PPB December 2015

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the material selected. If the supplier did
say it was as close as possible, the option
would have been a neutral bag color and
the imprint in the Pantone color. It is
our responsibility as the distributor to
protect the brand integrity for the client,
and in some cases we may have to absorb
a loss, satisfy the client and move on.
Scott L. Harris
CMO
Austin Promotional Solutions
UPIC: A638696
First I would take close-up photos of
the Pantone swatch and bags you
received side by side and send those to
the supplier. If they still don't budge, I
would tell them that you will share your
experience on [industry sites]. Then I
would reach out to a reputable supplier,
share your story and see if they can help
you at least break even. At the end of the
day it sounds like you want to make this
customer happy for future sales and it
would be worth biting the bullet on this
order to do so.
Renee Nordholm
Marketing Coordinator
Selco
UPIC: SELCO
Have you tried going social? Tagging
the company in a post that shows a
photo of the bag along with the Pantone
color, questioning whether the two items
match, might give the company reason to
respond differently.
DO YOU HAVE THE ANSWER?
QA Distributor Asks:
My wife and I run a small distributor company from home and
are having a hard time separating our work from our personal lives.
We talk about the company all day long, even on the weekends. We
also work into the evenings during the week and most of the time put
in a few hours on the weekends too. All of this does not leave much
time or energy for anything else in life. We feel burnout coming on.
How are other small-business owners finding a work/life balance?
What’s your answer? Email answers along with your name, title
and company name to by December 18 for
possible inclusion in an upcoming issue of PPB magazine.
20 • PPB • DECEMBER 2015 INNOVATE
Editor’s Note: PPAI offers a
Dispute Advisory Service in which
industry members volunteer their
counsel and provide impartial
input to a disagreement between
two member firms, typically a
distributor and a supplier.
Find more information at
dispute-advisory-service.