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Top Motivators
NOVEMBER 01, 2001 - Client: Schallert & Associates Inc.
Sorrento
www.retail-usa.com
Who they are: Every year, thousands of independent business owners learn business improvement techniques from the management and marketing consultants of Schallert & Associates. Company President Jon Schallert travels across the country speaking to business associations about creating world-class stores by improving the visual appearance and marketing power of their retail marketplace. He provides personal, hands-on business assistance to a long list of individual clients.
Schallert embodies the beauty and the benefits of motivating with merchandise. While studies indicate that big companies (more than 100 employees) with big budgets are the biggest users of premiums and incentives, Schallert is a shining example of how the "little guy" can achieve equally impressive success with a fraction of the budget.
Aside from an assistant for office and scheduling coordination, Schallert is a one-man show in the highly competitive field of management and marketing consulting. He conducts more than 80 seminars a year on a host of topics and works one-on-one with additional clients.
"Almost all of my business is built by word of mouth," Schallert says. "One of the topics I cover is turning your business into a destination. There is a lot of visual that goes into that. Driving home a creative, useful message sets me apart."
In April, Schallert spoke at the National Main Street Town Meeting, a gathering of 1,700 cities interested in revitalizing their downtowns. To highlight his ability to consult with independent business owners on the effect of an uninviting storefront, Schallert acquired the Web site domain www.UglyStores.com. He created 300 T-shirts with that Web address and a humorous graphic of customers looking aghast, and handed them out at his seminar entitled "Visual Marketing Magic."
"Even though I only had 300 people in the room, the T-shirts got exposed to everyone at the conference as people began wearing them later in the week." And when the attendees returned home, the message — and Schallert's Web site address — was being promoted all over the country.
"To this day we receive inquiries about our business improvement seminars from all over thanks to people continuing to wear our shirts. It has directly led to some lucrative business," he says. "The whole thing cost me about $1,600 and I've probably realized an 8-to-1 return on investment." | |
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