Fishbowling - The Art of Internet Marketing

This is an old but true cliche — “you only have one chance to make a first impression”.  I am going to change it a little by adding — “so don’t blow it”.  This generally applies to meeting someone for the first time.  I am not going to cover making first impressions as far as meeting poeple.  But something happened recently to me that reminded me how important first impressions are.

If you have a traditional business, you probably receive a little before the holiday season some samples of “advertising give aways” that you can give out to your customers.  Typically, these range from a pocket knife, calendar/planner, mini-calculator, pen, etc.  I received all of these this last year.  I also receive these same types of items all throughout the year.

I like to give out pens to customers.  I feel that pens are useful, everyone needs one every now and then and they are easily carried.  I pass them out all the time and I have received rave reviews about the pens I give out — everyone seems to like them.  Why is that you ask?  Because I try out every single pen I receive.  I only buy pens that I am totally impressed by.  Sometimes I lend the pen samples to other people for them to try out as well and get their honest feedback.  They are willing testers as I always give them a couple of the pens I eventually select.

I bring this up because, I recently received a sample pen from a promotional items vendor.  It was beautiful looking pen and it came in a nice box and very professionally enclosed in a mailing envelope and even had my company name on it.  No doubt the promo items company that had sent the samples to everyone had spared no expense.  But that’s not the whole story.

The pen I received I naturally tried out myself.  I carried it with me from the moment I received it and used it for a couple of days.  That’s right – only a couple of days!  The pen wrote weakly and ran out of ink almost immediately. 

I tossed the pen in the round file and moved on.  I didn’t think of it again until the phone rang about a week later and it was a salesperson from the company where the pen came.  She did the normal greet and get to know you and then sprung the question, “How did you like the pen?”.

Well I told her that I liked the look and feel of the pen but it wrote weakly and ran out of ink very fast.  I also told her that I would not give out any pen unless it passed my user tests.  She told me that the pen was only a sample and that sample pens are sometimes shy on ink.  Good comeback I thought, but I wasn’t buying and told her so.

Basically, my stance was this — I have tested many pens and most of them had plenty of ink in them and lasted the normal (at least what I think is normal) amount of time.  I did not buy every pen because there are other factors which influence my decision.  However, the pen her company sent, died quick.

That pen was the company’s first impression to me.  They failed miserably.  It doesn’t mean squat to me that the pen is a “sample” pen that might not have a full ink supply.  The enclosed brochure that came with the pen didn’t state it had a non-standard amount of ink.  How do I know that all the pens they sell are shy on ink or not?  Whenever giving a sample to anyone, it should be of the highest quality, not some “second quality kick down so the sales people have samples to give out” type of sample. 

Your sample is your first impression of your product and maybe of your company and it better be first quality otherwise you’re blowing it.  You are going to look, sound and feel like a fool if you have to start answering questions by saying, “Well it’s only a sample (that’s why it’s junk).  Our actual product will perform the way it’s supposed to (see my best smile to get you to trust what I am saying)”.

Another point about the pens I give away (sorry to beat this to death) is that it represents something from my company.  Why would I want to give an inferior promotional item with my company’s name on it to my customers?  Yes, the customer knows I didn’t manufacture the pen, but if I give the customer a poor quality pen and it’s supposed to be an advertising piece for me, who knows what the customer might think about me or my company.  Maybe the customer will think that if I don’t care enough to buy quality pens to make a good impression that I don’t care enough to do a quality job either.

Okay I’m through with the pens.  In closing, the point I hope I have driven home  is that you will always be judged by your first impression.  If it’s a sample — give your best and you will always be the best.

“You only have one chance to make a first impression — so don’t blow it”. 

To living your dreams,
 

Chuck Yockey 

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