I found an opportunity in this smaller PR company
that was representing houseware products.
Basically, I became an intern in my early 30s, which
was many steps back after I had that spectacular
experience in Ogilvy and as a marketing manager
in Holland. After working for this agency for free
for three months as an intern, they offered me a job
and I quickly became Vice President of new business
development and was in charge of helping to grow
the agency. Four years later, I was approached by
my now longest staying client, SharkNinja to head
their PR. I asked them if they would be my
founding client. They had a lot of faith in my
capabilities and gave me my huge break. I had a
little condo and put it on the market to be able to
survive; I sold everything I had and just started my
own business. So that was almost 12 years ago. I
have to say that SharkNinja’s ongoing innovation,
their amazing products that kept delivering on their
promise to the consumer enabled me to build
tremendous relationships with top tier media. Our
good work for our client was recognized in the
industry and the agency took off, becoming one of
the most awarded PR agencies in the country. But I
am very lucky as I had a visionary and a wonderful
client to start with. Once a small housewares
company, SharkNinja is now a multi-billion dollar,
multi-national leader in the housewares industry
and I am so proud to be still representing them.
SMM: What mistakes do you see business owners
make when it comes to their sales efforts?
HG: I think the biggest mistake that I see is a lack
of integration with other parts of their organization.
In order to really harness the full benefit of their
sales efforts, they have to have a very holistic
approach to everything they do within the company.
When an organization is able to close the loop on
information exchange between their departments
and is able to turn that information exchange into
identifying opportunities and then acting on them,
they will see a dramatic positive change in their sales
results.
85 Strictly Marketing Magazine September/October 2014
It’s about taking the signals from each field,
identifying success factors and maximizing these.
There are tried-and-true sales tools out there that are
effective, but there are some sales tools out there that
companies have been using for years and years and
years that don’t work anymore.
One of the examples I’m going to give you is mass
emailing. How many times do we open our inbox
and read another spam message or sales message
from a salesperson? I am surprised to see that many
businesses continue investing in mass emailing,
wasting their dollars. Technology today, such as
clutter email function in Outlook, allows recipients
to protect themselves from unsolicited mass
emailing. On the contrary, the digital sales tool of
today, “behavioral targeting,” works on social and
digital media and provides a much stronger ROI.
Once you identify that consumer-preferred area of
interest—for example when you’re looking at your
mobile phone and searching for a product --- several
minutes later, relevant ads start popping up.
Although we all feel like our privacy’s invaded, the
truth is, it is an area of interest and they have
targeted you and most of us are receptive to this kind
of solicitation.
SMM: What about Public Relations and Social
media, how can these services produce better
results?
HG: Technology is enabling consumers to not only
avoid spam mail and avoid direct marketing but also
to avoid having to watch advertisements, especially
on television. Everybody’s binge watching shows,
and unless it’s the Super Bowl or a live game, more
and more viewers avoid advertising. So in order to
lift sales, you need to get creative and use an
integrated strategy leveraging both public relations
and social media. These two disciplines have
become fully integrated as the industry has evolved
and they complement each other, working in tandem.