Bekit
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- Aug 13, 2018
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Thank you for the feedback Bekit. So the product is equipment that allows inmates to work out safely. Each prison has a department for this. That person will make the purchasing decisions for that facility. Since they are tight knit jobs, when one prison purchases, others follow.
I would say it's a felt need. Working out in prison is pretty universal. It's only a matter of the prison staff seeing an advertisement for our equipment. If they see, chances are they'll make a purchase. Not much education needed as it's purposes are clear (allows inmates to exercise safely).
Like I mentioned before, snail mail has proved to work exponentially better than any other method. But there are pitfalls like the amount of time it takes to be received and cost (every prison and jail in the US receives a flyer).
As a company should we continue this process albeit slow? Maybe we should be patient, spend the money on what works, and trust the process of our products gaining recognition in the next 2-3 years?
And yes you're spot on with different personalities, stress in the prison system, and uncertainty. Maybe you have some experience in the field??
Thanks for the extra info. That helps. (I don't have much experience in the field, but a friend of mine just became a deputy in the local jail, and I'm just extrapolating from there that prison is likely very much the same. I'm also the founder of a volunteer organization that goes into the jail 3x/week to deliver classes to the inmates.)
OK so you have a multitude of strategies available to you. Here are just some assorted ideas off the top of my head.
- Start with a small local area, such as the prisons in Pennsylvania first. Get proof of concept and a couple of before-and-after stories. Then roll it out across the country.
- Take minivanman's suggestion and send a flier to every inmate (you can look up online who is in custody.) Have no doubt that if the inmates want this, they will pester the staff until they relent.
- Send fliers to the day-to-day staff, not just the guy with the purchasing power. They're the ones who will be positively affected the most if the inmates in their unit have a productive and safe way to use their time, work off steam, and invest in themselves in a way that will contribute to a positive mindset.
- When you mail directly to the purchasing agent, adjust your sales pitch to stress the fact that implementing this will help the staff and make their lives easier. This will reduce turnover, reduce expenses on mental health counseling, and increase productivity and engagement at work. Also stress why your product is safe and how you can ensure that the items won't be used to hurt people. (This seems impossible to me. How would you create workout equipment that someone can't use to harm others? Stress the details of how your products achieve the maximum safety.)
- Look for the prison management equivalent of trade shows and training conferences where all these people get together. A cursory google search brought me to this page on Strategic Inmate Management and this list of forums for the corrections community. Show up where they are. Hang out where they hang out. Listen to them talk. Hear what they think their needs are when it comes to inmate fitness programs. Reflect their language back to them when you promote your stuff.
As a company should we continue this process albeit slow? Maybe we should be patient, spend the money on what works, and trust the process of our products gaining recognition in the next 2-3 years?
What do you mean by "slow"?
The internet says that there are 1,719 state prisons and 102 federal prisons in the United States.
That's 1821 facilities total.
A first-class stamp is $0.55. Let's say that you can print the flier for $0.45, bringing your total cost per facility to $1.00.
You're out $1,821.00.
So for less than $2000, you can show up on the desk of every purchasing agent in every prison in the US by next week.
Just to give you some perspective, running facebook ads for a single chiropractic practice can swallow up that amount of money in one week - just to bring ONE client in the door.
So I'm not sure why it feels slow.
Now, maybe the sales cycle is slow. That's got to be slow, with the pace that things move with bureaucratic red tape. But that's going to be the case no matter what advertising channel you use to get in front of your customers.
Now, let's say that someone needs to see 6-10 repetitions of your message in order to know, like and trust you enough to place an order.
You could spend $12,000-$20,000 on mailers and trust that the return on investment will be there.
But you could very possibly stretch your money a lot farther if you spend your $2,000 to mail 10 times to the first 200 prisons only. Start with a small, localized set of prisons. Get them on board and start to see results. Let positive outcomes + word of mouth start to take over and work in your favor as you expand to the rest of the country.