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At the beginning of this year’s
Summit—PPAI’s most well-attended
educational event ever—I asked the 185
attendees how many had “compliance” in
their job title. Except for the CEOs and
service providers in the room, the answer
was nearly everyone. Wow! What a sea
change this is from our first Product
Safety Summit five years ago when almost
no distributors or suppliers had dedicated
compliance staff and the industry was still
trying to sort out what product safety
meant. Things have changed indeed. In
our session on best practices, we heard
from large and small distributors alike
who vet supplier compliance thoroughly,
seek out independent certification of sup-
pliers and actively direct orders to suppli-
ers who have the most comprehensive
compliance programs. And since rigorous
compliance, factory audits and product
testing is very costly, the price of entry for
success at the highest level in our industry
has gone up dramatically.
Change is not just occurring in com-
pliance. Technology is rewriting the rules
for success in our industry just as it is in all
others.While overall sales in our industry
grew by a scant 1.1 percent in 2014 versus
2013, online sales grew by a massive 33
percent in that same period. Direct online
promotional product sales rose to $800
million in 2014—four percent of total
industry sales—and will continue to grow
as more industry players and, quite possi-
bly, well-funded non-industry players, offer
compelling online solutions.
This is consistent with an April 2015
Forrester Research study entitled “Death
of a (B2B) Salesman,” which predicts
that a million business-to-business sales-
people in the United States will lose
their jobs by the year 2020 as more and
more customers opt for self-service e-
commerce websites. In a related article,
Forbes
magazine noted that nearly 75
percent of B2B buyers now say that buy-
ing from a website is more convenient
than buying from a sales representative.
Further, 93 percent say they prefer buy-
ing online rather than from a salesperson
when they’ve decided what to buy.
Forrester contends that salespeople
who are essentially “order takers” will fare
the worst while those engaged in “con-
sultative selling” will do the best. The
Forbes article added that in a technolo-
gy-driven world, companies will need to
become “omni-channel,” meaning they
need to provide the seamless purchasing
channel their customer prefers—whether
by an in-person sales call, web browser,
tablet or smartphone, telephone, Skype,
chat, text or email, social media, or
through a brick and mortar showroom.
Harvard Business Review
added a
hopeful perspective on the Forrester
Research in an article titled, “B2B
Salespeople Can Survive if They
Reimagine Their Roles.” In part, the arti-
cle said: Today’s field salesperson should
be an educator, negotiator, consultant,
solution configurator, service provider and
relationship manager. They are integral to
discovering the “something more” that
customers want. As customers will tell
you, a salesperson must add value by
becoming part of the product or solution.
In a full-day strategic planning ses-
sion earlier this year, David Nicholson,
president of Polyconcept North America
(PCNA), led the PPAI board in a deep-
dive discussion into these and other dis-
ruptive changes that are already happen-
ing or potentially threatening our busi-
nesses, our industry and our association.
The discussion focused on changes
resulting from the combination of glob-
alization, technology and demographics,
How Close Is The Tipping Point
For Our Industry?
PERSPECTIVES
4 •
PPB
• NOVEMBER 2015
AVING RETURNED FROM
PPAI’s most recent, highly acclaimed Product Responsibility
Summit, I am more and more convinced that our industry is inching closer to a tipping point,
where the standards required for a successful promotional products business are materially dif-
ferent than those of just a few years ago. I raise this point now, before it becomes universal, because as chair
of our 11,000-member association, it is my hope that all PPAI members emerge as winners in this brave new
world. However, I fear that unless everyone ramps up their efforts to evolve, that may not be the case.
Rick Brenner, MAS+
PPAI Chair of the Board
PERSPECTIVES
H
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