Questions

A few years ago we came up with the idea of placing brand messages/ads on the back slips within fortune cookies into targeted Chinese restaurants (don't worry, we leave the generic fortune on the front). We allow brands to play with the fortune so it leads into the ad but to make sure it stays generic- ex 1-Slip-Front- 'You will meet someone amazing tonight' Slip-Back- Ad message relating to Match.com or Eharmony etc. ex 2- Slip-Front- 'A dollar can change your life forever' Slip-Back- Ad message relating to a state lottery or casino etc. The founders spent many months cold calling and won over a few major clients- state lottery, politician etc. Unfortunately the business isn't sustainable if we don't change something- How do we scale our business? We have an online presence at www.fortunecookieadvertising.com but no current staff. We have channels into 40,000 Chinese restaurants distributing over 14M cookies daily and exclusive agreements with the largest fortune cookie factories in the country. Our issue is with sales- What is the best way of getting ad agencies, OOH consultants, alternative media agencies, brands to notice us? Do we hire business development or sales specialists? Do we focus on a specific type of online advertising? We can't continue at this pace and are looking for the best advice. Thanks in advance!

Great business! Why isn't sustainable? This is a great business model!

Business dev and sales are often (if not always) the same thing.

What you need is to hire cold callers, hire one or two sales people team and pay based on commission or base plus commission so that it saves you some money. You have a great business here and just need to be creative in growing it.
Growth back it! Hire sales, make your own ad line, have dedicated markets for certain messaging (to add value to each campaign) etc... This seems like a fun product to market.


Answered 9 years ago

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