There is a school of thought among promotional products professionals that advocates that distributors should position themselves as consultants instead of product sellers. But when you go to market with this approach, it seems you hit a wall and your clients are happy with product choices that you consider uninteresting and even boring. Guess what: YOU don’t get it.

Quite often, due to our industry model, the ultimate purchaser of our product is working with one of our authorized distributors. As a result, there may be some critical information that is overlooked in the process. It may seem inconsequential, however, it may make the difference between a happy customer and a rejected product.

We have all had “those” orders. We dotted all of our “i’s” and crossed all of our “t’s” by following our system. The client received and approved every detailed step of the order. We went happily into production and moved along to the next project. Then the order is delivered and we get the dreaded phone call. “This is not what I wanted!” Now what?

Companies hold organization-wide meetings for many reasons – announcing a product launch, providing onsite training, strategizing for the next quarter, team-building, or even just having a company picnic for fun. There are lots of logistics to set up for a well-run meeting including the location, schedules, food, and networking. As a valued promotional partner to your corporate client, there is a lot you can do to help when handling the branded products to be given out.

When it comes to printed items, mistakes can be very costly. The devil is in the details! Just because something looks great digitally, does not mean that it will translate perfectly, or at all, when real ink hits a substrate. It does not matter if it is flexo, screenprint, offset, web, sublimated or pad print, each of these art forms has their own nuances. Not only that, but then you have to worry about the material that they are being printed on as not all substrates work with all types of ink.