By Kat McDaniel, Principal at MEDiAHEAD.

MEDiAHEAD: Words of Encouragementword of encouragement can help to calm us and make us stop to analyze what’s going on in our life. It has the power to make us see the situation from a better perspective.

Have you ever known someone who believed in you, someone who frequently spoke words of encouragement and praise? The kind of person who made you feel you could do it, whatever it was?

Several years ago, when I was going through a particularly scary period in my business, my father started sending me letters with words of encouragement and pictures that he drew.

He used phrases like Go Girl Go, WE ALL Knew you could make it, Today is Good- TOMORROW WILL BE BETTER!

And finally, this letter when things got better:

Congratulations!

“I don’t know what you DID…but I think you DID GOOD! You went down on the count of 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 and then you rose up to living and came (ROARING) back.

YOU SHOULD BE VERY PROUD OF YOURSELF. I KNOW WE ARE!

Signed, A Proud Father

I will always treasure these letters and I have them hanging in my office along with all the other words of encouragement that clients and friends have sent me.

MEDiAHEAD: Words of Encouragement MEDiAHEAD: Words of Encouragement

MEDiAHEAD: Words of EncouragementNow more than ever…

I think right now, more than ever, we need to have words of encouragement around us.

There will be times we feel powerless and out of control — but we can fill that space with kindness and be a part of the solution to a world problem. We can create healing by learning how to be kind and take care of each other and ourselves during this time.

Let’s all make a plan to check on our friends and clients and try to lift them up with encouraging words right now.

By LeRay Warrior, Principal at MEDiAHEAD.

Sales teams are critical to the success of any organization. But how a sales team is supported by their marketing department (particularly for those businesses with reps on the road) can make all the difference in securing leads and closing deals.

By centrally locating marketing materials in one portal, sales professionals can gain access to flyers, business cards, brochures, PowerPoint presentations, thank you notes and trade show materials with just a few clicks. While this all sounds great (which it most definitely is!), what does it mean in practice for sales professionals?

Let’s take a look at how our marketing portals transform the effectiveness of sales teams across the country.

MEDiAHEAD: Marketing and Distribution Portals

Our Marketing Portals Give Sales Teams the Ability to Orchestrate Drip Campaigns

Companies who use our portals store all of their sales materials in one location, which is useful for a number of reasons. But an online portal can become transformative when a sales rep is trying to build familiarity with prospects.

 Let’s say one of your sales people is in Indianapolis, trying to secure new opportunities. There’s nothing worse than trying to convince cold leads to meet with you. So they decide to send out a mailer to drum up interest and provide a talking point for when the sales rep shows up.

By utilizing one of our marketing portals, a sales lead can select the existing sales materials that he or she wants, update the contents to reflect his or her contact information (within the portal), attach a list of prospect addresses, and click send. Within seconds we receive the request. We will print the material and we mail it. We also send a copy of the material to the sales rep’s office or home address, so that they know that it’s gone out.

MEDiAHEAD: Marketing and Distribution Portals

Sales Reps Use Our Portals to Add the Personal Touch

 Sometimes it’s the small things that count the most. When leaving a sales meeting, many reps realize the value of sending a little something to tip a potential client over the edge.

We’ve found that sales professionals like to achieve this by using our portal to create personalized thank you notes. Reps can use the portal to recap what was discussed in the meeting: What the prospect stated were pain points, remind how we can remedy those pain points, illustrate next steps etc.

Once completed, that message can be sent immediately by downloading and emailing or downloading and printing at his other desk.

MEDiAHEAD: Marketing and Distribution Portals

Our Marketing Portals Provide Sales Professionals with the Tools for The Job

MEDiAHEAD: Our Speed Kills the CompetitionIf you’re a company that has franchises or sales professionals in locations spread out across the country, then the process of relaying information can be slow. Even a simple request to print more business cards for “Marie in Wisconsin” can go through several steps before being executed. 

