[pianotech] promo pens

[Piano Boutique]

John,

One habit I have taken up is qualifying my customers.   I most always ask, how did you hear about me.   I keep a line in my database of customers to put how they found me and every once in a while I do look at the numbers to see where people come from.   About a third is word of mouth.   About a third is from the phone book.   And the last third is all the other ways like Signage and web page and such.

William



  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: John Musselwhite 
  To: pianotech at ptg.org 
  Sent: Monday, July 27, 2009 3:45 PM
  Subject: Re: [pianotech] promo pens


  At 09:37 PM 20/07/2009, Wim wrote:


    At the convention, Jerry Groot gave me a pen with his name, etc. on it. (Thanks Jerry, nice looking pen). Randy Potter gives them out, too. 

  For those who like to collect things I see a whole new area. Piano Technicians pens!



    I, as I am sure others, have been approached many times by pen salesmen who want you to buy them for customers. 

  I might mention that my wife is a promotions consultant who is one of those "pen salesmen" so I'm biased in that area. 



    For those of you who give them out, what is your return of investment? Do you actually get calls from people who saw your name on the pen? Or do you just do it for good will, like buying an add in the high school chorus concert program. 

  There are a couple of things to consider. One is that you are allowed a certain deduction for advertising so anything you spend on things like pens with your name on them is a tax deduction for you. Good will is definitely another factor. Plus, of course, anything you can do to get your name and phone number out there is a good thing.

  I buy a real nice high-quality pen for about $2.75 (CDN) each that comes with a box and I give them out with my invoices and to some other people just for the exposure. Every client has been happy to accept a nice quality pen and quite often they exclaim that "this one's a keeper!" The old 79 cent pens I used to buy often just went into their pen cup, possibly never to be seen again.

  The R.O.I. on them hasn't been lucrative but I do get a few new tunings out of each batch that I buy so it's been enough to pay for them. 

  I've attached a picture of my pen and the box. Email me if you'd like more information.

  Regards...

                   John




  -------------------------------
  John Musselwhite, RPT  -  Registered Piano Technician
  Musselwhite Piano Services - Calgary, Alberta Canada
  Office/cel (403) 246-7717 Fax (403) 255-5268
  Outside of Calgary call Toll Free:  1-866-95-PIANO (1-866-957-4266)
  "Three Generations of Experience"
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20090727/2ab72dcc/attachment.htm>