With the regular mail bills moving to e-bills, paper newsletters moving to e-newsletters, newspapers becoming an extinct news source, and receiving e-cards rather than regular cards, it seems that “new” marketing is all on the internet. WRONG.
I loved typing that just now, and here’s why: the other day I received this envelope.
What could it be? And who from?? (Lee hypothesized a secret admirer.) I guess I had to open it to find out! Oh the suspense! Oh the glee! It was my very own…marketing material from Staples sales rep Jairo. (Hi Jairo!) Definitely surprised, Jairo’s personally written introduction card made a positive impression on me. Soon after, Jairo followed up with an e-mail and phone call requesting the foot in the door sales pitch meeting that all sales reps would love to have. Granted.
Surprisingly, the next day, I received this other letter:
I received this letter soon after receiving a call in which I notified them that we were not in need of their services. Not only was our business name blatantly misspelled (Counter-Ntuity), but their generic mail merge document was horribly written with many grammatical errors (and poor wording choices).
Obviously, I’m thinking of switching to Staples now. Jairo is creative, smart, and has what it takes to get me to be a Staples customer. My reasoning? Staples is going to make my job easier by saving me money (covered in the sales meeting), saving me time (notice how he saved his own time), and providing creative solutions to any needs we may have (demonstrated by the personalized print card solution, other marketing materials, and general creativeness in using snail-mail).