PPB October 2021

new world, and unless our elected officials begin making decisions based on economic reasoning, they are here to stay. Find small service providers to help you. Find merch in new areas. Do whatever it takes to maintain your business. GUY ACHTZEHN President The Marketing & Sales Group, Inc. / The Promotional BookStore York, Pennsylvania It is very challenging these days for both distributors and suppliers. Our industry is suffering. Distributors are suffering because of the lack of events, tourism, trade shows, in- person networking events and more. Events here in my state are getting canceled, and it is not helping small businesses that need these events to bring in revenue. Unfortunately, if distributors are not seeing new business and returning orders, it hurts suppliers as well. These issues of inventory shortages and suppliers being short-staffed is really hurting both distributors’ and suppliers’ businesses. It is also costing suppliers more for containers to bring in these promotional products, so they pass these price increases on to distributors, which we pass on to our clients. We are going to have shortages well into 2023. This is our new norm. I have been in the promotional products industry since 1984 and never seen or felt so frustrated by what’s going on in our country. EVELYN FLYNN, MAS Corporate Brand Manager Adworks Promotions, Inc. / Trade Show Wiz Prairieville, Louisiana Q A Distributor Asks: I’ve spent many weekends recently playing catch-up with my business. I keep finding myself in situations where I have to quote 15 to 20 projects, and I can’t seem to finish it unless I designate a few hours to focus only on that. To offset this, I’ve basically stopped trying to provide my clients with individual pricing estimates and instead I just fill out a spreadsheet with a short description of the product(s) they’re looking for, a link to the supplier’s website, and the quantity and unit price. I know there are positives and negatives to sending the customer to a supplier’s website, but I feel that it’s better than sending them a confusing link to an industry search engine. This also seems to allow the client the chance to look around the supplier’s website for other products I can quote. Thoughts? I use personalized ZOOMcatalogs. They’re great. Paste a link to your specific page, then they can browse other products. Only your company information will show. JOHN LASCELLES Owner Corporate Attire And More Palmetto, Florida PPAI 533590, D2 I have five projects that came in yesterday where the customer needs ideas for special events. I hate starting Monday with a huge to-do list, so I, too, am sitting in my office working on a few [template-generated] presentations. I also have about 10 orders to type up for Monday and two formal quotes to prepare. I can knock these out in a couple hours on a quiet Saturday and not be distracted by regular workday emails. [These] presentations seem to work best with my customer—pictures, pricing, etc. You can also send them the link to it on your site where they can then look around for other ideas if you aren’t pointing them in the right direction. SALLY ANDERSON Owner Key Promotions, an authorized Kaeser & Blair dealer Newnan, Georgia I was in the same boat. I type a professional email and then share the factory link or links and let them know I can extend special pricing. BEVERLEY HOWE Owner B&T Specialties, LLC Lee’s Summit, Missouri Good and honest question. Quoting isn’t just quoting; it’s researching ideas. That’s why my customers use me instead of ordering online. It’s really time-consuming. ERIN EBERHARDT Owner and president West Shore Associates, LLC West Haven, Connecticut PPAI 287403, D2 | OCTOBER 2021 | 13 INNOVATE