How to reach people in charge of buying furniture for bars/clubs/lounges

If you have trouble finding out this kind of information, I would say that's good news for you! I don't feel you would have much competition in this kind of market, and you're in a very good place looking for advice on how to increase your sales and market your product.

Who buys furniture for a bar/lounge/club? Probably the owner? There is a LOT you can do with your marketing for these tables.

Get into social media since beer pong is definitely a social media type of game. Go to Vegas and post photos of you and/or your team playing beer pong on your tables inside the bars while tagging the bar names. That will help set you as an authority in your niche.

You could start a youtube channel, showcasing beer pong tournaments and tagging or giving shoutouts to those involved or hosting the event.

Not all bars are set up for a beer pong table area, but you never know. Some paid advertising can work, focusing on the bar scene.

Have a contest on social media. Work out the details for what is feasible for you, but I'm thinking something like posting a photo of your BEST table and ask followers to: like this photo, share it and tag a bar you would LOVE to play at. The winner gets 50% off (or free?) table and YOUR TEAM delivers it to the bar and hosts a beer pong tournament....all tracked, live streamed and plastered all over social media.

Go one step farther and thank the next best 5 for coming SO close to winning and offer them 10% off their next beer pong table purchase.

I think if you follow some of these ideas, your exposure would go through the roof....and would be a lot of fun!

Hope this helps!

Look for trade associations, either in your state or country wide.
e.g. https://www.nightlifeassociation.org/

Offer the association something useful to distribute to their members.
What are the problems your ideal customer are experiencing related to your product?
What information (related to your product) would your buyers find useful?
Make it entertaining and educational. Get a pro writer to ghost write it or edit it.
Offer to customise and have a message as an introduction from the trade association.
Brand the giveaway (your contact details, website etc) and have a compelling offer included.

Trade associations love useful stuff to give to their members and you'll get in front of a large number of targeted prospects very cheaply...

Do this properly and you'll get tons of prospects calling you...

Also look for non competing businesses who distribute to the same market and do something similar for them...

I am assuming you are wanting to use LinkedIn? Try Promotions Managers or Event Specialists

Honestly I would just look up the name of the owner/manager of the bar and call them/email them. If they personally don't deal with purchasing furniture and stuff to their club/bar/lounge, they'll direct you to the right person.

Here's a bunch of examples of the same report (or variations/updates) customised to different businesses:
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=%2...w=1544&bih=979

(might have to "repeat the search with the omitted results included") I got eight results.

Here's some of the results I got...
http://business4u.co.nz/wp-content/u...racegirdle.pdf
http://www.activecare.co.nz/uploads/...a_dobson_1.pdf
http://www.balancedcurve.com/wp-cont...-Year-Ever.pdf
https://www.cosytoes.co.nz/site/cosy...osy%20Toes.pdf

Download a few and take a look.

The introduction is customised for each business.

Then take a look at the last page where the author invites people to send him feedback. That's a simple, non salesy call to action that most organisations would accept.

Another non salesy call to action is to sign up for valuable tips on whatever you're an expert in. Using the above examples, sign up for more "proven strategies that any person can use to create more fun, success, happiness and enjoyment in their life". Once they're on your own mail list, you can send them anything you want.

Edit: And, of course, you'd have an offer on the thank you page for the sign-up.

Some will accept a more blatant offer, "x% discount for customers/members of ...", or "Special package deal for customers/members of ...". Generally, the stuffy types won't accept blatant advertising.

Most trade associations and businesses will be happy to distribute free of charge if you sell them on the benefit to their members.

Those examples above, the author charges businesses a license fee to distribute his reports, as do I.

You are looking for the 'Purchasing Manager'

..and I'd be confident that the opportunity would be best offered to these people within the geographic target on the telephone - short and sweet.

Shows the versatility. The author's licensed it to the Real Estate agent for him to use as a lead gen. Real Estate clients probably aren't interested in marketing services.

Accountants, on the other hand, have small business owners as clients, who may well be interested in the authors marketing services.

I think trade associations are a bit of a red hearing in your case.

What you're looking for is lists of "high likely prospects" with a relationship with the list owner. So, in these examples he gives the report to an Accountant to distribute to the Accountant's clients and gets his name, and useful samples of his expertise, in front of those prospects, along with an endorsement from the list owner.

The best list you can get is a list of people who have bought similar products/services to yours. And an endorsement from the list owner is (almost) as good as a personal referral.

