Wholesale Marketing Question

[kalestto]

Hi Everyone. I have been a lurker for quite some time, and I apologize in advance for my short novel :0)

My name is Cassie. My husband and I have been in the business for about 8 years now. About 2 years ago, we shifted to a wholesale market. We kind of ... fell into our current clientele, they were friends, or friends of friends, before we made the switch, and until now, we haven't had the need to bring on any new customers. I am currently trying to put together a marketing campaign to bring on a dozen or so new customers. We aren't big, just my husband and myself, and occasionally a shop helper.

So after all that explanation, my question to you all is:

Those of you who outsource your printing... what brought you to your current printer? What made them stand out to you as a customer? And what makes you keep going back?

 

[Pat Whatley]

Those of you who outsource your printing... what brought you to your current printer? What made them stand out to you as a customer? And what makes you keep going back?

1. Pricing cheaper or almost as cheap as I could do it myself if I broke down and bought a printer.

2. Same day/next day production times on most normal orders. Large volume orders within a week.

3. Perfect accountability. I sub out a tremendous amount of banner work every year. I dropped a supplier over an $800 order they screwed up and blamed on me. It's not my fault that their in-house terminology was different than the rest of the free world.

4. Damn quick quotes. If I can't get your prices from your website I'd better be able to get them pretty quickly from you.

5. Reasonable shipping. My two main suppliers charge flat-rate shipping. I order one thing or 100 things my shipping cost is the same. Two other suppliers ship at their cost (I've checked....they charge me less that I could ship it myself for).

6. Ease of ordering. I have a couple of suppliers for printed vinyl cheaper than signs365.com but I rarely use them. I love a supplier who makes it damn easy for me to give them my money in exchange for getting exactly what I want (signs365.com remembering my credit card info is a major plus....I hate having to go find my wallet to get the number)

 

[Fred Weiss]

In addition to Pat's list which I agree with completely ...

1. Watch out for your customer's best interests. For better or for worse, the reality is that you are assuming the role of being your customer's production department. If you were your customer's employee it would be an automatic assumption that you would be looking out for your employer's best interest. Keep in mind that it's a detail business. Your clients will make mistakes in any way there is to make them. If you produce them then you've missed a great opportunity to save your customer a ton of aggravation and build loyalty.

We used to wholesale to more than 1,000 shops around the country. There wasn't a day that went by where we didn't phone a customer with questions on spelling or to suggest a change that would prevent the production of a line of copy that would be squeezed to fit horribly etc.

2. Do work that is better than your customer expects.

3. Keep your promises.

 

[john1]

The guys i outsource some things to stand out because of the following:

1. Great prices, Which mean i don't need to stock materials i don't use much of
2. Fast turnaround times
3. Answer any questions promptly via email or phone
4. Can count on them time and time again because when you outsource the customer sometimes doesn't know that you are so for them to be able to come through is HUGE
5. Larger widths than what i can do in house which is hardly ever needed but it's nice to be able to have the option to go bigger without getting a bigger machine
6. Can blind drop ship to my customer as if it came directly from me

 

[kalestto]

Wow guys, thanks for the responses. Keep those cards and letters coming :0)

I would like to add another question, if you were looking for a new printer, what would be your preferred type of advertising? Other than becoming a merchant member, which I intend on doing next month.

 

[john1]

You could try to find out shops in your area who do signs but may not have printers. It's gonna be rare but i am sure there are some out there still.

 

[Fred Weiss]

Wow guys, thanks for the responses. Keep those cards and letters coming :0)

I would like to add another question, if you were looking for a new printer, what would be your preferred type of advertising? Other than becoming a merchant member, which I intend on doing next month.

There is no better form of advertising than good word of mouth and the recommendation of others.

 

[Pat Whatley]

One more thing.....CALL ME IF SOMETHING GOES WRONG. Stuff happens, I understand that, it's a whole lot easier to deal with the sooner I find out about it. Job not gonna ship on time? Call me as soon as you know that. I might have to cancel the order but I'll come back to you next time. Make me call you to find out where my order is and you may never hear from me again.

