At last week’s PRINTING United Expo in Las Vegas, which clocked in at nearly 1 million square feet and attracted approximately 30,000 global attendees, Brendan Menapace, content director of Print & Promo Marketing magazine – now owned by ASI – moderated a panel discussion of four print industry veterans who have mastered the intricacies of selling promo and espoused the lucrative allure of the branded merch sales channel.
In the education session, “From Print to Promo: Print Brokers Who’ve Transitioned to Successfully Selling Branded Merch,” panelists Thomas Amestoy of Counselor Top 40 distributor HALO Branded Solutions (asi/356000), Monique Breault of Sidebar, Michelle Sarra of The Marketing Bar (asi/258231) and Terri Tolmack-Poynter of Proforma Hi-Rez (asi/491640), part of Top 40 distributor Proforma (asi/300094), systematically laid out tips, strategies, pitfalls to avoid and the numerous benefits of print brokers broadening their revenue streams and customer bases by selling promo.
When 10-year industry vet Menapace asked the panelists how they pivoted from print to promo, the story was nearly the same across the board – current print clients asked the panelists if they could do some form of promo for them and Amestoy, Breault and Tolmack-Poynter said yes immediately. They knew they’d figure out the rest as they went, citing their familiarity with product search tools like ASI’s ESP that they knew would help. For Sarra, the jump into promo was “pure survival.”
“I was doing events in Florida when Hurricane Ivan hit in 2004 and wiped everything out – people’s homes, businesses, everything,” Sarra recalled. “I had to find a way to make a living fast, and I looked at my books and dug into where I had made some money. I kept coming back to promo and decided to give it a shot. It saved me and my family.”
For Amestoy – a sales guy through and through – he knew the print world inside and out but wanted to be just as adept with promo. “My job is to sell and to be the consultant when my clients need me – I want to be the expert who can help them,” he said. “Selling promo is an interesting, rewarding experience, but that’s not to say it’s easy. There are a lot of details and a lot of back-and-forth about logo colors, styles, apparel sizes and firm deadlines. But even with all of that, people love getting promo and say ‘thank you’ when they receive it. That’s different from anything else I sell.”
Tolmack-Poynter was always known to her clients endearingly as “the Print Girl,” but not so much anymore as promo has become a lucrative part of her business, something all the panelists acknowledged in noting that profit margins tend to hover at the 40% mark for promo sales. “One of my best pieces of advice is to lean on your promo suppliers,” she said. “They’re a great resource, because getting them to do a logoed spec sample for a client or a look book can really help close the deal.”
And while all the panelists agreed that promo can be a much more time-consuming and consultative sell, they noted that that also fosters job security because clients keep coming back for more help with promo orders and marketing advice. When Menapace asked for ideas on how to make current print clients aware you can do promo for them, Breault’s response resonated with the audience – many of whom asked additional questions at the conclusion of the session: “The timing has to be right,” Breault advised. “Look for opportunities in your print clients’ businesses where promo would fit and marketing goals would align – then, believe me, the possibilities are endless.”
ASI’s 2025 promo shows are in Orlando in January, Fort Worth in March and Chicago in July. The 2025 PRINTING United Expo will be at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando from October 22-24.
