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To Sweeten the deal, say it with Chocolate
by Kari Lomanno
On 2/10/2003
Looking to impress a potential sales client? Send them a chocolate business card.
Want to spruce up a sales meeting? Bring in a bowl of chocolate-covered cherries.
Need to smooth over a less-than- perfect client experience? Try a chocolate baseball bat inscribed with “Sorry I dropped the ball.”
Business owners and salespeople are always looking for new ways to get noticed, and catering to the sweet tooth is a sure-fire attention grabber.
Schakolad Chocolate Factory in Virginia Beach specializes in custom chocolate creations, and franchise owner Joe Myers partners with businesspeople and corporations to help them send a unique message through his delectable products.
“I’ve tried other sales [careers],” Myers said, “but this is the first thing I’ve ever found where the first thing people say when they see your product is, ‘Wow.’”
Stanley Steemer in Virginia Beach uses Schakolad’s products as a special treat for its customers. Owner Stephen Beck had chocolate business cards made as well as truffles imprinted with a gold Stanley Steemer van and bite-sized, foil-covered chocolates shaped like Stanley Steemer vans.
“I just thought it was something different,” Beck said. “It’s a nice little thing to leave behind. You collect the bill, give them their invoice and give them a little thing of candy.”
Beck said he gives the truffles to customers during Christmas and Valentine’s Day, which is this Friday, and plans to have the bite-sized vans available at an upcoming home show in March.
Schakolad has hundreds of chocolate molds and takes requests for nearly any chocolate shape, including company logos. There are heart-shaped boxes made of chocolate that are filled with smaller chocolates, a chocolate chess board, a pool table, a life-sized telephone, handcuffs, high-heeled shoes and even power tools.
“I’d like to get Stihl,” Myers said, pointing to a chocolate chainsaw.
Attracting business clients is a way for Schakolad to level out an industry that’s typically governed by the seasons. Valentine’s Day, Easter and Christmas are the busiest times of the year for chocolate makers, and summertime is the slowest. Corporate customers need products all year, which is where Myers’ marketing efforts are focused.
Apartment complexes give giant chocolate keys to their new tenants. High-end hotels offer complimentary chocolates to their guests. Doctors offices give chocolates shaped like their specialties (hands, feet etc.) to their patients as gifts. Real estate agents give their clients three-dimensional chocolate houses at closings. A local OB/GYN gives new moms white chocolate baby bottles.
One customer who sold advertising bought a giant foot inscribed, “I’d like to get my foot in the door,” Myers said. She took it to a local real estate office and asked the receptionist for an appointment with the main broker. The receptionist gave her the appointment after the woman promised to give her the big toe.
Chocolate is the perfect sales tool, Myers said.
“Chocolate’s rarely returned,” he said. “Almost everybody loves chocolate. If you don’t like chocolate, then you know 50 people you can share it with and become instant friends.”
Myers’ love of chocolate is what brought him to the business world. He worked as a government procurement officer and an instructor with a Department of Defense contractor in Northern Virginia before his wife was transferred to Virginia Beach as part of her job. Myers was unable to find work in Hampton Roads and began looking into opening a business of his own.
He thought of starting a house painting franchise, a smoothie cart business and a computer learning center. But it wasn’t until he visited the original Schakolad Chocolate Factory in Orlando that he found his true calling.
“When [you walk] into his store, you smell it, you see it, and I thought, ‘Wow.’ All those other ideas that I had went right out the door.”
Myers opened the Schakolad franchise last March, the ninth franchise of 15 internationally and the only one in Hampton Roads.
“I really don’t consider chocolate like this to be a candy,” he said. “It’s more of a food. It’s very rich and nutritious. It’s something that has substance.”
Schakolad arranges programs with businesses where customers are sent chocolate several times a year for birthdays and holidays. Schakolad can also print full-color images on edible rice paper to put on its chocolate creations.
Myers said the taste of his products is how he attracts customers, but the personalized service is what keeps him in business.
“I guess I could work for chocolate for a while,” he said, “but eventually when the landlord comes in, I have to give him something besides chocolate.”
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