A Great Leave Behind Gift

Paint con­trac­tors try so hard some­times to come up with a unique ​“leave behind gift” which will hope­ful­ly cause their poten­tial clients to remem­ber them. Typ­i­cal­ly they end of with a wid­get that has a com­pa­ny logo on it and looks cheap: a pen, a cal­en­dar, a mug, and a mag­net to name a few of the most com­mon items. I’ve even seen some more cre­ative ideas like an engraved com­pa­ny logo on a very expen­sive, name-brand knife. While this may not be a com­plete waste of mon­ey and can have some good brand­ing fea­tures, it prob­a­bly will not cause the leave behind prod­ucts to stick in the minds of your prospects. You want to give them some­thing that will cause them to remem­ber you more than any­one else! What can you give them to do just that? Some painters are pro­vid­ing free pop­corn at com­mu­ni­ty events with their brand­ed logo on the pop­corn bags. If they con­tin­ue to show up to these events and hand out free pop­corn on a reg­u­lar basis, peo­ple will remem­ber them as the paint com­pa­ny that hands out free, good-tast­ing pop­corn in their com­mu­ni­ty. It is unique! They don’t charge for it. It is some­thing a prospect can not only use right then and there but will actu­al­ly enjoy the taste. My guess is there will be a few that will come back for sec­onds. While I was work­ing at Chism Broth­ers Paint­ing, we cre­at­ed our own blend of cof­fee which we called, ​“Chism Blend.” It was roast­ed for us by a local, San Diego-based roast­er. They did not care if we ordered 1 lb or 50 lbs. We then cre­at­ed an attac­tive full-col­ored label, pur­chased ¹⁄₂ lb bags of cof­fee and cre­at­ed our unique ​“leave-behind gift.” When I showed up to a prospects home for an esti­mate, I’d begin my conversation/​sales process, then some­time in the meet­ing, I’d hand them a bag of Chism Blend. The bag would have the roast­ed date, typ­i­cal­ly the same week we hand them out. I then told peo­ple, ​“If you like our spe­cial cof­fee, you’ll love our paint­ing ser­vice even more!” I cre­at­ed a cof­fee blend, for my gift to prospects because I had a cre­ative anal­o­gy to share with each one of them about the sim­i­lar­i­ties of fine cof­fee and excep­tion­al paint­ing. It at least made peo­ple to smile! Did the idea work? I once sold a large repaint­ing project (over $50,000) using my cof­fee gift. I showed up for the first esti­mate with a ¹⁄₂ lb bag. It was a great con­ver­sa­tion­al starter. I then found out who was bid­ding the job (my main com­peti­tor vs. me) and so I showed up again a cou­ple days lat­er with anoth­er ¹⁄₂ lb. The client was so excit­ed to receive the cof­fee and thanked me over an over again. He told me, ​“I was hop­ing I could have got­ten anoth­er bag! I loved it.” How much did it cost me? An hour of my time and less than $6 worth of cof­fee. The client and I built a rela­tion­ship because I con­nect­ed with him using cof­fee. The cof­fee gift is some­thing they can use, not once but a num­ber of times through­out a two-week period…with my logo on the front of the bag every time they open it! So pick some­thing fun and com­plete­ly dif­fer­ent and run with it. Be known for that leave behind gift in your area! It will work! If you need help brain­storm­ing your unique leave-behind gift, I’d love to help!