Executive Print & Promo has a long history in print. The St. Louis, Missouri-based distributor has been in the print world for nearly 60 years, and added promo a little more than halfway into its history. In that time, its staff, like Stacey Wilks, who serves as the lead of customer relations, has excelled at combining the two aspects of the business to create an all-encompassing campaign for customers. Wilks describes one repeat order that centers around the world of trucking, and blends print products like flyers with promotional products such as headwear.
Print & Promo Marketing: How long have you been selling print and promotional products together (you sort of answered this already), and why do you think using the two product types together is good?
Stacey Wilks: Our company has been selling print for 57 years, and we added promo and apparel 26 years ago. This is what we tell everyone: “If you want to put your logo on anything (print, promo, apparel, your truck, your building, whatever), we can make it happen.” These items just naturally go together when you have your clients’ every need in mind.
PPM: Can you think of a promotion you’ve worked on in the past that blended print (packaging, boxes, notebooks, etc.) and hard goods that stands out as especially memorable to you?
SW: Yes, we have a customer with about 25 locations that goes all out for National Truck Drivers Week. So, every year we put together print items like business cards, sales flyers, and rack cards; along with caps, apparel, pens, tumblers, tech items, and banners, and kit them for each location. It is great for them because we take care of everything from the graphics to final products delivered to each location and in specific quantities, because each location is a different size.
PPM: How did you select the products you used for this particular promo?
SW: We find truck driver-related items and gear, and send those ideas to corporate. They decide what they want, and we get those items ordered. Then we usually put together some flyers offering items from semitrucks to semitruck parts that will be on special during that week. Those items can be for all locations, or we can make them location-specific. We get those items ordered, stage them in our warehouse, and when everything is ready to go, we box and ship out to each location.
PPM: Did you run into any roadblocks with this promo? If so, how did you overcome them?
SW: We plan months ahead so if there are any roadblocks such as inventory limitations on caps or promo items, we have plenty of time to come up with an identical item at a different vendor or a similar item at another vendor. We can run a print order in 24 hours, so if there are any errors or items that need to be left off the sale flyer, we can easily reprint them.
PPM: What advice would you give distributors looking to do something similar?
SW: Find your customers’ pain points. What do they really dislike about the way they are doing it now? What can you do to take that stress away? Never overpromise and underdeliver. If you blow it the first time, you probably won’t get another chance. Plan, plan, plan.
PPM: Is there anything else I haven’t asked about that you’d like to add?
SW: Be a resource. Although it’s nice to drop by and give them another pen and say hello, while you are there, find out what project is weighing heavy on their mind and figure out a way to help them. Anyone can drop by an office and try to sell a pen, but a resource will drop by and sell them a pen with a quiet fidget spinner on it so during those super-long meetings you won’t hear the clickety-clack of six or seven people restlessly clicking their retractable pen while John talks about what kind of paper you should buy for the bathroom. The struggle is real! Figure it out, then offer a way to fix it.
Want to be considered for a future edition of Convergence Corner? Email Brendan Menapace at [email protected].
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