Society has always focused on success and we all wonder why them and not me. A kid you went to school with is now a Hollywood star. The girl you waited tables with in college is the top lawyer in the state. And the nerd from summer camp just sold his Internet company for a “gazillion” dollars. One example after another is hard to ignore.
The most recent couple of decades seem to be dominated by Internet success stories. There have been many to be sure. But just like horse racing, people only brag about the winners. Many thousands of people try but do not find the success they wish for. Many in the promotional specialty advertising business have looked to the internet as the way for their wish to come true. There have been highly successful website based distributors/sales professionals and some not so successful.
But if you are one that has put all your eggs in the one basket of internet sales - look out! Your wish for a successful website where people magically find their way to your site and then throw money at you may have a shorter lifespan than your wish envisioned.
Anyone with a successful website based business already knows that magic has nothing to do with the traffic and sales you generate. You know that you worked for every visit. Whatever methods you use to drive customers to your site, you have calculated that your investment in time and money is worth it. Every day that another industry sales professional starts to rely on their website as the primary method of selling, the more acceptable and mainstream online transactions in the promotional specialty advertising business become, the closer to collapse everything gets.
USP, the Unique Selling Proposition does not exist online! Anything you see a competitor doing you can duplicate. Every feature, every logo upload, every reorder assistant and even live chat can be duplicated. So you are left with price, speed and guarantee as your only competitive tools. Certainly the look and function of your site have some effect, but as already mentioned you can duplicate anything someone else is doing - to a point!
There is a major shift happening in this industry. From multi-billion dollar office products mega-stores to international China based wholesale direct distribution systems, The ability to source goods is nothing like it was only a few years ago. Some of these massive supply channel players already do an enormous sales volume in custom imprinted promotional products. Others are waiting for the appropriate time to literally take over the market. And if you think you can compete in a channel that the largest players will be the ones making the rules - think again. Ask yourself if you could operate your business and grow it by 100% or 200% over the next year and make no profit at all while you are doing it. No? well, they can!
So, how do we stay in business and be successful in this rapidly changing environment? The answer is to establish your USP, grow it and promote it every day and move the focus of your work away from products. If you think and act like you are in the promotional products business you will be in direct competition with the mega-merchants and they will eat you alive. But if you are in the promotional specialty advertising business you might actually thrive.
The young people that started their careers in close proximity to Y2K (remember all that fuss?) that believed that business could be managed with a joy-stick and a mouse, now have some real world experience and know that working directly (that means face to face) with business associates and service partners brings much greater value. Be that service provider. Sell them great ideas and fabulous outcomes. Develop concepts to meet their business goals and budget. Build a relationship with true understanding rather than just data points.
Decide what your USP is. Capitalize on your knowledge base. Do you know the insurance industry from a previous vocation? Then be the expert helping people in that business succeed. Did you sell cars for a few years? Then you know 10,000 times more than any website how to bring value to a local auto dealer or car lot. If you build from your core knowledge and practice channel marketing (selling to the businesses both up and down from your current customer within the specific channel) and are working referrals, no website can touch you.
If wishes do sometimes come true, wish to be recognized for your USP throughout your marketplace. Reputations grow with every successful project, customers refer you to their business associates and friends and the power of your USP increases. By contrast a website starts to decline the day it is launched. Newer, faster, better and operators with deep pockets guarantee it!
Gregg Emmer managed Kaeser & Blair’s marketing, catalog publishing and vendor relations for more than 30 years. Prior to arriving at K&B in 1991 he owned and operated a graphic communication company featuring promotional products and full service printing. Today Emmer’s consulting work provides marketing, public relations and business planning consulting to a wide range of businesses including promotional industry suppliers, venture capital and market research companies. If you are interested in growing your business (or privately commenting on articles) contact Gregg at gregg.promopro@gmail.com.