This couldn’t be further from the truth with our portals. All sales materials are located in one place 24/7, and can be printed on demand. “Marie” could have her business cards refilled within a few days by utilizing one of our portals. How often do you order business cards and wait weeks to get them in hand?

But the speed of transformation isn’t limited to sales cards. For example, how many times does corporate make a change and find that staff is still using the outdated material because they downloaded it to their desktops? 

Rather than calling and emailing all of the reps to tell them to update their sales presentations, the changes can be made through the portal, and everything would reflect the most up to date changes. When the sales rep sits down with their laptop, their new, updated material is there ready to go in an easy to find place.

It also does away with the need for sales reps to continue carrying around boxes of outdated marketing materials with them. They have access to short print runs and only print what they need when they need them, reducing the amount spent on redundant marketing materials. Whether it’s business cards, pitch books, PowerPoint presentations, flyers, brochures, or posters, those sales materials are always online and ready to react to fast-moving situations thanks to our marketing and distribution portals.

Our Marketing and Distribution Take the Hassle Out of Trade Shows

MEDiAHEAD Trade Show BoothSome companies rely on trade shows to secure new business, particularly within the business to business (B2B) realm. But organizing stands for shows on a regular basis can be tough. First of all, there’s the promo items, business cards, flyers, and banners. Then there are the logistical issues surrounding picking it all up and lugging it to each venue or shipping to each venue. With the help of one of our marketing portals, these issues can become a thing of the past.

Sales reps just need to log in, order what they need in terms of materials, cards, banners etc., and we will send it directly to the venue with a return shipping label. All they have to do is show up. Once the trade event has finished, they simply package up the materials and attach the return label. Once we receive it back into our warehouse, we update the inventory in real-time, so all sales reps know what’s available to them.

Streamline Your Sales with a Marketing and Distribution Portal

As demonstrated, our marketing and distribution portals make the lives of your sales professionals easier. They provide your company with a faster and more cost-effective solution to securing new business.

Whether that’s in the form of implementing real-time updates to sales materials nationwide or delegating decisions such as refreshing business cards. By having all materials in one convenient-to-access location 24 hours a day, seven days a week, you can eliminate waste, decrease turnaround times, and achieve a much higher return on investment. 

If you feel that your sales professionals would benefit from access to a streamlined, centralized, and fully-functional online portal, then don’t hesitate to contact us today.

Happy St. Patty's from IzzyHello. It’s Iz!

I love holidays, and St. Patrick’s Day is no exception! Yeah, green eggs and ham, green beer and just all-around green fun! (I really don’t drink beer.)

So why do we wear green on St. Patrick’s Day? People believed that by wearing green it made you invisible to leprechauns. If you didn’t have green on you would get pinched to remind you there might be a leprechaun lurking around. Please don’t get pinched this year, wear your green.

Just a couple facts I would like to point out that you might not know about St. Patty’s day:

St. Patrick was not even Irish….. He was actually born in Great Britain.

The Irish flag is very symbolic – the green represents the Irish Catholics; the orange represents the Protestants and the white represents peace between the two.  The green is called “shamrock green”

One of the national symbols of Ireland is the Shamrock. St. Patrick himself used the green, three leaf clover to teach the Irish about the Holy Trinity, one for the father, the son and the Holy Spirit.

The four-leaf clover is just a simple symbol of good luck.

Did you know that March 17 precedes the first official day of spring, the first day of spring is March 20th this year. YEAH!

Ireland is the Emerald Isle and is known for its lush green landscapes.  I would love to go there with my mom and dad someday. I wonder if a dog has ever flown that far?

Luck of the Irish to you!

Well, that’s about all for now, my head is so full of good facts! I’m really looking forward to green food and watching all the people show up in their green. If they don’t have on green, I think I might give them a little bite on their ankles. That would be like a little pinch… right?

Til next time. Iz.

Corbin Bronze - Coffee Table BookBy Kat McDaniel, Principal at MEDiAHEAD.

