As retailers looked for ways to combat  the slowing Back to School Sales, CosPro Agency coordinated an effort across various brands to introduce several products to the Winn-Dixie customer during that time period.  Professional makeup artists conducted over 6,500 demonstrations in 25 top Florida Winn-Dixie stores over 4 weekends. The event featured products from Wet n Wild, Maybelline, Nailene, Olay and L’Oreal to name a few.

The event was pre-promoted in store and Winn-Dixie sent out emails to their Loyalty Club members. The event resulted in over 1,100 immediate sales translating to almost 12 sales per store!  Customers were thrilled to receive a gift bag filled with goodies and coupons and over 7,200 were distributed during the event. In addition, customers could sign up to win a Beauty Basket Raffle. The event was so successful Winn Dixie plans to do an encore in upcoming months.

CosPro Agency executed another incredibly successful event!  Our professional makeup artists promoted Maybelline’s Color Sensational Lip Color and the Pulse Perfection Mascara wand in 479 CVS stores nationwide over the last two weekends in September! 44% of the customers that received the demonstration had not tried either of these products – so this provided great product awareness. And the CVS customer appreciated being able to test the products.

The event resulted in over 5,100 sales — averaging 10.5 pieces of product sold at each store in just 4 hours!  For every makeover performed, the makeup artists at least one product and we averaged 125% closure rate!

The RITE AID Glam Camp program delivers fun and exciting product samples straight into the hands of teens at local community events throughout the nation. The program, in its 3rd year, is completely facilitated by Cosmetic Promotions Inc (CPI) – a national marketing and promotional company that specializes in promoting beauty products for mass retailers and vendors.

On November 28th through the 30th, Cosmetic Promotions handed out Teen bags on behalf of Rite Aid at the Miss Teen PA USA Pageant. The pageant took place at the Hyatt Regency in Pittsburgh, PA with an attendance of 2,000 each evening. Girls ages 14 to 26 from across Pennsylvania participated in the swimsuit, evening gown and interview competition. The girls who win this pageant will go on to compete for Miss Teen USA.

The bags were filled with products and coupons geared towards the teen market. There were 1,000 bags handed out and the girls commented “I love this lip gloss!” , “Do we get to keep the bags?” , “This is great!”, “Oh, I needed that!”. The coordinator also commented, “Once again the bags were a success” and they are looking forward to sampling with us again next year. The Miss PA Teen and Miss USA pageant welcome the Glam Camp Bags and put in a request for them every year.

One of the Nation’s Largest Black Art Expos, the Philadelphia International Art Expo, celebrated twenty four years this weekend at Temple University. The aisles were filled with people interested in buying, selling and enjoying works of African American art of all kinds. The Expo was more than just traditional art however; book fairs, writing workshops, live poetry and music, a job fair and even a comedy show were among the many events that took place at the Liacouras Center throughout the weekend (November 13-15). We were onsite Saturday afternoon and were able to greet many happy faces. The ladies receiving the gift bags were very excited about the samples enclosed and couldn’t wait to see if they were winners of one of the $100 gift cards being given away. It only took a few hours to distribute all 2,000 bags. This Expo served as the kickoff of the October Gallery’s 25th Anniversary Celebration taking place next year, which they hope we can also be a part of.

Patience is not often lauded as a virtue in the sales world. Usually the focus is on creating urgency, moving forward and closing deals. Some may even mistake patience as a form of procrastination, however, sales professionals who dismiss patience are overlooking a powerful and little utilized tool. Any successful sales person will be very familiar that building a good sales relationship takes time and persistence.

Now, persistence does not mean calling the prospect each week to see if they are ready to sign yet – you do not want to be a pest. Persistence simply means staying in touch with prospects in a way that builds the relationship and positions you as a valuable resource and trusted advisor.

