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Creative Sales? Yep, We Do That

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Recently we decided to add a much-needed service to our advertising and marketing services lineup. While still maintaining our philosophy of “idea first,” we found that clients are looking for a little more “after idea” results. Enter our idea-based sales model.

Step one for us has always been research: client interviews, employee interviews, customer interviews and, occasionally, outside focus groups to better understand the client’s product or service and the buying nature of their potential customer.

We also dive into past marketing efforts to determine what has worked in the past and, more importantly, what has not. All of this research helps us to better plan a strategic marketing effort and not waste client time or money.

Once we have collected this crucial information, we hit the creative process. I facilitate a concept development meeting that includes many members of our staff armed with all of the research and ready to develop the big idea that will communicate the client’s unique selling point and differentiate them from competitors. From this meeting comes the look, the feel and the message for the campaign.

Step three is the implementation and planning process. Basically, how do we take this great idea and communicate it to the masses?

This might include traditional media such as television, radio, billboards, direct mail and online advertising or maybe not-so-traditional marketing (our favorite) like social, stunts, word of mouth, viral, etc. This is what many refer to as their media plan.

Now this is where things get quite a bit different. Unlike most agencies out there, we continue to assist our clients after the campaign begins. We can now meet with the sales team or, in some cases, become the sales team to figure out how to best take advantage of the advertising that is out there.

We help set achievable sales goals, follow-up schedules and even lead generation. This is what companies have been looking for all along. They want to be able to measure whether or not their advertising dollars are actually producing sales and that is what ABC can offer.

That’s idea-based sales in a nutshell and of course there are a lot more detailed components to the process that we need not bore you with in a blog. However, if we have created interest, feel free to contact Jenn Cline our sales and marketing strategist. She would love to explain it all!

Stay Creative.

About The Author

Travis arrived at ABC back in 1995, when photography was his main creative outlet. That passion evolved over the next decade as Travis began thinking beyond imagery and pitching his broader ideas and strategies to clients. It was the birth of the idea-based marketing philosophy: Getting to know the client inside out, learning about the successes and failures, then spinning that into an idea that could build a better outcome. That’s the cornerstone he’s built his creative-first agency on since buying the place in 2005. ABC has grown exponentially since then both in terms of people and clients. Local, regional, national, banking, destinations, nonprofits: Travis has greatly expanded services over the years to accommodate them all. He’s also assembled a talented team. Just like them, he’s greeted each morning by a simple reminder etched on the wall: “Create Cool Sh!t Today!” He’s proud to run the kind of agency that does.