How promotional products help business?

Salespeople like commissions, but thrive on recognition. Certificates and plaques are yesterday’s news, though. Today you can affordably offer stand-out salespeople everything from customized display pieces to catalogs that allow them (and their families) to choose from a set of pre-determined merchandise. Promotional products help business identify the right promotional marketing product mix to highlight its unique features or demonstrate its benefits. put together the corporate awards program best-suited to your employees and goals. And remember: these employee incentive programs often more than pay for themselves in increased sales and productivity.

Studies show that combining marketing literature with promotional products is one of the surest ways to make a good impression on prospective customers. Given how hard you work to get in front of someone for even a few minutes, shouldn’t you leave a lasting impact? Promotional products help business identify the right promotional marketing product mix to highlight its unique features or demonstrate its benefits. pave the way for productive follow-up contact and a better sales conversion rate.

The goal of any sales meetings is to educate and motivate your sales force. But how can you reinforce those themes both during — and perhaps more importantly — after the meeting? A promotional product-based employee incentive program can offer a variety of creative and often inexpensive ways to encourage your salespeople. Solutions can range from specially imprinted notebooks and pens to compressed, shrink-wrapped t-shirts in custom shapes.

Trade shows are ideal venues for making a big impact. But don’t wait until the week before the show before thinking about what kind of trade show promotional items to distribute.Instead, be proactive. Plan well in advance. We’ll be happy to help you find innovative items that will enable you to stand out from the crowd of vendors without breaking your budget. Ideally, use targeted mailings to encourage qualified buyers to visit your booth to get a customized trade show promotion. One campaign we created involved sending out a playing card to prospects, inviting them to visit the company booth and see how their poker hand stacked up. Everyone who showed up with the card was given an additional prize or a deck of cards (customized with the company’s logo) — after a product presentation, of course.Pre-paid phone cards are also an excellent item to build booth traffic. Cards can not only be customized with your logo and contact information, but also programmed to play a short message for your prospects every time they use the card.

Does your sales force consistently sell more of your low-margin products or services than your high-margin ones? If your sales balance is skewed, let us help create an employee incentive program or corporate award program focused on high-margin sales or on “under-represented” products.

If you have lost customers because of “perceived indifference,” promotional marketing products are an excellent way to re-establish contact and rekindle that relationship. We once developed a campaign for a large furniture store with a long list of inactive accounts — a teaser letter invited the recipients to come into the store to pick up a free prepaid long distance calling card. Once in the store, they had the opportunity to see new items, and sales rose accordingly. Other case studies show similar results: the gift of a promotional business item and some conscientious follow-up wins back even inactive customers.

Change can be confusing — even traumatic — for customers. Promotional products can help reassure them that while your company or product name may change, your commitment to their satisfaction remains the same. A promotional products campaign can also help you educate customers about the benefits of your new and improved product.One of our clients, a manufacturers’ representative firm, had discontinued sales of a certain brand of equipment in favor of another, better brand. Concerned that customers might react negatively to the change, we helped the firm send an eye-catching custom imprinted promotional prodict to their target audience: a dime, nickel and penny shrink wrapped in an imprinted change tray, along with an informational letter from the president titled “small change is coming.”

Insurance premiums for companies with high accident and injury rates are soaring Add to that lost time, increased inefficiency, attorney fees and equipment repair and replacement expenses, and the cost of unsafe behaviors becomes potentially astronomical. But with a well-managed safety program, you can both lower your costs and increase productivity.Promotional products used as corporate awards or as part of an employee incentive program can be key motivators in helping change risky behavior. And the savings can be impressive — we helped a Houston-based oil refinery lower its accident-related direct and indirect costs from several million dollars per year to less than $450,000.

If you rely on third-party dealers or distributors to sell your product, it’s vital that you create a tangible brand preference at that level. How can you persuade them to move your product instead of a competitor’s? Our corporate merchandise specialty experts can help you create a comprehensive program designed to build dealer loyalty.

Building customer loyalty is key for two reasons: 1) satisfied customers are the best source of quality referrals, and 2) your competitors are constantly targeting your best customers.What’s the main reason why companies lose customers? Believe it or not, it’s not price. It’s not even the quality of the product or service. Nearly 70% of defecting customers mostly say “perceived indifference” is the reason they’re taking their business somewhere else. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking, “We provide a quality product or service at a competitive price. That should be enough.” It’s not.With the right promotional marketing products, you can both eliminate any “perceived indifference” and create goodwill among your clients and customers. It’s especially important to target the 20% of your customers responsible for 80% of your business — they’re the ones who you can’t live without. Think of a promotional products campaign as your “customer insurance premiums.”

Whether you have a handful or several thousand, your employees are one of your most important assets. Promotional products can help build team identity and company morale by allowing you to recognize important employee achievements: years of service, employee of the week/month/year, even personal days like birthdays and anniversaries. Use the “ABC” formula: Anniversary, Birthday and Christmas.

We can help you promote your business with high-quality customized shirts, caps, jackets and other clothing items. These make attractive, effective and comfortable ways to display your logo to customers and vendors. We can cover orders ranging from as few as 12 items up to several thousand.

Don’t let opportunities for publicity and exposure pass you pay. Celebrate, commemorate and promote events like:

• Company anniversaries
• Your 1,000,000th product shipped
• 1,000,000 safe man hours worked
• Being named to the INC. 500 list

Look for any landmark event and promote it.

15. Institutional Image Building

Active company involvement in your community is more than just good citizenship — it’s good business. In sponsoring charitable events or promoting worthy causes, you also have a chance to win positive PR and publicity.

Organizations are always in need of sponsorship materials, so look for opportunities to donate items branded with your company name and logo to volunteers. Some popular items can even help:

• Discourage drug use
• Encourage fire safety
• Educate the public about important subjects and causes

16. Repair Service Lapses

Promotional products are also invaluable in repairing the service shortcomings that sometimes occur in spite of our best efforts. Giving a valued customer a gift is a terrific way to build bridges, make amends and reassure the customer that they are always right — and always wanted.

17. Stay in Front of Your Customer

Out of sight, out of mind — it’s an old saying, but it’s especially true about customer relations. Even if your customers average only one transaction with you a quarter, it’s important that you keep your name in front of them on a regular basis. With over a million items on which we can imprint your logo, you can find new and innovative ways to remind your customers about the value you provide, encouraging repeat business and referrals. And who doesn’t like to get gifts?