PPB July 2018

Rubber Ducks Lead New Clients To Tile Installer Joe Scott, MAS, of Scott & Associates in Minneapolis, Minnesota, presented his brother, Dave Scott, with a quirky but memorable promotional idea—a yellow rubber duck. Dave was just entering the tile contracting business, and Joe sold him 50 rubber ducks with Dave’s phone number printed on them. When Dave started Slabworks of Montana, the ducks came along with him, and today it remains his primary promotional means of reaching out to current and prospective clients. Dave began leaving the ducks at his work sites, and though he typically contracted through builders, homebuyers and Realtors began contacting him for additional work. His work—and the ducks—became well known in the area. “I was setting some large format slate tiles in a house, and the general contractor was showing off the house to a couple who were prospective customers,” Dave said. “As he walked by me he said, ‘… and we have The Best Tile Guy in the Valley.’” “Thinking that the GC was just stroking my ego, when he came back through with his clients I asked why he had said what he did. The wife also chimed in, asking him the same question. The contractor’s response was immediate. He said, ‘because we never get callbacks on his work, and he leaves you a duck when he finishes his job, just in case you need to contact him.’” Although the general contractor didn’t sell that particular house to the couple, they found Dave and had him do the tile work in their new home. “A few weeks later, I got a call from another homeowner who told me, ‘We have never met, but I bought the house in Painted Hills and you did the tile work. … We want to finish the basement and we want a steam shower, wet bar and 700 square feet of slate on the floor. We saw your duck.’” Dave has since ordered several hundred more ducks, building on the momentum of an idea hatched by his brother, Joe. “Moral of the story,” Dave says, “People will throw away your business card, but they won’t throw away your duck.” Source: Scott & Associates When clients’ employees are on the job and need to write something down, they can’t wait for your pen to work.The patented MaxGlide ink in this pen is specially formulated to withstand cold temperatures, and it outperforms 60 percent of standard ballpoint pens. Hub Pen Company / PPAI 110772 / www.hubpen.com The Bid-Master ® desk pad calendar features unique Julian dating for calculating project completion dates. A large daily memo space and American and Canadian holidays are noted. The calendar features two clear corners and two holes punched at the top for easy hanging. ModernLine / PPAI 113978 / www.modernline.com Get client ideas down on paper for posterity in the COOL Journal with Graph Paper . This journal features a leather-like hardcover, and 192 sheets of acid-free, 80-gram paper. Choose from white, lined or graph pages for this journal, which has lay-flat binding, two bookmark ribbons, a pen loop, an elastic band closure and a gusseted back pocket. The Book Company / PPAI 218850 / www.thebookco.com | JULY 2018 | 41 GROW