The Rule of 7 is a fairly well known marketing concept which says: a prospect needs to see, hear, or otherwise be exposed to a message at least seven times before they respond in some way, shape or form. In other words, if you don’t have a contact strategy that touches the prospect at least seven times, you significantly reduce your odds of sales success. Optimally, you should be using a mix of vehicles for those 7 touches from emails, articles, webinars, phone calls and direct mail campaigns in order to reach your contact and get that first interview and begin building a relationship. Try to provide value in each communication in order to gradually move them closer to seeing you as the expert they can go to when needed.

Patience should be utilized in all aspects of your sales relationship. From prospecting to sales calls, to negotiating, to purchases, in this current economy customers have smaller budgets that they are being asked to do more with and are therefore taking longer to make sure they make the correct decisions, consider all their options and get the most bang for their buck. As a sales person, you need to make sure that you have the patience to follow up with them until they have time to talk, listen attentively to all of their problems/concerns and take the time to go through each with them.

Patience shows the customer that you care and that you are willing to take your time with them to make them happy. Customers love to feel that they are special, because they are. The more attention that you give to a customer, the more that they will feel that they are buying a product from a genuine and loyal person who wants to help them make a smart buying decision.

Selling is tough. Just remember that what we do is difficult and the relationships essential to success are not forged overnight. It takes time to build trust and credibility and prospects are going to engage you when they are ready. You can’t force them into meeting with you or buying from you. You need to have patience to guide them along the decision-making process and persistence to not give up. Sooner or later the prospect that took you 10 months just to get a meeting and another year to close could mean tons of repeat income to your firm.

“The two most powerful warriors are patience and time.”  Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy

“He that can have Patience, can have what he will.” Benjamin Franklin

This article was written by Tracie Gilbert, VP of Business Development at Cosmetic Promotions. For more information on Cosmetic Promotions, please check out their website www.cosproagency.com or contact Tracie direct at Tracie@cosmeticpromotions.com.

Olay Regenerist has a really great freebie offer. With the purchase of any two Regenerist facial moisturizers, facial treatments, or facial cleansers by 10/11/09 you can get a free Anti-Aging Roller. Go to http://www.olay.com/Club_Olay/sept2009/images/Regenerist_Rebate_Form.pdf for the rebate form. The Regenerist Anti-Aging Eye roller has precision micro rollers (which reduce puffiness) that gently massage an anti aging treatment into the eye area. The result, like the rest of the Regenerist line, is younger looking skin. All of Regenerist products feature a unique complex that renews the skin’s outer layer with ingredients including green tea extract, allantoin, and vitamin E.

It is important to a customer that they feel you are knowledgeable about your product, your competition and their problem. Following are a few tips to becoming an expert:

SEEK KNOWLEDGE – To become an expert in your field, you need to seek knowledge at every opportunity. Talk to people in your industry who have experience. Research and read everything you can on your specific field – the internet makes this almost too easy these days. Become an expert on trends in your industry. Learn about technology that is changing business processes.

KNOWLEDGE GAPS – As much as you can become an expert in your field, you cannot know everything. If you do know everything – congrats, you can stop reading here. However if like the rest of us, you run into a question that you do not know the answer to, admit it. Promise to find the answer and get it to them shortly. Do NOT make up an answer or not answer at all. The customer needs to trust that you know what you are talking about and if you fib or prevaricate, then you run the risk of losing that trust.

KNOW YOUR LIMITS – It is always better to under-promise and over-deliver than the other way around. Some sales people think that their product/service can fix everything under the sun and then some, which is just not possible. Know your product, know your customer and determine their problem. Figure out if your product/service is a good fit for their issue. This can mean the difference between a repeat customer and years of partnership or one-time only sales and negative word of mouth.

KNOW YOUR DIFFERENCE – How is your product set apart from others on the basis of superior performance in one or more areas? Your ability to differentiate your product or service probably is one of the most important factors in the customer’s decision. Why should they use you instead of their current provider? Know your competition and their benefits as well as their downfalls.

