How to Have a Competition When There’s No Competition
Lister Trade Frames and Thermaseal are showing some of the ingredients that make their customers some of the most successful around. They wanted to stage a competition to give away one of their Gallery doors every day of the exhibition.
“Trouble is, it’s a contradiction in terms,” says Listers’ MD Mark Warren, “Our strapline is ‘There’s no competition!’, largely because we never compete with our customers, either directly or through direct-selling subsidiaries. How do you ask people to join in a competition, when there’s no competition?”
So instead of a competition, Listers and Thermaseal are laying down a challenge. If you want a free composite door, just persuade them that you’re the most deserving recipient of the day.
The Art of Persuasion
“You’ve seen that programme on TV where the likes of Jeffrey Archer and Duncan Bannatyne give away their money. This is a bit like that,” says Mark. “So convince us you deserve a free door, and you’re definitely in with a chance. Basically, if you can make us laugh, or can give us a great tag line for our products, or give us some really outstanding reason why you should win, the more likely you’ll be winning that day’s composite door give-away.”
Listers and Thermaseal claim that stand C050 is the one everyone will remember at Glassex. There won’t be any hard sell, and there won’t be any pressure to enter the competition, because ‘There’s no competition’. But they will be revealing some of the secrets that make their customers more successful than most others in the industry, and they are giving away a door each day. We suspect that there may just be a queue to stand C050!
