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Soulati-'TUDE!

Building Community One Spice At A Time

09/18/2018 By Jayme Soulati

ALT="Penzey's Logo"For those of you not familiar with Penzey’s, it is a growing, family-owned spice company that originated in Wisconsin. Even with the onset of the digital age (which have helped with building community and exponential sales), it’s the most fun to shop in the brick and mortar store. The customer experience is amazing, especially if you love to cook. Penzey’s says, that “cooking is kindness, and that kindness can change the world.” I have to agree!

My mom shares the writings and emails of Pennzey’s CEO, Bill Penzey. He is an extremely outspoken figure who expounds upon liberal politics and the crisis in American democracy under the Trump administration.

Brands have begun to show their colors, and why not? A human is behind every brand, no matter how old it is. Remember the recent experiences with Chick fil-A and Hobby Lobby? What about the Colorado baker who refused to make and sell a cake to a gay couple in a case that went to the U.S. Supreme Court? Nike actually chose to build a campaign around Colin Kaepernick, which is somewhat different than the previous examples.

Building Community With Controversy

When you serve people with your products there is a choice whether to wear your beliefs on your sleeves or keep them to yourself. Bill Penzey elects to build community using the former. His views are squarely on his sleeves, front and center.

From his vantage point, he’s building community one spice at a time. In fact, what speaks more loudly than his words are his company’s sales. Penzey’s sales have shot upward. Isn’t it interesting how politics and words can influence sales of spices? It’s obviously due to building community.

Look:

ALT="jar of Penzey's Arizona Dreaming spice"“Arizona Dreaming is one of our best blends, inspired by people very much like John McCain with the strength to fight the uphill battle for a more inclusive Arizona. Arizona Dreaming is a very tasty celebration of the coming together of cultures that so flavors the foods and the lives lived across America’s Southwest. Don’t miss this chance to get yours free.”

Did that blurb spark your interest in wanting to buy Arizona Dreaming in honor of Senator John McCain? (Or, maybe I’m sentimental!)

Who else do you know in the corner office who mixes spice with politics to earn sales, literally? You’ll see in Mr. Penzey’s recent email newsletter that his side of the aisle is very good for his business, and he encourages marketers to observe and embrace that.

Bill Penzey on Politics, Building Community And Spices

Below is a recent post from Bill Penzey I’d like to share with his permission to republish.

“We think we’ve discovered something. What we’ve discovered is that standing up against everything the Republican Party has become is really, really, really (+76 more reallys), really good for business. I understand how this can seem at odds with the image so popular right now that America is an evenly divided nation, but as we’ve learned this image does not reflect reality. And as much as it seems that the big issue right now is an out of control, possibly worse than racist presidency, that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

The real issue is the unlimited political spending that brought this President and so many other Republicans to power. Watching TV ads and reading comment sections, it can seem like Republicans actually have popular support, but these days ads and comments are simply part of the many things unlimited political spending can buy. Yet from our experience what we’ve found political spending can’t buy is popularity.

This chart is our weekly online sales this year vs last year starting with the week of April 1st. It mostly is the tale of just two offers. The first was calling out the President for claiming that he was above the law; he isn’t. This is America where no one is above the law. No one can pardALT="Penzey's sales graph showing spikes from campaigns and building community"on themselves.

The second came with us pointing out that the Russia probe has to happen because: Our President chose a campaign chairman who had accepted $17 Million from a pro-Russia political party. This chairman personally picked the vice president, who in turn went on to pick a literal Russian agent as our country’s top national security advisor, despite being clearly warned by our intelligence community about his past.

The first offer in the chart looks like two spikes because this is a weekly graph and that offer ran over a Saturday and Sunday. But that second offer, that big pyramid there, just ran for 18 hours over a Thursday night. With that offer we received an 80-fold increase in sales over the same time period last year. Along with the avalanche of orders we also got comments like: “Don’t mix business and politics, Bill. It’s bad for the bottom line.” “I was taught years ago, you don’t mix politics or religion with your business.”

