The goal of sales and marketing is to form great relationships and partnerships with our customers. Today I want to highlight one that started 14 years ago yesterday. On July 30th, 2007, I received a call from a fast talking, highly energetic guy from Florida that was talking about how bee pollen changes people’s lives and if we partnered together, he would advertise with ESPN Cleveland forever. This man was Joe B., Founder and Owner of Joebees. He wanted our new mid-morning on-air host, Tony Rizzo (“Rizz”), to be his endorser. At this time, Rizz was known as a TV personality and started back in radio with ESPN Cleveland a few months prior. Rizz said he would take the product, if he liked it, I would talk to Joe B about a partnership.
Anyone who has listened to 850 ESPN Cleveland over the last 14 years knows where the story goes now. On July 30th, 2007, Rizz did his first live endorsement commercial for Joebees and as Joe promised, the company has advertised on the station every day since. Not only have they been a great partner with ESPN Cleveland, but they also have a been a good local community partner, investing dollars and resources in any charity we get involved in and being our initial connection to the Police Memorial Fund (honoring fallen officers) and the Cleveland Police.
The term “partnership” is often thrown around and sometimes means the vendor does all the work, makes the customer happy and everyone calls it a “partnership”. My belief is the true definition of the word, is when the vendor and customer push each other to be better, while also having the other’s interests in mind. This defines our relationship with Joe. We have always been willing to push each other, while having each other’s back. The Joebees and ESPN Cleveland partnership is the gold standard for partnerships, and I would guess we reference it at least once per day when talking to other advertising partners.
This last year has been more challenging than the first thirteen, and it was an excellent reminder about how important it is to have relationships like we have with Joe.
Joe, you said bee pollen would change people’s lives and I know the 10,000+ fans using it NE Ohio feel the same way. Thanks for changing all of their lives and impacting my life by coaching me along the way.
I think it would only be appropriate to end this Time To Win to do my best Tony Rizzo impression and ask you “What are you waiting for? Don’t you want to feel great? Go to Joebees.com or call 877-300-5632 and with 2 golden capsules per day you will be on your way to feeling great!”
