Direct consumer contact is the sales tool you're missing
In this day and age of social media, and online marketing you’re probably thinking I know how to reach my audience online, can talking to them in person actually make that big of a difference? The answer to that question is 100% yes.
Almost every brand I frequently work with or talk to has one goal in mind and it’s closing new wholesale accounts or getting their existing accounts to place larger orders. You’d think this relies on that brands sales team and how well they can convince accounts to buy their product but that couldn’t be further from the truth.
The driving force behind any store front is consumers. The consumer funds the entire operation, but when the money you receive comes from a middle man it’s easy to forget that. Yes many consumers rely on online sources such as Facebook and Instagram to discover new products but that doesn’t necessarily turn them into a lifelong consumer.
Lifers come from customer service and the lasting impression a physical presence can make on their shopping experience. This often then trickles into that customer sharing this experience with friends. Word of mouth is the most powerful tool you have to win over new customers, and to convert people away from your competitors. When you win over a consumers loyalty they are also more likely to try other products from your brand they wouldn’t normally use.
Choosing the right face for your brand is ultimately what is going to bring this shift in consumers your way. If you automatically assume your sales team is going to be your face because that’s who deals with the accounts I have some news for you. Your sales team is busy, the accounts the service expect them to be available to talk, make deliveries or answer questions at all hours, and this isn’t going to stop when they’re in front of a customer. Which will result in the appearance that your brand is simply too busy, or doesn’t care about it’s customers. So if your sales people aren’t the right choice you can just hire someone specifically for this, right? Well, let’s take a look at any large company in any major field; food, beverage, hospitality, they all have one thing in common when it comes to in-person presence. They all hire third party agencies to staff their in-store events. The beer reps you see giving away samples, and koozies at the bar? third party. The energy drink ambassadors you see running around trade shows? third party. The guy in the health food store talking about a supplement brand? Third party.
Why? These are huge companies they can surely find staff to work these events right? Why would they all hire third party companies to staff them? The answers are simple.
Staffing your own reps is time consuming, which means expensive.
According to Entrepreneur it costs $4,000 up front to hire one employee. That could potentially not work out. Not to mention the amount of time you are taking away from your existing employee responsible for recruiting and interviewing. When you use a third party they have already found, trained, screened, and cleared an army of brand representatives for you.
One Brand Representative can only be in one place and may have scheduling conflicts.
You’ve just spent $4,000 on this one new employee and gotten them trained but it’s their mom’s birthday this saturday and they can’t work, what now? When you use a third party company to staff brand representatives they can be in as many places at once as you need them to be. They also will always be available when you need them, and if one isn’t the company has a backup ready for you. Instead of being held prisoner to your employees social life, you always get the help you need.
Scaling your business into other states, and managing in-store brand ambassadors is nearly impossible.
Think about your own staff and how much time and attention they require from you, now lets grow into 4 other states. You now have much less of a grip on what each person you’ve hired does day to day. When you hire a third party you are hiring one person per state, or sometimes nationally if the staffing company is large enough and you get detailed info on all of the operations of that department from them. You know this person is qualified, I mean they are running a company already right? Then they worry about the rest and free up your time to focus on other things that only you can do.
Full time employees require benefits.
Another expense you will never encounter with a third party agency is paying your brand ambassadors benefits, or bonuses, or even raises. Their happiness and longevity in the position doesn’t rely on you. You don’t have to worry about showering them with bells and whistles to make them happy because the company they work for is already taking care of them.
So what are you waiting for? You have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Hiring a company to staff your in-store events will be the best decision you make for staffing. Just make sure to do your research, not all staffing companies are created equally.