During “Pivoting Your Company’s Marketing Plan,” Sharyn and Hank Yuloff, co-owners of Yuloff Creative Marketing Solutions, presented PPAI Expo Direct-2-You attendees with an updated and detailed marketing plan that can be implemented immediately, helping to reconnect companies to their clients through effective messaging. “A completed marketing plan is as mythical as a unicorn,” says Hank. “Since a unicorn doesn’t exist, your marketing plan is never going to be done.”

In this informative 45-minute virtual session, the Yuloffs offer next steps, challenging distributors and suppliers to rethink their strategies when promoting in a changed marketplace to a changed customer, and question how their customers have changed, how to rework their messaging and sales process, and how to market effectively in today’s climate. “In our industry, most of the time, first contact with a prospect was done in person,” says Hank. “Now, it is more difficult to create one-on-one connections, and we have to get used to that and find ways to get through that.”

The Yuloffs opened the session with good news for small businesses. Quoting Charles Darwin, Hank says, “’It is not the strongest or the most intelligent that survives. It is those most adaptable to change.’ That’s really good news for those of us who are not the biggest company in the world.” Facing a pandemic and the accompanying recession, the Yuloff’s say, “We had to adapt, and we faced a really big question: What do you do when your best marketing tools are not available? Because for us, it was being in front of an audience, live, and that wasn’t happening anymore.”

Despite witnessing a fundamental change in the marketplace, Hank says, “Be concerned, but don’t panic. Review your markets and review how you sell.” The Yuloff’s share four questions of selling: Why us? How do you use the products? Why not them? Do we need to buy at all? “There has always been a fourth question,” says Hank. “Until now, it wasn’t all that important. When our economy took a turn, that fourth question must now get answered first. We have to give our buyers a reason to make that decision.” When thinking about buyers, the Yuloff’s emphasize the importance of knowing exactly who the client is and why they are buying, using demographics and psychographics. “People don’t buy for logical reasons. They buy for emotional reasons.”

This session and others presented during PPAI Expo Direct-2-You will be available on-demand soon.