Yet, look at the chart. This is not 80% growth, this is 80 times as much in sales!

In our experience we’ve found that when you honestly support and speak out for the values of your customers, your customers support you. Looking at how we evolved, humanity really is the gift of Cooks, and for people who cook to simply watch as Republicans use the power the money of unlimited spending has bought them to undermine education, attack the environment, take health insurance from the poor, dehumanize those deemed not white enough, and separate children from their parents simply for seeking asylum; these can be heartbreaking times. Speaking out now really matters.

If you are involved in a business that has been uncomfortable with the Republican attacks on human decency, there is really no better time to share those concerns with your customers than right now. Your country needs you to step up.

And if you are a marketer, please be aware that the times are changing. Maybe it’s time to stop saying young people can’t be reached and instead try to get your clients to look to the values young people hold dear. At some point some breakfast cereal maker is going to celebrate the bravery of Colin Kaepernick by having him taking a knee on the cover of their box. In that moment they will win all of the younger generations for all of the rest of their lives.

There’s talk right now about people no longer being interested in things but instead being interested in experiences. At Penzeys we sell Spices, the very things that have been selling continuously for longer than any other thing in human existence. I believe a big part of why Spices have the staying power they do is that they are experiences.

Each Spice, every Seasoning connects us to a place, a time, an event that has at its heart our humanity — how we take care of each other. Make your product an experience, make your experience in some way radiate decency, compassion, and kindness and get ready to be busy.

Right now those on the frontlines of challenging what the Republican Party has become are being rewarded, and that’s a good thing. Unlimited political spending has taken away the vote from individuals and given it to corporations that seek profit from undermining the public good. It’s time for Americans to vote with our spending. My advice is to be a company worth voting for.

I believe what we’ve been experiencing is only the start of something much bigger. Business is an evolutionary process where the new things that work very quickly become what everyone needs simply to survive. This is not the time to be left behind. Spend every day like it’s November 6th.
Bill | bill@penzeys.com”

Find Your Kin As Your Next Customer

So, marketers, brands and the humans behind them, take note. If you speak your mind in a calm and intelligent fashion with logic, you can find your kin who will also become a worthy customer of your products, services and brand. Will this happen overnight? No, but with consistency comes success for the long haul.

Let’s wear our perspective on our sleeve and sell spices, shall we?

Filed Under: Branding, Public Relations Tagged With: build community, Community, democracy, Penzey's, Selling, Senator John McCain, spices

7 Selling Factors And Relationship Building (Babolat)

10/31/2013 By Jayme Soulati

Saleswoman.jpgSelling. Relationship building, and the deal.

What do you think is the most important when someone is trying to make the sale? The deal may be the lowest and best one; yet, there’s something more to earning the sale than just the numbers.

As a professional blogger and public relations professional of three decades, I am pitched every day by sales people trying to lure me in. The tools of my trade are expensive especially for any solo business, and I know I must make an investment in many of them in order to service my clients well and efficiently.

Each year at this time, it becomes a battle between the two largest media vendors and others wanting a piece of the action vying for my business. Each year I weigh the deal to determine the best approach for my clients. But, this year was different.

7 Selling Factors to Earn the Business

  • The Deal.

When you’re a solo business and every expense penny counts, the total of the expenditure matters. How much is the very first answer I want to hear.

  • Sales Team.

Sadly, one of the vendors has a revolving door of sales staff. They email and call me frequently, they fight over territory, and I never know who my sales rep is should I need to call. The trust in the infrastructure of an organization is absolutely akin to the stability of the sales team. On the other side of the street, I just heard from the same sales rep I had last year; this business is tough…having the same face and name selling me over two years says something.

  • Service.

How about the service side? Will they be there to support the customer? Will they be knowledgeable and will there also be videos or Q&A and live chat features to help me should I have an issue? I’m not one to call in for help; it’s a time suck. I want to find the answer myself or better yet, make the product usability intuitive.

