The Captain’s Blog : Archive for the 'Building Relationships' Category

We strutted our stuff at the Utah Valley Big Business Expo with a beautiful booth that exemplified the principles of great design. Clean and simple, it was one of a few oasis in a sea of sales people and blaring designs. We got some great comments on the booth! However, the star of our booth was the office foosball table. The foosball table served as an easy non threating transition from the isle to our booth. It provided a way to brake the ice as well as a nice release for passers by. Although the foosball table was a bit of a gimmick, it felt in-brand with the rest of our booth and is very much a part of our office. All in all the booth stood out without being obnoxious.

Brandon Jeppson

It’s that time again. Time to get ready for the Big Business and Technology Expo. We’ve a booth in the past and we wanted to do one again this year. But, like anything else where businesses come together it can be difficult to standout from the crowd and be memorable. We brainstormed quite a bit, and we came up with some pretty crazy ideas for our new booth; a human aquarium, attractive girls walking around with our logo branded on their foreheads, an airport terminal, hanging up laundry, even carrying potential clients around on our shoulders. Finally, we decided that we should create a beautiful booth that exemplifies the principles of great design. By doing so it would show us doing what we do.

When putting together a trade-show booth, it’s easy to get caught up in the excitement of gimmicks, we did. Don’t let gimmicks cloud your vision. Get off the gimmick bandwagon and remember that any business can best promote itself by being real and genuine. Find a way to let the very layout of your booth show what you do and who you are. People will find it refreshing, and you’ll attract the type of clients you want.

Brandon Jeppson

You know that phrase “some things are worse than death”? Well, for many people that means things like; reviews, one-on-ones, progress reports or evaluations. Many of us fear having our weaknesses and failures laid out before us like a bleak prognosis of our chance for success. However, I’ve noticed that when people ask how they can improve, it builds trust, strengthens the relationship and improves success. We’ve stretched this concept beyond internal evaluations and have asked our clients how we are doing at serving them and what we can do to improve. Independent of what the feedback is, this process always serves to strengthen our relationship with them, which means happy clients. When we have happy clients, that is success. No doubt the same holds true for any brand, product or service. So, when there’s a chance to have a review or an evaluation jump at the chance, it’s sure to be good medicine for your success.

Brandon Jeppson

Employers often give employees a pay raise to show that they’re valued. Everyone needs to feel valued, especially clients. This doesn’t mean that you need to put your clients on pay roll(although they probably would mind that). However, like your employees, you need to show clients how much you value them. With each project, we try to think of ways to help our clients be successful. Sometimes the ideas we come up with fall outside the scope of a project or contract. When shared, those very ideas are what show clients that our relationship is about more, it’s about helping them achieve success. Give your clients a nice fat raise, share additional ideas to help them be successful, it really pays when you do.

Brandon Jeppson

With the start of the Holiday Season we all become somewhat nostalgic and think of everything that we are grateful for in our lives, and for all the people that have helped us along the way. Even though as an agency we are the engine of a lot of commercialism it behooves us to get a little sentimental and send out some thank you cards to express our gratitude to all those clients that pay the bills and that keep life interesting. Tis the season to say thank you. Besides if it can keep the pilgrims from dying during scarce times it can do the same for a creative agency.

Brandon Jeppson