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Sales Strategy How To Score In The Fourth Quarter Marketing cutbacks are officially a reality. With the auto giants leading the way, a number of big spenders are pulling tight on their marketing purse strings. Still, that doesn’t mean distributors can’t rally for a strong fourth quarter. For some, like Kevin Whitestone, owner of Up North Trading Co., it’s all about staying aggressive. He has purchased two smaller companies within the past year that helped spur on “a whole other influx of business and a whole other revenue base.” Marsha Sypher, president of Initials Included Inc. (asi/23118), also believes in staying on the offensive. To get sales in the fourth quarter, distributors need to “get out and talk to clients in the third quarter. You’ve got to pound the pavement.” Marketing dollars, though, may be tough to come by for many distributors and their clients this fourth quarter. A survey conducted by the Association of National Advertisers in July and August found 91% of respondents believe ad budgets will be flat or down for the next six months; more than half, 53%, said budgets would be down. Some distributors have noticed the trend having an effect on order sizes. “The only thing I’ve found is that maybe the orders are less, but they haven’t gone away,” says Sypher. Don Lafferre, owner of Priority Promotions (asi/299579), has seen his share of economic troubles during his 50-plus years in the industry. He says the strategy for good distributors this fourth quarter should be to focus on providing marketing solutions to your clients. “You can’t talk your way out of a recession,” he says. “You have to offer clients solutions rather than reasons to buy. My customers know if they start talking business, they know who to call to get their problems solved.” Following up with key accounts is also vital right now, even if it’s just via e-mail, Lafferre says. “If you’re just going out cold calling,” he says, “you’re going to waste $100 on gasoline.” Ollie Paadimeister, owner of Bosmat Kidz (asi/143275), relies almost entirely on e-mail to keep up with his roughly 200 clients. “I send e-mail on a regular basis to all of my clients,” he says. “I want to keep my name on their computer, in front of their eyes. You’d be amazed how many times it jogs their memory and they say, ‘I need something.’ I do everything by e-mail. I love it because I don’t get too many tire kickers or spend too much time on the road.” Whitestone says now, more than ever, is the time to pay attention to the little things. “Have a decent sales staff. Work with your customers. Take care of customer service,” he says. “Make sure your orders are accurate. That will lead to more sales. A lot of people take their customers for granted. You really have to work hard to take care of them.” Want more fourth-quarter strategies? Click here to listen to Counselor’s latest on-demand Webcast, Supercharge

Product Spotlight   Free Webcasts Supplier Webcast: How to Have a Successful Trade Show Click here to view. Distributor Webcast: September - Supercharge 4th Quarter Sales Boost your holiday and 4th quarter sales with the hottest new products, styles and trends. Get holiday gift ideas, tips for selling awards and strategies for designing the most creative sales incentives for 2009. Click here to view. Distributor Webcast: October - How to Sell Clients on a Price Increase Don't let rising prices affect your sales or your profits! Learn how to proactively communicate price increases with clients and ultimately sell more and make more! Click here to register. Distributor Webcast: November - Prove to Your Clients That Promotional Products Work! Preview the results of ASI's revealing new study on the effectiveness of promo products. Learn how to use this information to acquire more clients and sell more promotional products to existing clients. Click here to register. Distributor Webcast: December - Become a Master at Selling Apparel Programs Get a sneak peek at hottest wearables and fashion trends for 2009. Catch this preview and get selling tips for the latest looks and hot new imprinting techniques that will convince your clients you're the "hippest, hottest" distributor around! Click here to register.   Free E-Newsletters Counselor® PromoGram® Advantages™ Hot Deals Wearables Style Successful Promotions® Trend Report™ Stitches Small Business™ Embroidery Business Insights™ Uniforms Trends Report™   Industry Magazines Counselor® Advantages™ Successful Promotions Stitches Wearables Uniforms

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Marketing Know-How

Study: Social Networking Yields Big ROI

Every distributor wants a strong return-on-investment from their marketing dollars. For those investing time and energy in social media like blogs, networking sites and viral videos, this ROI is easier to come by. How much easier? According to a recent study, businesses that are best-in-class in terms of social networking are 80 times more likely to increase their ROI than laggards.

The report, entitled “Social Media Marketing: The Latest Buzz on Word of Mouth,” rests on research by the Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company, in June and July. Aberdeen polled 300 companies about their use of social media. While less than a third (29%) of companies surveyed had been involved in social media for more than two years, those that had mastered it were 2.5 times more likely to drive brand advocacy about their clients. They were also 19 times more likely to increase overall marketing effectiveness.

Boundless Network (asi/143717) is one distributor that has been converted to the power of Web 2.0. In late July, it announced it was dumping its traditional public relations agency in favor of a digital agency called Diverge Communications. “They are a social media/digital firm that handles our blog strategy, YouTube and social networks like Facebook,” says Courtney Powell, marketing communications manager for Boundless Network.