So in your case, I guess it would be the therapists' customer lists you'd be targeting.

Most people/organisations won't distribute a blatant ad or sales letter - at least not without payment. It must be something that is useful, interesting and entertaining for their customer base. The sales pitch is low key and more educational than salesy.

If you search on the Author's name, you'll get a lot more (ignore the academic papers, that's a different guy) and some of his marketing tips reports, which may be better examples than the previous one.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?sour...30.UERyEWwte58

I get 2750 results. :-)

You'll see how he uses the same report, customised for different businesses.

You'll also see that some of the reports are nothing more than assembled interviews with experts.

e.g.
http://mavensandmoguls.com/pdf/Milli...vice-Vol-1.pdf

These are easy to do. Find common questions, that your prospects are asking, and go ask a bunch of yoga instructors to answer them. Then assemble the results in a report.

BTW. You don't have to faff about with reports. You could do a profit share deal with the therapist whereby they promote a blatant offer in return for a (significant) share of the profits. Some people may have difficulty selling this to the list owner. The list owners may be concerned about their reputation and the relationship they have with the list. So you'd need to address this. This is how we make large numbers of sales in a short period. And how I make loadsa cash without a proper business of my own. I just borrow lists

Don't sully this thread with suggestions of cold calling, Sur Daniel...!

Only the unsullied allowed...!

Business owners have a gazillion things to do other than spending all day on the phone talking to people who have no interest in their offering. My suggestion means they'll only speak to people who are interested in the products/services. Plus, if you focus on getting them on a mailing list, you get more shots at selling them and those who are not ready to buy now, likely will buy later. And often you get more calls months after distributing the reports as they do get passed around.

We used to distribute simple info sheets at networking meetings and we continued to get calls from these for some six years after we stopped distributing them.

It would probably take about two months to call 30,000 bars.

I would think geography would play a role in this though. So target people close by personally and get your case studies then go big to a larger area through means like Animal is talking about.

I think that the OP should make better use of social media advertising through facebook, twitter, and instagram like Palm said. Custom beer pong tables is a pretty specialized niche, and if he were to focus on increasing the exposure of his product through social media he would have a better chance of these bar owners contacting him. I think he would also have a better chance if he were to go the cold calling or business association route AFTER creating a strong social media presence. I'm no expert though, that's just my opinion. I think all the offered solutions are good ones and if I were in the shoes of the OP I'd probably try to position myself to be able to do all of those things, starting with the social media.

The OP already said he is not a marketer, so obviously cold calling is not a viable option.

What I suggest is to approach the bars and lounges where you have already seen your products being used. Offer to service these products and/or show them additional models. Most likely, they don't know where to buy them. It should be easier to get referrals by networking within this niche.

Long-time cold callers might overcomplicate the role to put themselves at a consoling, proud and remote position from the Layman, true to the fashion of many a proud worker.

Those with enthusiasm and drive however will just pick up the phone in appreciation that to start, one needs to get started. They will dial the number and with that, they will have made a cold call.

They will be driven by the knowledge that there's a place between that point and 'mastership' where an effective degree of success and achievement can be attained.

Would take less time to call the 'restaurant/bar suppliers' who sell supplies to all sizes of business establishments....to place an ad in trade journals, etc. and to visit trade shows.



A friend used to own several gaming arcades and people frequently called and walked in trying to sell a new table or a new game. He rented and bought through middleman companies who could tell him what the competition was buying and went to trade shows where new games were introduced a couple times a year.


If some of your products are already on the strip in Vegas - where did those companies buy from? What ad did they respond to? Do you know?

Kay has the right idea.

Work with other businesses who also want to
reach the same bars as you.

Here's the plan.

You are going to do a mailout to say 500 or 1,000
of these bars.

All you need 2 other advertisers on a 6x11 inch postcard.

You in the middle and your advertisers on each side of you.

You price out the print, design, and postage
and split the total into 2.

That's how much you charge your co-advertisers each
and you get to ride-along for FREE!

It's a great deal for your co-advertisers because they reach
the bar owners at half off if they did the same mailing themselves.

Turning paid advertising
into FREE advertising.

Keep mailing it out every month.

Best,
Ewen

Have you ever considered working with influencers? You can work with specific influencers who are on the bar/lounge/club niche so you can have a more targetted audience. Instagram especially has a wider reach and can target the right audience as long as it is niche based.