It’s often recommended that distributors work toward having a consultative, partnership-focused relationship with clients (especially larger ones) because having such a relationship can lead to lucrative and emotionally satisfying work. Kimble Bosworth, president and chief operating officer of Proforma Printelligence, Nashville, Tenn., shared an example of such a promotion, where she was able to build a typical promotional job into something much more.
The client for this promotion, GoNoodle, provides health education and exercise activities to elementary school students across the country. GoNoodle markets itself to both students and teachers through kits delivered via mail to “teacher champions,” which are teachers who have used GoNoodle’s software before. One of these kits, called “indoor recess teacher champion kits,” contains a mix of promotional products (sport gloves, lanyards, pencils, etc.), print products (instructional cards, stickers for the kids, packaging, etc.), and sometimes even multimedia items (USB drives with video or other instructional or fun material). Bosworth began her work with the company simply providing GoNoodle’s promotional products, but eventually took over the entirety of the company’s kit projects, handling all the product sourcing, as well as mailing, warehousing and the rest of the fulfillment process.
Promo Marketing: How did you move from just providing products to the client to having a deeper, partnership-style role?
Kimble Bosworth: When they first came to us, we were sourcing and printing their promotional products. We were providing the gloves, the lanyards, etc., with their logo on it. We didn’t really understand how they were being used. So we set up a meeting to learn more. What we learned was they had two-to-three employees, full-time in a conference room of their offices, putting these kits together. All the stuff that somebody else printed, that we provided the promo products for, stamped with Stamps.com, and sent out all over the country. It was very inefficient for them. Their employees were not free to do any strategy and planning.
From that meeting, we worked together to eliminate all that labor and come up with what the campaigns would be and really build a program. […]The most important thing we did for them is we became a fulfillment company for them. They were spending so much money, we could save them 30-to-40 percent just by having our employees put these kits together for them and mail them out.
PM: Do you set up meetings like this to see how all your clients are using your products?
KB: We actually do. Before our convention every year, and before the PPAI trade show every year, so twice a year, we meet with our largest customers and we talk strategy for the next year. We get ideas on what to look for when we go to these trade shows. If they can tell us what they want, what they need, what their goals are, and who they’re trying to reach, we can use our time at these events to build their perfect promotional campaigns.
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