Last year I was blessed to work with Tom Corbin and Julia Velasquez on Tom’s new coffee table book, Tom Corbin Continued. It had been thirteen years since the printing of his first book and his new book follows how he has continually grown and evolved over the last ten years.

The New Coffee Table Book

Tom’s wife Susie called me for advice because they were considering printing the book in Italy. After visiting the facility and seeing the quality that was possible here in Missouri, they decided to print with us.

It was a blast to see Tom working, clay flying, in his studio – it’s amazing to see how Tom moves back and forth between clay and canvas and back again.

Julia seamlessly brought everything together on the book. She flawlessly executed the production, design, color correction of all the photos and looked at every sheet during the press run. There’s an intense amount of pressure when you’re producing a 288 page perfectly bound book like this – if something is wrong, it’s going to be around for ten years plus. And I was thrilled to receive a work of art from Tom as a thank you for the work we did on his newest book!

Corbin Bronze - Work of Art

I’ve known Tom and Susie for many years because our daughters went to school together. If you know Tom, you know that he is one of the nicest people. He doesn’t let his success make him unapproachable. They’re also huge supporters of the art community here in Kansas City.

We are truly lucky to have an artist of Tom’s caliber here in Kansas City.

Please visit his studio, in a historic old firehouse, on Southwest Boulevard – it is absolutely packed with incredible sculpture, paintings and furniture.

We need to invest in our local artists to ensure that they thrive and stay in our community.

Corbin Bronze - Coffee Table Book Corbin Bronze - Coffee Table Book

By Michele Stilwell, Director of Marketing and Accounting at MEDiAHEAD.

Taking care of aging parentsWhen we were growing up, I never really thought about that day when I would need to start taking care of my parents. We were too busy being kids and teenagers. Then we got to our twenties and it was all fun and exciting. Many of us got to our thirties and started thinking about settling down and having kids. Forties and Fifties we were raising those kids and sending them off to college (or at least getting them out of the house.)

Did you ever think during all those years that the day would come when you’d be taking care of your parents?

Maybe just one of them… or both of them. It’s an eye opener for sure. Things start to happen. They might get sick and can’t do things for themselves. Or their vision goes and they can’t renew their driver’s license. That’s huge. Think of all the places you drive to on any given day.

When parents lose the ability to drive, the responsibility has to fall on someone… most often it will fall to you. The good news is there are lots of delivery services. (Hallelujah!)

Then there are the doctor’s appointments.

You might have a parent that’s sick and having trouble remembering things. You really need to go to these appointments with them each and every time. This can be several appointments in any given month.

It’s stressful when you get to the point where you have to start making decisions on what assisted living, nursing home or memory care facility they need to move to.  Getting them settled in and then checking on them daily to make sure everything is going well. Taking them activities to do, or food they might like, or simply sitting with them just to talk so they are not lonely or feeling forgotten in a strange place.

This is all part of taking care of a parent, even though we might not be mentally prepared.

Taking care of aging parentsI think it’s important for all Generation X’ers to know that several of us are going through this right now. There’s a great support group out there. Our friends, neighbors and co-workers might be going through similar situations or have gone through it already. Lean on them, get the support you need, and talk about it. Help like this can guide you through anything that you may be dealing with.

It’s extremely difficult to go through the process. But knowing others have gone through the exact same thing can be a huge help.

I’m going through this right now with my mother.

You would not believe the support system I have all around me. It’s unbelievable, and much needed.

Another great organization that I can’t put enough words in this blog about is Hospice. The team that they have and the people they employee are “Angels from above”.  If you have had to interact with a Hospice organization, you will undoubtedly agree with me.

This hasn’t been my typical blog post about digital printing or portals. But I wanted to talk about it because I’m sure that people around me are going through the same thing. I wanted to make sure you knew you’re not alone. And as the roles change, it’s important to show our parents we love them as much as they showed us when we were growing up.