Why? “Our social media strategy has been incredibly valuable for us,” says Powell. “No one is picking anything up off of the wire anymore…Folks spend the majority of their time on their Blackberrys and phones.”

A well-placed blog succeeds in showing clients what a company stands for versus telling them. Absorbentink.com, for example, offers a blog about product safety. “It lets people know that we care about that,” says Lee Eldridge, president of Absorbent Ink (asi/295819). “They can come, read and learn about it. In marketing you can tell people all you want, but if you show them, it means a whole lot more.”

The site’s columnist, “Abby Ink,” gets a few dozen e-mails a month asking for advice. This advice has translated into sales, says Eldridge. “She’s recommended specific products for specific events, and they’ve used them.”

Boundless Network CEO Jason Black also offers his thoughts on a blog about the industry at large and the role technology plays in it. In the fourth quarter, he is planning a consumer-facing blog that talks about the value of promotional products for brands.

Strategy Session

Setting A Business Up For Sale

When a homeowner prepares to sell a house, there are some very basic things they need to do to optimize the value of their property. This includes touching up the paint, making sure the toilet handle doesn’t get stuck and setting out potted flowers on the doorstep. When it comes to selling a small business, there are also a number of steps, large and small, that distributor owners should keep in mind.

The biggest issue for a prospective buyer is how the money is earned and who is earning it. In order to make a company attractive, the risk must be diversified. This means all of the sales can’t come from the owner, who may or may not stick around. “Having personal responsibility spread across the folks that work for them is a key ingredient for putting a business up for sale,” says John Schimmoller, partner, Certified Marketing Consultants, which works as a liaison between buyers and sellers in the ad specialty industry. “If you have five sales folks and two of them do 80% of the sales, it’s the same thing.”

If 80% of the sales come from one or two clients, it is also a red flag. “Buyers buy companies for the future likelihood of cash flow,” says Schimmoller.

John Reddish, a former distributor and founder of Advent Management International Ltd., agrees. Outside distributors looking to purchase a distributorship “are looking at purchasing the cash stream. Income and customer stability are what they value most as well as retention of key sales employees.”

Key producers, then, should, whenever possible, have an employment agreement that includes a non-compete clause, Reddish says. Also, make an effort to understand the viewpoint of potential purchasers, says Harvey Zemmel, CEO of Maximize Your Exit, which advises businesses on how to sell out for top dollar. “You must look at the deal from the buyer’s perspective,” he says. “Understand what’s important to them.”

Making sure that a company’s infrastructure is in good shape is also an obvious step. “We had one buyer go in and do their due diligence, and they found this company had no voicemail. The computers needed to be upgraded. The furniture needed upgrading,” says Schimmoller. “Keeping up with capital expenditures is important. You don’t need to be on the leading edge of technology, but you don’t want to be living in the ’60s either.”

In any case, plan ahead, says Reddish. “Making a decision to sell, and then prepping the company two to four years before announcing the business is for sale, will often enhance the selling price significantly.”

Wearables University

Know Your Fibers

Don’t get tongue-tied and confused when it comes to discussing the pros and cons of various fabrics. If you understand key fiber terminology, you’ll sound like a pro. Think of textiles or fabrics as simply a network of fibers.

The fibers themselves can be natural or artificial, and different fibers have different qualities. Some might be stronger and rougher than others. Some are fine and smooth. Fibers are spun together to create threads and yarns that then are woven or knitted into fabric. Talk to your garment supplier about the type of fibers that make up its apparel offerings. Ask about the fiber’s strength, ply and denier when discussing a garment’s pros and cons with a supplier.

Here are a few terms to get you started:

* Denier: measures the weight of a continuous filament of fiber. The lower the weight, the finer the fiber will be.

* Fiber: The basic entity, either natural or manufactured, which is twisted into yarn, and then used in the production of a fabric.

* Filament: A manufactured fiber of indefinite length (continuous), extruded from the spinneret during the fiber-production process.

* Pill: A tangled ball of fibers that appears on the surface of a fabric, as a result of wear or continued friction or rubbing on the surface of the fabric.

* Ply: Two or more yarns that have been twisted together.

* Spun Yarn: A yarn made by taking a group of short staple fibers, which have been cut from the longer continuous-filament fibers, and then twisting these short staple fibers together to form a single yarn, which is then used for weaving or knitting fabrics.

* Warp: In woven fabric, the yarns that run lengthwise and are interwoven with the fill (weft) yarns.

* Weft: In woven fabric, the filling yarns that run perpendicular to the warp yarns.

* Yarn: A continuous strand of textile fibers created when a cluster of individual fibers are twisted together. These long yarns are used to create fabrics, either by knitting or weaving.

In addition, to see the latest in promotional fashion, go to asicentral.com to watch "Fashion Finds," a selection of educational videos featuring Wearables Editor Nicole Rollender.

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