KNOW YOUR CUSTOMER – Know your customers most common problems. When are they most likely to happen? What are the causes? What can be done to solve them? Make yourself valuable to them by becoming their problem solver for a specific set of issues and making their job easier.

Helping your customer by being their own personal expert in that field will help you to create repeat business and increased sales. If you are satisfied with where you are or think that you have nothing else to learn…well, you probably wouldn’t be reading this, would you? Instead, seek to be the best, strive for knowledge and try to become an expert in your own little corner of the world.

“Never become so much of an expert that you stop gaining expertise. View life as a continuous learning experience.”  Denis Waitley

This article was written by Tracie Gilbert, VP of Business Development at Cosmetic Promotions. For more information on Cosmetic Promotions, please check out their website www.cosproagency.com or contact Tracie direct at Tracie@cosmeticpromotions.com.

Now that you have brushed up on your Listening Skills, let’s explore how to get your customers talking. Usually the easiest way to do this is to ask an open ended question.

Open ended questions simply refer to questions that can’t be answered with a single word such as yes or no. Open ended questions inspire long answers, rather than just one or two words. In a sales setting, an open-ended question, rather than close-ended questions, can be especially beneficial.

Let’s examine a common sales mistake, you are calling a customer and trying to find out what feature(s) of your product will work best for them. Quite a few out there unfortunately have the bad habit of going through each feature individually and then asking the customer, “Does that sound good to you?” In this instance, they are doing most of the talking (instead of listening to what the customer needs), have wasted time that the customer may not have (resulting in irritation or abruptness) AND have now given the customer the option of saying “NO” (an unforgivable offense).

So what does a smart sales person that knows how to listen and is a problem solver, do instead?

A good start would be to ask the customer an open ended question. “What are you looking for in this product?” This allows you to find out what matters most to them and tailor your presentation to highlight only the features that matter to them. If your product matches or exceeds their every desire or fixes a specific problem they mentioned, then the customer is going to have a much harder time finding a reason to say no and instead has been given every reason to say “Yes!”

Everyone in this current economy is busier than ever and by eliminating the items in your pitch that do not matter at all to the customer and showing that you care about their problems and would like to help them solve them, you will be more successful in your sales attempts and thus, more successful in your business.

Now, the question is, what are you going to go do with this knowledge?

This article was written by Tracie Gilbert, VP of Business Development at Cosmetic Promotions. For more information on Cosmetic Promotions, please check out their website www.cosproagency.com or contact Tracie direct at Tracie@cosmeticpromotions.com.

African American Females Targeted at Various Community Events

HARRISBURG, Pa. (May 19) Rite Aid has teamed up with Cosmetic Promotions Inc., a national marketing company that specializes in beauty, to promote its beauty department to African American females by attending a series of 10 community events in five key African American markets. The initiative builds on Rite Aid’s African-American promotional effort, dubbed Beauty the RITE Way.

The program is in its 5th year and involves sending Ethnic models to various conferences and festivals distributing 20,000 beauty sample bags to female attendees.  This year’s bags include products from RITE AID beauty vendors including  Jergens, Just for Me, Softsoap, Blue Star Ointment, Smooth ‘N Shine, Soft Crème, Maybelline Mineral Powder, Mane’n Tail and Fantasia Hair Polisher.  In addition, some of the bags contain a prize of a $100 Rite Aid gift card. 2,000 bags are distributed at each event to female attendees only.

On May 16th the BTRW sampling program traveled to the Pan-African Festival near Bowie, Maryland. This year’s them was “FROM ANTIQUITY to GLOBAL UNITY”; uniting families while raising the awareness of issues that affect people of African ancestry and featured special guest speaker, actress Lynn Whitfield.  The festival featured tasty ethnic and traditional foods, Caribbean and Gospel music and African attire Fashion Show. As families entered the festival they were greeted by the BTRW models at the RITE AID booth distributing the BTRW sample bags and the lucky recipients commented on how they couldn’t wait to try some of the new items. Halfway through the day, with more than four hours left to enjoy the festivities, all 2,000 bags were handed out and RITE AID was invited to come back next year.

