catalog free of charge to all interested (and potential) customers. And our publicists worked overtime to keep editorial interest in Cadillac’s new line high. We furnished articles and pictures and as much helpful information as we had available to trade magazine editors who were also struggling to understand OSHA. This paid off in the form of a thick stack of press clippings from many of the most highly respected and widely read industrial publications.

Finally, all inquiries Chat resulted from advertising or PR were carefully sorted and distributed to our sales force. This served as a steady source of already knowledgeable potential buyers as well as a stimulant to the salesmen who felt pride in the recognition given to the company they represented.

We had come a long way in our launching of the OSHA-Spec line. Our people had learned about the products, and orders were starting to flow in. But we still had one problem to solve. How could we keep our sales people motivated to sell the line?

Keeping salesmen motivated

Again, our answer was to make it easy. We kept up a high level of enthusiasm among our people through recognition of outstanding efforts.

The backbone of our recognition program was an internal bulletin we named the Ollie-Gram. This was a “personal” message from Oilie Osha written in a light, breezy style. In our Ollie-Grams we publicized exceptional orders and passed along selling hints. If a particular branch or district was doing well, we spotlighted it in an issue.

To further generate enthusiasm, we created a new status of salesman called a Safety specialist. People who demonstrated a special flair for safety products were given additional training. In turn, they assisted other sales personnel in making difficult calls, selling more complex equipment, and closing large orders.

Finally, we formed a special club to reward exceptional efforts. We held a contest using criteria that were fair to all people in all parts of the country. Winners were announced monthly and were awarded membership in our exclusive Safety-First Club. We gave each winner a gold tie with a special Safety-First insignia, which became quite a status symbol. Standards were kept high to keep the group exclusive.

At the end of the calendar year, we rewarded the club members with a special luxury trip. After the trip, a special Ollie-Gram was published with many pictures so that nonmembers could see what they were striving for.

For further recognition, we presented an engraved plaque to each club member. A club roster for each year hangs in our Hall of Fame at corporate headquarters for all to see.

In summary, there isn’t much more to say other than that our safety products introduction was the most successful in our company’s history.

So, what motivates people? Volumes have been written on the subject and research is still being conducted. But when it comes to motivating sales people, one thing is certain: Make it easy for people to succeed and they will rarely disappoint you.
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Author: Joseph Pratt
Posted by David Daniels
When it comes to Public Relations, the driving philosophy that underlies even the most minute aspect of a campaign is that perception equals reality. This is as true as ever in the Interactive Age because anyone with Internet access has the ability to voice his or her opinion on the World Wide Web. Internet users now have the ability to present their opinions for public consumption on blogs as well as websites. Thanks to the advent of search engines, websurfers may access any perspective of the online debate (be it positive, negative, or indifferent) ranging in topic from iPods to real estate.

Google has profoundly changed advertising on the internet as well. What distinguishes search from other online marketing strategies is that search provides each individual user with specific information based on their initial inquiry. Often, this information comes from obscure corners of the Internet, thus giving strength to voices that may have gone unheard.

This democratic media revolution brings new challenges for Public Relations- the art dedicated to communicating a business’s message to its audience. No longer is PR concerned with the relatively sparse inlets of effective television, radio and print – now, thanks to the Internet, Public Relations has to actually contend with …gulp …the public!

So it makes sense that PR efforts must now encompass the expanding world of search and, in order to survive in the marketplace, your business needs the PR benefits that come as a result. Search Engine Optimization should be utilized by Public Relations professionals to ensure the standards of their client’s image. A comprehensive PR strategy must incorporate search as a means of building or maintaining a client’s image.

The survival of conventional PR then becomes a question of updated technology. When choosing a Public Relations company to help your business maintain an image, it is no longer a question of who has the longest track record, but who has the longest reach. If your PR company doesn’t have a search division of its own at its fingertips, don’t expect your campaigns to extend beyond the traditional paper and print. In this sense, it was a natural extension of ICMediaDirect.com to announce its Public Relations division after the successes of its Search and Research divisions. Finding that much of the work performed for SEO and SEM was already inherently related to the new Search-influenced PR, the launching of a PR division in a company long familiar with the details of this industry is no surprise.

How do they relate?

Let’s take an imaginary attack on Sunshine Widgets. A disgruntled entity could simply start “blogging” against it. They could harp on a single unfortunate incident, or flat out tell lies about Sunshine Widgets, and its corporate ineptness. It wouldn’t take much.

Perhaps Sunshine Widgets runs TV and print ads. These efforts would be undercut by some chap with a blog running a disinformation campaign. Unfair accusations or charges would appear every time someone searches for ‘Sunshine

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