Short, sparse eyelashes are never what we want, but often what nature gave us. However, there is a new way to combat limited lashes and it costs less than you’d think. CoverGirl Lash Blast Length mascara goes completely above and beyond our expectations of what an $8, or less, mascara can do. It comes in both regular and water resistant and has three colors to choose from: very black, black and black brown. To apply, place the wand at the base of your lashes and brush through to the ends. The ultra long brush bristles and the unique nylon formula equal fantastically longer and separated lashes. It never flaked, clumped, or smudged all day and when it was time for removal, it came off completely and easily. We even liked the look and feel of the packaging.

We loved how it glided on with no clumps and gave us sky-high length! The downsides were that we had to use three coats to see those great results, and it only created length, not volume.

All in all, we give CoverGirl’s Lash Blast Length mascara an 8 out of 10 for low price, ultra lash-length, easy removal and zero flaking. At just under $8, it’s a very budget-friendly option for those looking for wondrously long lashes.

South Florida Walgreens (March 6, 2010) – CosPro Agency recently held another successful demonstration at Walgreens locations across southern Florida. The event promoted and demonstrated the new CoverGirl Lash Blast Length mascara in order to amplify product sales and create product awareness.

The product was incredibly well received by consumers. Fourteen stores sold 152 pieces averaging eleven pieces sold, per store, in only four hours! The closure rate was very high; for every three makeovers done, two of those made purchases. Over sixty percent of customers made purchases that day and thirty percent said they will definitely be purchasing Lash Blast Length in the near future. In addition, twenty percent of the customers didn’t know the product beforehand so it was a great event for product awareness. With the chance to try a new product before buying, an enticing gift-with-purchase and knowledgeable demonstrators to help customers make educated decisions – this event was a hit!

Additionally, at least one beauty advisor per store was trained on the product and will be able to assist customers for future sales. And almost all (99%!) of the customers agreed that they enjoyed the event and would love to see more product demonstrations and sampling.

For additional information on samplings and demos please email Kristin Bocox at kristin@cosmeticpromotions.com or call (877) 326-7776 ext 501.

Oily, dull hair is never a look that you want, but having to wash hair every day leads to fading hair color and a lot of effort. It’d be great to keep hair looking fresh and clean between washes, but there were almost no options for a dry shampoo under $10. Fortunately, we found that TRESemmè Fresh Start Dry Shampoo was a great way to keep our hair looking fresh and shiny for an incredible price; it’s a welcome addition to our product collection. Its unique formula uses mineral clay to soak up excess oils from the scalp. At the same time, the citrus extracts neutralize odors and give you that clean, just-out-of-the-shower feeling. Just spray on your roots, let it sit for a minute or so, and comb right through. Amazingly, it didn’t leave a filmy powder on our hair, and it smelled fantastic too! Not only did it keep our hair from looking oily between washes, but it also added volume and texture. Those of us with side-swept bangs especially loved how full and clean it kept bangs looking for the entire day. Plus, decreasing the amount of washes increases the length of time your hair color stays vibrant.

The only downside was that those of us with dark hair needed to use less because our roots looked gray if we used too much. But, when using the product sparingly, it brushed out pretty easily. In addition, a benefit to using less product is that it will last longer and save you money.

All in all we give TRESemmè’s Fresh Start Dry Shampoo a 9 out of 10 for low price, delicious smell, easy application, and silky feel. So unless you really enjoy all the work that goes into washing and styling your hair every day, we think this product is great for just about everyone.

Happy New Year everyone! To celebrate the new year, let’s briefly discuss the eternal search to get NEW clients. There are tons of different methods to approach new customers, but we are going to explore just 4 of the most impactful.

Cold Calling – While not the favorite method of reaching new clients, it can still be wildly successful if done correctly. Research your prospects and their industry – first to make sure that you are contacting someone that would benefit from your services and secondly so that you can prep before your call to outline how you can help them. Prep an opening statement customized to that prospect to catch their attention. Loosely script your call to help you keep it brief and to stay on subject. By talking to the right people about problems/issues specific to their industry that you can help with, you increase exponentially your chance of success with a cold call.

Word of Mouth – Everyone knows that a dissatisfied customer will talk to many more people than a satisfied customer, hence the hyper focus on customer service, right? But good customer service can only reduce your chances of negative word of mouth. How do you actually generate positive word of mouth? Believe it or not, there are a couple of different ways. Get active in your community, professional networking groups and professional associations (see below). Develop a referral network – determine what professions work to complement your services and develop relationships with them. Think of wedding services – florist, photographer, caterer, travel agent – each networks and refers each other so that a referral for one is a referral for all. Finally, make it easy to refer you – whether sending an email, business cards, brochures, etc with your invoice – make it easy for people to pass on your contact information.

Networking – Most people have a wide variety of networks already in place that they fail to take advantage of, such as Alumni Associations, Special Interest Groups, Volunteer Organizations, etc; there are a variety of people within these groups that may have need of your products/services. Don’t be afraid to bring up your business in these groups, even if it is just in your introduction to someone new and giving them a business card. People are much more likely to go to someone that they have met before and shares some life aspect with them, than to risk going to a company that they do not know. Most important to remember when networking is to be sincere, relaxed and to follow up – so if you promised to email an article to someone next to you on a plane, do it. Networking is about building your trust and credibility, NOT about smoozing everyone you meet.

Current Customers – The quickest, most cost-effective way to increase sales volume is to sell additional products/services to your existing customer base. Compare your current service/products offers to those of your competitors. Add complementary services/products. Expand the range of your service/product line. Offer volume discounts, special offers or package deals to up-sell orders. Be a 1 stop shop for your customers as much as possible. Your customers will thank you for saving them time and making them look good. When they do, GET REFERRALS!

Doing these 4 things should help you to reach new customers immediately, but again, there are a million different ways to expand your customer base.  If you have a great tip, feel free to sound off below!

The CosPro professional demonstrators promoted L’Oreals hair products and provided FREE color consultations at 15 Rite Aid locations during July. The Everpure line and Feria Hair Color were the center of attention during this promotion which was sponsored by Lucky Magazine.  The event resulted in 761 products sales; averaging 15.5 pieces sold PER STORE! For every 10 demonstrations, 8 products were sold. There were also 2,500 samples of Everpure distributed which will result in future sales once the customer try this sulfate-free line.  Many customers were also thrilled with the color consultations done learning what color is right for them, over 900 consults were performed. 

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.