Being genuine in all aspects of your business is one amazing way to help you stand out in the business world. Taking it further to delivering a feeling of Christmas joy to every transaction is Kirby Hasseman of Hasseman Marketing. Known as the consummate marketer who specializes in promotional marketing, Kirby is someone who knows how to take care of people; and he shares his ways to us while giving out the benefits it does to your business. Are you ready to bring out joy to your customers and into your business? Read on what Kirby has to say.
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Delivering Marketing Joy With Kirby Hasseman
We have Kirby Hasseman in joining us. I’m pretty excited. I’ve been on his show. He’s finally agreed to be on my show. This reciprocal thing is beautiful.
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Our guest is Kirby Hasseman. He has a company called Hasseman Marketing. The man has an ego. He has to have his name on his company. He specializes in promotional marketing, but what makes him special is how he takes care of his customers. Kirby is the consummate marketer. He knows how to take care of people. He knows how to sell the vision and he knows how to sell clients’ vision. Welcome to our show. I want to know what the story of your brand is.
Thanks for having me. I appreciate and you nailed it. I have an ego. The story of our brand, our mission and our tagline is delivering marketing joy. It’s one of those things that came from us. We had been in the business of marketing branding for a while. What happened was we do a customer appreciation event where we invite our customers and our suppliers. We do food and drinks the whole nine yards. About the time that this was happening, we started getting shipments. We’d get a t-shirt box and we get pens. We’d sell these and we’ve been doing it for years, but every day there would be a new shipment coming in, the entire team would run to the front door to see, “How did the t-shirts turn out.” I had a realization.
It was like Christmas every day.
There was a little piece of it if we did it right. I’m like, “How do we do this?” It’s exponentially bigger for our clients. That’s where our mission was. All of a sudden, that’s what we’re trying to provide. If that’s the story of our brand, then we need to translate not only at that moment but at the moment that we present them ideas. The first time we meet them, when they get their bill, every piece of the actual transaction and the experience needs to have a little piece of Christmas morning in it. That’s the short and the long of our brand.
What are the things that you do? You’ve come given me this Christmas morning thing. What are these individual things that you do to make that Christmas morning happen? How do you delight your customers? That’s what it’s all about, if you can show them that you care about them specifically. The loyalty is amazing and the engagement is incredible.
You hit the nail on the head. It boils down to what I do has to do with each salesperson we have in our organization. What I mean by that is it’s individualistic. Those relationships of listening to their customer and knowing the things that matter to that customer, it’s going to be different for each one. It’s the whole two ears, one mouth thing. You need to listen. My friend and yours, Bill Petrie always say, “All the people in our business do the big things right. They get the imprint right. They get it on time and they bill it. Everybody’s good at billing it.” The way that you show up differently is to listen to what matters to that individual customer and then do that little thing, whether it’s sending a simple thank you note after. It’s amazing how few people do that. One of the things that we’ll do is actual thank you videos that are specific to that client. It’s a private link that only goes to them. That’s different and special. Little things like that are ways that you show up differently to your customers.
Does that thank you note comes specifically from the sales rep or does that come from you as a group?
If you want to instill a culture, you need to build a foundation. Share on XThis has evolved. We started with a message of me sitting right here saying, “Thank you, Bob, for your business.” What we’ve evolved into is we created a little music video afterward that goes to the song, “We Are Family.” We do a little intro saying, “Thank you for your recent order. We want to welcome you to the family.” After that, they play the video. Once we’ve created it, it doesn’t take that long to do but it’s different.
If you get that video once, it’s incredible. You can’t get that video fifteen times.
You can’t do it. It’s got to be different each time.
Every time it’s something different. It’s constantly opening up that package. It’s like, “What’s Kirby going do this time?”
It’s interesting because you had Stan Phelps on the show. Stan inspired me when he talked about the GLUE. GLUE in business is like the little unexpected extras. That was a book that I read. I was like, “That makes a ton of sense to me.” A lot of these things have to be unexpected. That was the piece that it can’t be the same every time. We get lazy. You get a great response one time and you’re like, “I’m going to do that every time.” It can’t be the same every time. You need to mix it up. That’s where a little extra effort goes a long way.
How do you instill that culture throughout the company? You’re not a small company, but you’re not 1,000 people either. As companies get bigger and more people come on board, how do you make sure that you instill that culture, so the new people coming on board get it?
It’s a lot of effort and it’s leading by example. Whenever I ask any of our salespeople to do something, “You should do a thank you video.” I’ve already done five and here’s what they look like. If you want to instill a culture, you build a foundation. We’ve got an awesome team internally and hiring them right. From a sales perspective, it’s about leading by example saying, “I’m still a sales leader in our organization and don’t just do what I say, do what I do.” That’s the best way I’ve found so far.
