Bill Petrie has some bad news.

“You are not special,” he told a room of distributors on Education Day at ASI Show Fort Worth.

Petrie – the founder of marketing agency brandivate, which serves the promotional products industry – means that everyone has access to generally the same products, from generally the same suppliers, at generally the same price.

In that type of promo landscape, what’s going to set a distributor apart is how they’re able to connect to a client emotionally – and that starts with their clients’ experience going through the sales process.

“If there are too many friction points in buying from you,” Petrie said, “there are too many other options that are just like you. Clients are going to go to someone else.”

Bill Petrie, founder of marketing agency brandivate, said during Education Day at ASI Fort Worth that tapping into clients’ emotions during the buying process is essential.

The key to making a sale, Petrie said, is to first create the force necessary to get a client moving – whether that’s a targeted ad, a social media post or something else entirely. Then, make sure your business is set up to keep them moving in your direction, which means removing points of friction-filled disconnect or pain that a potential client could face during the entire sales process.

That often requires a full understanding of a client’s product journey: what they want, what they’ve tried already, and what’s usually the elephant in the room for both a salesperson and a potential customer: price.

One of the biggest friction points you can have, Petrie said, is when you show a client a product they fall in love with, and then you learn its way out of their budget. But it’s a moment that can easily be avoided if you had the conversation – as uncomfortable as it can feel – to start off the process.

“Don’t make it hard to give you money,” Petrie quipped.

Those potential difficulties in the sales process also connect with how you’re currently presenting your brand, Petrie said. Does your company’s website reflect your brand image, offerings and values? Do clients get quick responses to inquiries, or are you difficult to get ahold of? What’s it actually like to work with you?

Finding answers to those questions is why Petrie said it’s so critical to understand what exactly a client’s experience is going through your sales process. He suggests having a friend or family member “secret shop” your business at least once a year to get an inside look at what your clients might be facing while working with you, and to always give clients the opportunity to criticize you. Even if you thought a project was generally successful, he said, ask for one thing that could have gone better to open up space for negative feedback and potential pain points.

At the end of the day, reducing friction is all about making it as easy as possible for your clients to feel like their choices – including the choice to purchase from you – was the right one.

“We start reducing friction by focusing 100% on the client,” he said. “Their needs come first. They may not always be right – but they come first.”