When you’ve been in an industry as long as I have, you often find yourself beginning nearly every sentence with “I remember when…” or “Back when I started…”. The same can be said for people of a certain age. I qualify for that, too. I suppose anyone could if that statement remains vague enough.
I have spent the majority of my adult life (if you can call it that) in the promotional products business, so I honestly have no way of gauging how other industries deal with competitors. A hundred years ago or so, I was the night manager of a tennis club in Brooklyn, and we were pretty much the only option in the area at that time. When I ran one of the first video stores in northern New Jersey, we still had Beta on the shelves, so you know that Blockbuster and RedBox weren’t even gleams in their investors’ eyes. But here in the promotional products arena, competition abounds.
As I’ve documented before, as a newbie distributor (and not a very good one) I was always calling on accounts who already had sources for our products. When I did finally break through with a prospect, of course, I either found myself bidding on an existing project, or having a concept I’d created sent out for bid. I didn’t like this way of doing business, but it was the nature of the beast.
When I switched over to the supplier side, I worked for a business owner who set my mind straight. Yes, we had a commodity product, but he felt that there was enough business out there for us and our competition. Essentially: you can’t win ’em all, and that’s okay. I thought this was a very healthy attitude…one I’ve embraced to this day. My closest friend was, in fact, my fiercest business rival. See…we can all get along!
Competition was and is all around us in this industry. When I was a Board member of SAAGNY, the topic of an end-user show would come up every couple of years, only to be beaten down…primarily by distributors who feared that their competition would swoop in at these shows and gobble up their clients or, worse yet, exhibiting suppliers would sell direct. The fact that other regional associations were doing these shows had no bearing; the New York market was and is a different kettle of fish, and what works elsewhere doesn’t work here.
I don’t totally disagree with that (New York snob that I am…and I am), but it’s also a bit of a cop-out. It took many (many) years but, eventually, a later SAAGNY Board mustered up the nerve and held their first end-user show in 2013. They’ve held one every year since, and they’ve gotten better each time. I’ll be back there, exhibiting once again in another month.
All this has come to light due to something I’d read in the industry Facebook group for which I’m an admin. A distributor posted about her fear of a large office products retailer (go ahead…I’ll wait…) now featuring prominent signage in their stores about their offering promotional products. The fact is that they’ve been selling promo for several years now. That I think this distributor needs to get out more is neither here nor there. Her concern was that now her customers would “shop retail” and not with her. Coincidentally, another post in the same group decried the lack of “loyal” customers.
Right, wrong, or indifferent…perception is their reality. In each instance, polite discussion followed, both agreeing and disagreeing with the original discussion. There’s no resolution to this.
Competition is all around. If you’re worried about your customers “shopping” you, maybe they’re not really your customers. I hate to sound cynical or jaded (hi…hello…have we met?), but loyalty is a tough thing these days.
I recently quoted on a project…the same project…for two different distributors. On the one hand, I felt good about the likelihood of my getting the order, what with double the chances. On the other hand, I knew both of these distributors personally, so I felt bad knowing that one of them was not going to get this order. Yeah, I know…it’s just business. Didn’t I recently do a column about that?
Sure enough, I got the order. Sure enough, one of the distributors was disappointed and surprised that they didn’t. After all, this account was theirs.
No. It’s not. Obviously. But unless you have some sort of an exclusive arrangement…dare I say a contract…it’s fair game out there. The trick remains to be an invaluable asset to your client. They may be required to get bids on projects, but it’s up to you to convince them of the other value you bring to the equation.
Yes, there’s enough business out there for all of us. This doesn’t mean you just have to hand it over!
Mike Schenker, MAS, is “all that” at Mike Schenker, Consulting, where he assists businesses entering the promotional products industry, mentors professionals, and offers association management. He is a promotional industry veteran and member of the Specialty Advertising Association of Greater New York (SAAGNY) Hall of Fame. He can be reached at mike@mikeschenker.com