Who are your best customers? You don’t have to give names. If you want to give a shout out to customers, that’s okay. It’s the type of customers that you’re looking for that get you and you get them.
The short answer is big customers with big orders that pay fast. That’s what we all want. What we found is the customer doesn’t matter if they’re big or small because we’re good either way. What we found are people who are pretty joyful, if you don’t like to yuck it up a little bit, if you’re super hardcore and all analytical, you probably aren’t going to like us very much. People who are fairly joyful and people who are at their core are kind. Happy and kind customers, regardless of size, we tend to do pretty well.
It’s important to know who your customers are. If your customers do not reflect who you are and you do not reflect the relationship of the customers, it’s not real. If you do not believe in what your customers are doing or they don’t mesh with your values. I was at a great talk. It was about tech and philanthropy. It was about meshing your different philanthropic organizations with your different charities. It’s got to be a mesh. If you don’t mesh with the organization that you’re working with, it’s not going to work a long time. Sooner or later, you’re going to come up against some hassle that’s not going to work and you’re not going to get beyond it. You might as well work with people that you like and people that you can help.
I’ll reference two books. Number one is Start with Why by Simon Sinek. Customers who get you are going to be more understanding when there are mistakes. There are going to be mistakes in every business. Things happen, but the people who get you are going to be a little bit more understanding that you’re going to fix it. The other one is the Pumpkin Plan by Mike Michalowicz. Mike Michalowicz talks about the riches are in the niches and he says that you should focus that way. Even if they’re big customers and they pay a lot, but every time they call, you’re like, “I have to answer the phone.” Maybe that’s somebody you need to cut ties with. Let’s face it. You’re probably not doing them a great service anyway. You’re not spending the mental calories trying to help their business or help them as a client. That speaks to your point.
You got to be able to have a synergy with your clients. It’s important because you have to be passionate about what they’re passionate about as a marketer to be able to help them. If you don’t care about what they do, it’s hard to tell their story. How do you communicate with your best customers? What are the things that you do? We’ve already talked about the videos. What are the things that you do on an ongoing basis to let your customers and new costumers know that you’re out there? This is who we are. This is what we do. This is what makes us unique. This is why you should care about us.
There’s a two-part answer. The way we communicate with our customers, we are pretty passionate about our content marketing, whether distributing that through email, Facebook, social media and Snapchat. Any place that we can tell that story and push out content that we believe is valuable for them, well do that. That’s our go-to-market strategy. The other side of this answer and this is the one that I’m most passionate about is, “How do I communicate with my customers?” However they want me to. One of the things that we fall trap into is we have to do it over email or we have to do it this way. If my customer wants to place an order over Snapchat, that is how I’m going to communicate with them. If people say that’s unprofessional, I disagree. You need to go to your customers where they are most comfortable and where they want to communicate. We’re not perfect at that, but that’s something that we’re open to and we’re trying to do.
That’s the new world. Years ago, everybody emailed or you might have gotten somebody on the phone, which I still love, “Customer, call me.” I like to hear the hurt. I’m one of these people who I like to hear the pain. I want to know what’s wrong. I want to know what the problem is. I love the back and forth conversation. Some customers it’s Skype, Twitter and texts. You got to be where they are. That’s how they communicate. That’s how they’re comfortable communicating. If we’re not flexible, we’re in trouble, not them because they’re going to keep communicating the way they want to communicate
That’s my takeaway on that.
Two more big questions. The first question is, why do your customers see you as valuable?
Your company is a marketing company. One of the things that we pride ourselves on is that we are a marketing company. There are a lot of people in the promotional premium industry that are salespeople who sell marketing products. We are a marketing company and there’s a distinct difference. We have a full in-house video production. We have graphic design in-house. We do social media for people in-house. There are a lot of great companies that do that, but there are fewer of us. When they say, “We need pens.” We say, “That’s great, but why? What are you trying to accomplish?” You’re going to a trade show. “Our pens the right thing.” What’s the theme? What’s the hashtag? We’re thinking globally about the marketing piece. That’s one of the things that our best clients value from us.
It’s about helping them communicate with their customers. It’s not about them. It’s about helping them help their customers. What you’re doing is you’re giving them the tools to make them better communicators, to let them tell their story better. I call it being a chief storyteller. It’s a great way of looking at it because it’s not just the pen, it’s how does the pen push you to the Facebook campaign, how does the pen get you to sign up for an ongoing newsletter. What are we trying to do? What’s the objective? At the end of the day, “Mr. Customer, Miss Customer, what are you trying to do? What’s the objective? Why are you going to this trade show?