  • Salesmanship.

The young woman with whom I spoke yesterday told me she wasn’t going to hard sell me because that wasn’t her style. I appreciate that. When someone slips me the slime, I run. When you’re authentic and genuine with me, that’s when I listen and exchange helpful selling tips in return.

  • The Product.

There’s no question you get what you pay for. Because I have used both these products extensively during the long tenure of my career, I’m familiar with the product and each has selling points while one has more failures, in my opinion. Usability, as mentioned above, needs to be intuitive. I don’t want to have to guess where to find something; that’s frustrating, annoying and a time suck.

  • Closing The Deal.

When someone tells me they are coming back to me as they need to speak with their boss about the features of the package I need and they don’t for more than four days, then I seriously consider what happened. Turns out illness put my sales woman on her back, and I fell through the cracks. Understood; yet the deadline for my deal to close is today and that means I’m in conversations with a variety of vendors to seal it.

  • Relationship Building.

I’ve saved the best for last. There are so many, many ways to build relationships to earn a sale. I’m going to tell you what impresses me the most.
1. Visit my blog and make a comment. There is content galore in this site, and archives from the last four years. There’s got to be a way to impress me.

2. Know who I am as a customer and professional. When you take a moment to read my bio or remark on something I shared or wrote on the Interwebz, that means you’re really getting to know me and my needs.

3. Acknowledge the fact the sales team is a revolving door, but you’re going to work hard to earn my trust in selling to me.

4. Instead of selling me, educate me and tell me how your product has improved, especially if I tell you I don’t care for it.

5. Engage with me on social media. Let me tell you a story about tennis racquets.

Babolat Tennis And Earning the Sale

Happy Halloweenie #Tennis! via soulati

Happy Halloweenie #Tennis! via soulati

Anyone who knows me knows I’m a tennis freak. In the fall and winter, when I can reclaim an evening as my own (kidlet has every night for her extracurriculars), I play about six hours a week. I’ve been demoing new racquets, and tweeting about my demos with Babolat.

My friend Brian Vickery plays extensively too, and his family of four are all Babolat users. I’ve been a Prince loyalist until I began my quest to find the best racquet.

I’ve now demoed about five or six Babolats, and I’m still not certain which one to invest in (tennis racquets average $200 each, and you need two of the same).

Yesterday, I tweeted Brian and mentioned I didn’t think Babolat was on Twitter as I had mentioned its name and it racquets by name a variety of times and crickets. Lo, I got several immediate tweets and a phone call from Babolat sales!! How freaking exciting is that??

Babolat-Vickery-Tweets.jpgTickled, I tweeted back and made the phone call.What ensued was the most amazing conversation I’ve ever had with someone in sales who wasn’t selling; he was educating.

We talked about racquet stiffness and weighting, body wear and tear, and strings. We talked strings every which way from Sunday (don’t you love that expression?), and I was the happiest camper in the world because Babolat was treating me as if I was on the ATP circuit. As merely a 3.5/4.0 USTA player, I have a ways to go before I join the professionals and beat the crap out of them (heh). BUT, here’s the point…Daniel of Babolat didn’t treat me like a low life; he put me on the top of his pedestal as the most important tennis player in the world.

He built a relationship with me, he treated me respectfully, and guess what else he shared?

Brand Engagement On Twitter

Babolat had seen my tweets with Brian over time; they saw that I was only mentioning the brand in my posts and not addressing the tweets to Babolat.

Babolat-Tweets-Soulati.jpg
The sales team wasn’t sure whether to intercede on the conversation; they didn’t want to interfere as it looked like we were not asking for help.

I assured Daniel of Babolat to absolutely toss out a tweet saying “Hey, we noticed your tweets about our racquets, is there anything we can do to help your decision?”