 

[kalestto]

Pat. Thank you for reply. When you say ease of ordering, do you prefer emailing your order, ordering direct from a website, or talking to someone on the phone first?

 

[signage]

Having some one available to answer questions via phone, a lot easier to explain something via voice than email sometimes.

 

[Typestries]

This is a great thread, Cassie!

All ways in which we strive to serve our trade clients every day.

Set up a merchant membership.....there are wholesalers in the Southeast but not many whom are MM's.

Take care of your clients, and the rest will follow. Best of luck growing your operation!

 

[longlivemedia]

It's the customer experience plus the quality and affordability of the services.

 

[FireSprint.com]

This is an awesome thread and it's part of our credo we live by here.

The switch from retail to wholesale for us meant:

1.) Provide faster service than we did when we were retail.
2.) Provide a higher level of customer service contact than we did when we were retail. (Call back and quote FAST).
3.) Hold our quality standards at a higher level than we did when we were retail.
4.) Do it all at a lower price than we did it for when we were retail.

In exchange for this, you cut about 90% of the crap out that the retail side deals with every hour of every day. Our customers are some of the best customers in the world!

Some quick advice for you:

-Keep it very simple. Specialize in one product type at a time and get GREAT at it.
-Make a catalog with EASY EASY EASY to understand and use pricing.
-Support your resellers. Don't ever leave them hanging. Sometimes you do this at a loss, but the wholesale relationship is all that matters. You CANNOT be in the wholesale business for a quick dime.

 

[Gino]

I believe you have some fabulous answers to finally try this venture.

Seems you've been making appearances on and off since 2007 indicating you and your hubby's intentions to open a Merchant Membership here at s101. In fact, you've been invited to do this on several occasions and your response was.... you said you were gonna join. Why not instead of getting free advertising with these tactics, just join ??

 

[FireSprint.com]

...Why not instead of getting free advertising with these tactics, just join ??

Well worth the investment for us!

 

[TheSnowman]

I have to have a website that gets me quote info right away, and then someone that can ship my stuff quickly, tell me what that cost will be, and keep me updated online about the progress without me wondering the status all the time.

I'll just say, Signs365 is the best vendor I use. The fact that they do wholesale to sign shops/designers only means a lot about respecting what we do, and their pricing and turn around, and having everything online is incredible. If every place I ordered from worked like them, I could manage everything from home.

 

[Sign Up Graphics]

Sign Up Graphics

1 - Price.
2 - Fast service.
3 - Quality

 

[signworldusinc]

1. Pricing cheaper or almost as cheap as I could do it myself if I broke down and bought a printer.

2. Same day/next day production times on most normal orders. Large volume orders within a week.

3. Perfect accountability. I sub out a tremendous amount of banner work every year. I dropped a supplier over an $800 order they screwed up and blamed on me. It's not my fault that their in-house terminology was different than the rest of the free world.

4. Damn quick quotes. If I can't get your prices from your website I'd better be able to get them pretty quickly from you.

5. Reasonable shipping. My two main suppliers charge flat-rate shipping. I order one thing or 100 things my shipping cost is the same. Two other suppliers ship at their cost (I've checked....they charge me less that I could ship it myself for).

6. Ease of ordering. I have a couple of suppliers for printed vinyl cheaper than signs365.com but I rarely use them. I love a supplier who makes it damn easy for me to give them my money in exchange for getting exactly what I want (signs365.com remembering my credit card info is a major plus....I hate having to go find my wallet to get the number)

I agree with this post a 100%. We have been used for outsourcers and drop shippers and we want to make sure that the people that use us continue to do so. We have had customers complain about other companies that drop ship and sneak in their information but we make sure none of that is on our product.

I would also say customer service is key because if you outsource and have issues especially if its something that you can not fix yourself you will need to get back to the vendor. This is crucial in providing your customers the best service.

 

[rjssigns]

We use our current sub because of speed, quality and communication.
The last part is critical. Although nobody keeps records of her exploits Ms. Communication has ruined many businesses. Sometimes her sister Ms. Management is with her.