Go to your customers where they are most comfortable and where they want to communicate. Share on XWhy are you visiting this customer? Why are you giving away this gift? Why are we building this website? Why are we creating this Facebook campaign?” Our job is to ask those questions and you do it so well. I watch your show and I listen to you and you’re good at it. It’s important to know what you’re good at and it’s being able to tell that story. That’s what makes people go, “Do you want to buy a pen?” versus “Why are we getting you a pen?” Is this the right pen? Is this telling the right story? Does it reflect your brand properly? Will your customers find it valuable?
One of the things I think about what we do is affect human behavior. Some people think of what we do is marketing. There’s marketing and then there’s internal marketing. It’s all about affecting human behavior. If you want the human to come to your store, go to your website or work safely, you want to affect that behavior.
It’s all about behavior modification. It’s getting people to understand why things are important. That’s Simon Sinek. The last thing that I want to talk about and this is probably the most important. When you hang up your hat, when you decide, “I’ve done this, I’ve had a great day. I’ve had a great week. I’ve had a great year.” What are the things that you want people to think about you? What’s the legacy that you want to leave behind with a customer when you leave their office or when you’ve helped them solve a problem? What’s that thought process you want people to think about?
I would certainly like my clients to believe I’m sincere and kind. I’d like them to think that I am original. I have an original thought. There is a vacuum or a little bit of a minuscule of regional thinkers now. There are a lot of what I call sheeple. They are perfectly good at parroting other people’s thoughts. I tend to value originality even if I disagree with you. If I think that it’s your thought and you being original, I value that. I would love for people to think that about me, and honestly, that I’m joyful. I try to enjoy life. We’re talking about what kind of client do you like? I like those who are our laughers, criers and huggers. Those people who embrace life, I tend to resonate with them and they resonate with me. I would love for them to think that, sincere, joyful and original.
These are great things. Kirby, thank you for being on the show. I appreciate it. It’s been a lot of fun. Having these conversations is great for my audience to be able to sit there and say, “Every business has a unique point to do.” We’re all unique. We’re all different. We all have things that we can do well and let’s be original. Don’t be a carbon copy of somebody else, be yourself. There’s nothing wrong with being yourself.
I was going to congratulate you. I am a person who does this. Thanks, Bill Petrie. I do a weekly show and I can know the undertaking that this is. When I heard that you were going to do this, I was excited and I think you’re doing a great job. I want to congratulate you.
Thank you very much. I appreciate it. In the next episode, we have a good guest. This guest is going blow your socks off. Collin has got the most interesting job of any of my friends of anybody that I know. He is Canada’s termination specialist. He is one of these people that you want to have on your side if you to have to get rid of an employee of any way, shape or form or a large group of people. He’s great at what he does. It’s a unique business. He’s got a unique selling proposition. Everybody does something different and everybody’s got something special that they do. Collin is proof of that. We want to talk to you. We want to talk to you about your business. What makes you special? What what’s your story? What are you passionate about? Who are your customers? Why do they like you and who are the customers you’re trying to attract and how can we help you do that? I think that this is a great thing.
I’ve got some special for everybody. We’re starting an online education program and it’s going through the Thinkific profile. It’s YourBrandMarketing.thinkific.com. We’re teaching two courses. One is personal branding for executives. The other one is personal branding to get hired. Take a look at these courses that are going to be taught online. Each is going to be for one-hour sessions online. They’re going help you get better because everybody, myself included, always needs to work on your brand. It’s ongoing. It’s always evolving. It’s always changing. The more you understand who you are, what you do, why you do it, what’s your vision and value the better you can communicate that. The more people are going to be drawn to who you are. Thank you for joining us. Kirby, thanks for coming aboard. We loved having you.
Important Links:
- Kirby Hasseman
- Hasseman Marketing
- Stan Phelps – previous episode
- Start with Why
- Pumpkin Plan
- YourBrandMarketing.thinkific.com
About Kirby Hasseman
Kirby Hasseman is the CEO of Hasseman Marketing & Communications, a full-service marketing company and promotional products distributor. Hasseman Marketing has 4 full-time internal employees and 6 salespeople.
Hasseman is making a name for himself in the promotional products industry! He is on the board of PromoKitchen, a non-profit agency that is dedicated to education and mentorship in Promo. He was also named as a Rising Star in the industry by PPB magazine. Recently, out of 300,000 (some) industry professionals, he was recognized as a top social media influencer on two different industry lists.
Kirby hosts a weekly Web show called Delivering Marketing Joy where he interviews business leaders from around the country. In addition, he puts out a Weekly Word, a short video on personal development (of course) each week. He has also begun a new Delivering Marketing Joy Podcast with new episodes each business day (available on iTunes).
Kirby has published four books. His first called Think Big Marketing For Small Business, an eBook called Give Your Way to Success and a third called Delivering Marketing Joy (about how to do Promo right). His most recent book called Fan of Happy is available now. Learn more here.
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