On May 23rd, Beauty the RITE Way sampling models will attend the second day of the NY/NJ African American Statewide Parade and Festival which begins in Weequahic Park. There will be a RITE AID booth with banner at the event and announcements will be made throughout the day advertising the free BTRW bag available at the RITE AID booth. Over 500,000 are expected to attend the weekend’s festivities. There is a carnival, retail booths, live music, games and pony rides as well as a Hip Hop Tour. Also, there will be numerous booths featuring mouth watering soul food. The Heritage Festival will end on Memorial Day, May 25th.

The Gospel Jam 2009 at Wayne State University in Michigan will attract 5,000 African Americans. This year’s Gospel Jam will feature an evening of urban poetry, a gospel concert and the main attraction – the gospel dance competition. Proceeds from the event will go to benefit My Sister’s Keeper, nonprofit organization – developed to assist single-parenting mothers in Wayne County. The Rite Aid banner will hang at the main stage and to flyers will be distributed on campus promoting RITE AID and the giveaways in advance.

The entire program is completely coordinated and executed by Cosmetic Promotions Inc who secures the bags, the vendors, and the venues for the program.

Targeting Hispanic Women at Community Events

Harrisburg, PA – RITE AID has been working with Cosmetic Promotions Inc, a National marketing company that specializes in beauty, to promote their beauty and health department to Hispanic females by attending a series of 10 community events in 4 key Hispanic markets. The program is in its 4^th successful year sending Hispanic bilingual models to various conferences and festivals to distribute 20,000 beauty and health sample bags to female attendees.  Attendees of these events have always been thrilled with the sample bags that include products geared to Hispanics from RITE AID Beauty/Health vendors including  Smooth n’ Shine, Colgate, Tropez, Kiss, Jane Cosmetics, Clearasil, JNJ, L’Oreal, LA Looks, Palmers, Therma Flu, Dove and DeveloPlus.  In addition, some of the bags contain a prize of a $100 RITE AID gift card.

An upcoming event is the 33^rd Annual National Hispanic Women’s Conference being held this year on May 22^nd in Pasadena, California at the Convention Center. Over 3,000 Latinas are expected to attend this one-day conference that focuses on professional development and networking. The day includes workshops on career planning, educational achievement, financial planning and life empowerment as well as a runway fashion show. The conference’s signature event – Women of the Year Awards Luncheon – honors three exemplary Latinas who have influenced their chosen industry and have made a mark on society as a whole.

Bags will also be distributed to the first 2,000 females who attend the Hispanic Cultural Street Festival in downtown Los Angeles on May 24^th. Over 30,000 people are expected to attend this annual weekend celebration of Hispanic music, food, dance, art and culture. A free Health & Wellness Village will offer screenings, blood pressure, preventative programs and bilingual materials for festival-goers while Latin, Jazz and Pop musical acts will captivate the audience.

On May 30^th, the first 2,000 females attending the 10^th Annual Cuban Parade and Festival in N. Bergen, New Jersey will receive a RITE AID Hispanic Sampling Bag. This festival is all about honoring the vast contributions of Cuban-Americans in the United States and is expected to attract over 50,000 people. The festival will feature food kiosks with traditional food and plenty of entertainment and music by various artist and groups.

This sampling program is in addition to RITE AID’s African American (Beauty the RITE Way) and Teen (Glam Camp) beauty target sampling programs. All three programs are completely coordinated and executed by Cosmetic Promotions Inc.  The company secures the vendors, the bags and all the venues for distribution. The Hispanic program begins its 5^th year in July and will run through June 2010 and events will be in the Philadelphia, Los Angeles, New York and New Jersey areas.