Having that kind of “we’re here to help” tweet from a trusted brand is what jazzes consumers. I’m not one to hit the forums or Facebook and sift through line after line of content that doesn’t concern me. If I want something, I will post it on Twitter and wait for the brand’s response.
In this case, I was tentative as a consumer thinking I was too much a small fry for Babolat’s attention, and Babolat the brand was tentative thinking they shouldn’t jump in with a “hey, we’re here” tweet.

Relationship Building Fuels Brand Loyalty

And, now, after that story? Where do you think my loyalty lies? I’m going to become a Babolat user for the first time. I’m going to invest in the Babolat Drive Max, a lighter weight racquet, RED (yay!), and get it weighted. Then I’m going to put more expensive softer strings on it to protect my arm and get the controlled power (at least that’s what I think Daniel told me). And, before I do all of that, I’m going to call Daniel or tweet him again because he invited me to do that whenever I wanted to. He gave me his cell phone and I programmed him into speed dial! (Just kidding, but that’s how he made me feel.)

Brand loyalty has so much more to do with product and service selection, and all the factors I listed above are critical; yet relationship building is by far the most. The Babolat story happened yesterday, and it jazzed my brand loyalty as a first-time customer for the long-term.

How about you, can you relate?

Related articles
  • The Improved Babolat AeroPro Drive
  • Babolat Lovers Unite!
  • Building Relationships Through Blogging
  • 5 Reasons You Could Be Losing Sales and What To Do About It
  • 3 Steps To Close More B2B Leads
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Filed Under: Business, Marketing Tagged With: ATP, Babolat, Business, earn the sale, Prince, relationship building, Salesmanship, Selling, tennis, tennis racquet, Twitter

Marketing Fair-Trade Quinoa

08/31/2010 By Jayme Soulati

(Note to readers: Today’s post is a rambling observation with a nit while sharing and pushing a dotted line to marketing and social media; blink and you might miss the latter!)

Fair Trade Quinoa Farmers in Ecuador (Wikimedia Commons)

I eat quinoa (keen-wah) every day mixed with steel cut oats, ground flax, walnuts and fresh fruit with a dash of almond milk. This fuels my body until well after noon; however, I try to eat before I get hungry to maintain metabolism. (You can learn more about clean eating from my favorite cookbook author Tosca Reno.)

Quinoa is a complete protein grown in the Andes since 3000 B.C. It’s not always easy to find at the grocer, although I buy from Trader Joe’s and recently at Jungle Jim’s in Cincinnati. As a buyer of quinoa for more than a year now, I’m dismayed its price has skyrocketed nearly 50 percent since January.

What’s happening? The classic demand and supply along with Fair Trade and good, solid marketing.

There are now quinoa products coming to our shelves straight from Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru; priced higher to accommodate the world’s farmers in developing nations. The word “organic” is included on the packaging, too.

Remember the berry (true or not true?) and the recent pomegranate craze? These high anti-oxidant berries (blueberries, too) raised consumers’ consciousness about free radicals and anti-oxidants in our diets. How did this happen? With good, solid marketing!

I support fair trade, and I also support our need to eat healthier foods without worry from salmonella, pesticide, and other illness resulting from chemical additives. While I’m not a worrier warrior about this, it nags at the back of my head when thinking of food prep for my family.

Glance back above and note the date I shared with you…3000 B.C. That’s when quinoa began its production as “gold of the Incas” and a sacred food. Why has it taken so long to grace our tables in the North? We can thank fair-trade programs that bring more coffee, cocoa, quinoa and other products to consumers across the globe. We can thank social media and the Internet for making the world smaller to inform us about these products.

While that’s all well and good, it also means we pay more for health-oriented items while junk food costs less. Perhaps, there’s more work to be done by good, solid marketing to switch the balance of the previous statement.

What began here as the germ of a quinoa seed, sprouted into more on fair trade, marketing and price. Interesting to me, and perhaps to you, as well. Thanks for stopping by.

Filed Under: Marketing Tagged With: Branding, Selling

ALT="Jayme Soulati"

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