A bit of sarcasm.
To all the distributors who have labeled my bulk e-blasts as spam, “THANK YOU”.
A bit of guilt.
You are the only way my company and employees can make a living. I sell only, solely, and exclusively through you, ASI & Sage accredited distributors. We go to work every day waiting for you, our sales force, to write orders. In you, we trust to keep us in business.
A bit of understanding from me to you.
You are bombarded, relentlessly bombarded with “push” communications, pushed catalogs, pushed samples and you may even get one pushed fax.
A bit of understanding from you to me.
I am one of over 2,500 suppliers who do not have reps or multiline reps calling on you. If I did, and every other supplier did, you couldn’t see them all and I am still “dead to you”.
Now, for the rest of the story.
It’s a push-pull relationship. I speak to those who want no contact from me at all (samples, catalogs, e-mails). They assure me that they will pull me into their orbit when they have a need. That’s a problem. I recently had a call from a distributor wanting a Doctors’ Appreciation Day greeting card. I took advantage of the opportunity and pitched my birthday card club program. Her reaction, “I did not know that. I have many customers who might like it.” So, suffice it to say, almost every supplier has at least one good idea or perhaps a unique product they would like to push to you for your consideration. We reach out to you, our only sales team, through the numerous and traditional means of communication but, in many instances, it is either blocked, trashed or gives you a negative opinion of our companies.
When I served as the chairman of the PPAI Supplier Committee and the Artwork Taskforce, the job was to standardize the art world as much as possible. Within our recommendation was to standardize e-mail addresses. All suppliers would have an e-mail address such as art@soundline.com. All distributors would receive proofs at proofs@abcpromotions.com. Some of these recommendations had traction and are used today in significant numbers. Most of our industry like to march to a different beat, as they are too big or too small. This is not a good scenario for us to keep the costs down so that we can all compete with direct sellers on the internet.
My call today is for every distributor who believes in pull only, to open a mailbox with the prefix supplier@.... and to use that as your file cabinet for any and every e-mail you don’t want in your regular e-mail. I won’t go into the minutia about how to get compliance and conformity, but simply to allow it to be received and not labeled “spam/trash” or “unsubscribe”. You see, my opening sarcasm is my main point. I am not sure of the number but, if a number of distributors on my house list label me as “spam”, then Google and others will label me “spam” for everyone and I am cut off. There are many other filters in the Google world that automatically are sent into your spam box. The majority of porn blasts no longer make it through as the blockers look for certain words. Senders have even tried to misspell keywords but, again, Google et al., now look for misspelled words. (Regarding porn…this is not first-hand knowledge, I heard it from others).
ASI, PPAI, SAGE, Eight Legged Media, Smartblast, PromoCorner and the entire cast of services can set standards that accommodate both me and you. The technology is there, we belong to groups to improve our businesses and I see the repeat thread in industry chat groups on Facebook, etc. that scream for solutions.
Mailing lists, be they snail mail, e-mail and Fax (if you even have one), are profit makers for every service. I always question the numbers, accuracy and return. One of my close friends has about 40 salespeople. I asked the majority of them if they get my e-mails and if they get the blasting services. The answer for over 50% was no. When a new salesperson arrives, there is no way anyone is getting their e-mail unless they voluntarily surrender it. Were there a mailing address (supplier@), then every member of that company can scan that box if and when they want to. Should they like me, they can take me out of the box and route it to another box. I know, I know -- “too complicated”. Nope, this is business. I am 73 years old and know more technology than many my grandchildren’s age. It is part of the job to learn how to use search engines, harness supplier provided e-mails and materials and, just maybe, you will help me stay in business by selling an order for me.
Our industry needs to keep on publishing and promoting “best practices” and standardizing where it is advantageous for the membership. Look around at every other industry and you will see this trend. For a moment, I thought the internet world indeed belonged to Al Gore, then I realized the most commonly used function on the internet was not an “Algorerythm”.
Joel D. Schaffer, MAS is CEO and Founder of Soundline, LLC, the pioneering supplier to the promotional products industry of audio products. Joel has 48 years of promotional product industry experience and proudly heralds “I was a distributor.” He has been on the advisory panel of the business and marketing department of St. John’s University in New York and is a frequent speaker at Rutgers Graduate School of Business. He is an industry Advocate and has appeared before the American Bankers Association, American Marketing Association, National Premium Sales Executives, American Booksellers Association and several other major groups. He has been a management consultant to organizations such as The College Board and helped many suppliers enter this industry. He is a frequent contributor to PPB and Counselor magazines. He has facilitated over 200 classes sharing his industry knowledge nationwide. He is known for his cutting humor and enthusiasm in presenting provocative and motivating programs. He is the only person to have received both the Marvin Spike Industry Lifetime Achievement Award (2002) and PPAI’s Distinguished Service Award (2011). He is a past director of PPAI and has chaired several PPAI committees and task forces. He is a past Chair of the SAAGNY Foundation, Past President of SAAGNY and a SAAGNY Hall of Fame member. He was cited by ASI as one of the 50 most influential people in the industry.