Vendor Inclusive Marketing (“VIM”) is probably not new to most of you. You are probably using many elements of VIM in your everyday practice. Because you are a cutting age professional, you understand the worth of knowing the very best electrician in your market. The guy who will show ip promptly at a customer’s home, do an effective diagnosis of the problem,  provide a reasonable estimate for the work to be done and then deliver his services, on time, at the price which was quoted.

Knowing who this person is elevates you in your customer’s eyes, and, realistically, provides a ready source of referrals for you the next listing, next legal engagement or next mortgage application which comes before that artisan. It is just common sense that the person to whom you have given solid, quality referrals will think of you the next time work in your line of business is available. Who knows, your VIM person may go out of his way to promote your services without even being asked.

Given the effectiveness of VIM as a marketing concept, I am making a view suggestions here which cannot help but increase your VIM score and drive business to your door:

     1. Assemble a VIM List of reliable vendors. Your professional experience may have you pretty far along the way on this list already. What you need now is to organize your referrals and get them in a document, or on your Web Page, so you can easily reference them.

    2. Deliver the “VIM List” at what you consider the appropriate time. Because my time to perform is at residential real estate closings, I deliver my VIM List in conjunction with the Notebook given to every Buyer at a closing I conduct (See my post “The Closing Table–An opportunity for marketing”). I put a plastic page for business cards in the last section of my Notebook. I tell my Buyers that the people who are in my book are tested sources. I, and my clients, have used them and they are solid.

    3. See if you can get your VIM List people to give discount certificates you can give to the Buyer. In these days of required penny-pinching, f you can give solid referrasl, at discounted prices, to your Buyer, you are doing something. Not only will your VIM List people do everything possible to give you referrals, the Buyesr will, as well.

In prior posts, you have commented on my ideas and given me new ideas to build my marketing efforts upon. For instance,one of you suggested that I place a 2010 Calendar, with my firm’s name on it, in the ever-present Notebook. I got my printer to prepare same for free,and he puts his information on the reverse of te calendard, which I place in the insert infron of the Notebook. Win-win for both of us, and a tool to keep our firm’s name in front of the client.  “Drop” marketing,if you will. Please share any of these enhancements with me. We are all working together to develop a better mousetrap. TOGETHER WE CAN!!!!!! (Sound familiar).