[Marketing Memo] How A Tripod Took Me To Europe
Never stop finding new ways to show off your business services
By Cary Weston
My soccer trip was an amazing experience but how it came to be is an interesting and valuable business lesson.
You see, my company was very young and we had just a small office. It was so small, in fact, that you had to walk sideways to get past the conference table. What's a conference table doing in an office that small? Great question. It was my way of saying someday I'll need a room for this….but at the moment, please squeeze on by.
You can't start a business without optimism.
At the time, there was only one other employee in the company and we had a meeting to discuss a website project with a potential client.
We did a little video production at the time, but not much. I wanted to do more but I was missing three key components:
1. Equipment
2. Skill
3. A client
So I decided to overcome the first shortcoming and bought a really nice camera and tripod kit on Ebay from a failed dot com in California. When it arrived, I had all I could do to set it up, much less use it. But it was beautiful and when it was set up, you couldn't help but stare at it.
Looking back now, you kind of had to stare at it, since it was in the way of the conference table, but I digress.
I had the camera and tripod set up in the office when the potential client came in. And sure enough, as he sat down, he noticed the camera and asked me about our video production services.
Here we go.
He was flying to Europe, he said, to see the Blue Lagoon in Iceland, the castles of Scotland, and visit Old Trafford Stadium in Manchester as part of a traveling soccer tour his company provided.
He offered to pick up the cost of the experience for us if we would capture it all on video and produce a DVD when we got back.
Game on.
So my challenge to you is this:
Finding ways to show off your services is a never-ending exercise. You simply never know when the next opportunity will present itself. Are you making the most of the chances you have? Thinking outside the norm to help communicate what you can do for your customers will lead to some beautiful adventures for your business.
p.s. That trip not only changed my video skills but it gave fuel to my business optimism. I had a client, I had the equipment, and I had the reason to bring my skills up to speed. I'm lucky enough now to have folks far more talented than me running the cameras when duty calls. Baut one thing in our company is still true today: we never stop looking at new ways to make an impression and because of that, our company continues to grow.
+++++++++
- Cary Weston is a partner of Sutherland Weston Marketing Communications in Bangor, Maine
Connect online:
Web: www.sutherlandweston.com
Cary'sTwitter: www.twitter.com/cary_weston
Cary's Linked In: www.linkedin.com/in/caryweston
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