Gotta Love These Supplier Best Practices

I’ve been in the promotional products industry for more than 25 years, both selling products and programs, and coaching and educating distributor sales professionals. I’ve seen a multitude of changes in that time, but one thing remains the same: our reliance on quality suppliers.

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Presentation Keys are Essential to Your Ultimate Success

As a speaker, it is imperative to follow a certain set of standards to stay on top of my game. These same standards helped me when I was making client presentations. Learn these guidelines and continue to hone them, and you will see amazing success.

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Become a Better Strategic Partner by Helping Your Clients Plan

The promotional products industry for decades has bred reactive salespeople. As I have interviewed top performers over the years, one trait seems to surface more times than not. It’s not the verbalizing of having “great customer service,” no, it’s actually putting that statement into practice well beyond what most would consider good customer service.

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5 Invaluable Products for Fire Prevention Week

Did you know that Fire Prevention Week falls on Oct. 6-12? Raise awareness—and potentially save a life—with promotional products.

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How Sharp is Your Axe?

Abraham Lincoln said, “Give me six hours to cut down a tree and I’ll spend the first four hours sharpening my axe.” Your axe is the problem-solving ability you bring to your clients. If you are still doing the same things that you were doing five years ago and watching your personal productivity decline, you’ve probably got a pretty dull axe.

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When a Picture Says a Thousand Words: Bangladesh

It takes a single negative image to undo even the most successful campaigns in the eyes of your customers—and many of them will never forget what they’ve seen in the news. Headlines from Bangladesh and Pakistan underscore the need for social accountability audits.

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Would You Risk a $10,000 Order to Raise Product Safety Questions?

You get a call one morning from a marketing manager referred to you by one of your customers. She desperately needs 7,500 tote bags for an event the following week and wants to know if you can deliver.

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Indemnification: Are You—And Your Clients—Really Protected?

While the concept behind indemnification agreements is understandable, they fail to address one crucial question: How do indemnification agreements protect the end buyer’s brand?

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FreeEmploymentAlert.com

I came across this article explaining that more and more states are considering banning the practice of employers running credit checks on applicants–and I, for one, am all for such a ban. Job hunting in and of itself can be a demoralizing activity where rejection seems to outdistance approval by a good three or four miles.

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Survival of the Finest

If the misery of the poor be caused not by the laws of nature, but by our institutions, great is our sin.Charles Darwin, naturalist (1809-1882) There is a survival-of-the-fittest mentality that we have all been adhering to—unless, of course, you are not one of the fittest, are living in a crowd of billions and have…

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