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Solutions May 2005
Case Study
Cowbells Ring in
New Business
Can
you imagine a rush demand for
cowbells? As odd as it may seem,
that's the scenario that
helped Advantage Graphics increase
its promotional business by nearly
5 percent.
Advantage
Graphics, Portland, Ore., is a
full service graphics company
specializing in traditional business
forms, laser forms, digital printing,
integrated labels, design services
and inventory management. That
work represents 95 percent of
its business. The balance is made
of promotional work, including
corporate apparel and promotional
products, a market it entered
three years ago.
Since
breaking into promotions, Mike
Klenz, president and owner of
Advantage Graphics, has been placing
friendly reminders to existing
clients, making them aware of
the new offering. One client seemed
like a ripe prospect because Advantage
handled all its print work exclusively
for years. But the client already
had a resource for its promotional
products and told Klenz it didn't
plan to change vendors. "I
wasn't aggressively trying
to get their promotion business,
but I had been reminding them
for years," he says.
Then,
on an otherwise ordinary Wednesday,
Klenz received a panicked call
from his client. It needed a giveaway
for a bike race it was sponsoring
that Saturday. The client's
long-time supplier couldn't
deliver because of the short time
frame—three days—and
the small quantity—only
75 units.
"An
internal miscommunication and
an oversight caused the late request,"
Klenz says. "Somebody thought
someone else was handling it and
it turns out no one was. The customer
called me to see if we could pull
a rabbit out of a hat. They remembered
that I was trying to get their
promotional products business
from them."
Making
matters more challenging, the
client didn't know what
it wanted. "Neither my contact
person or I had any knowledge
of bike racing, but while we were
talking, the idea of noisemakers
along the race route came up,"
he says. "From there, we
remembered that cowbells are popular
along bike and ski routes in Europe."
"Let
me see what I can do," Klenz
told his client, but he didn't
know a vendor that produced imprinted
cowbells. He used promotional
products source database SAGE
and found Belle Arbor, Farmingdale,
N.Y., a manufacturer that was
able to ship 31Ú2 x 3-inch metal
cowbells overnight on Thursday
for a Friday delivery.
The
client was so impressed, it awarded
Advantage Graphics all of its
promotional business, Klenz says.
The new business has helped Advantage
boost its fledging promotional
sales from 5 percent of total
sales to nearly 10 percent.
Why
didn't the client's
original promotional product supplier
jump on this opportunity? "I
got the feeling that their existing
supplier put up some negative
roadblocks due to the existing
timeframe," Klenz says.
"Out of panic and frustration,
they called us. Have a can-do
attitude and the right tools in
place to seize opportunities when
they arise," Klenz says.
—Cheryl
Dangel Cullen
TIPS
1.
Don't become complacent
when an existing client's
project challenges you more than
usual. Instead, treat the challenge
as an opportunity and show the
client how much you value its
business by exceeding its expectations.
2.
When you're weighing the
pros and cons of spending money
for new equipment, software or
other improvements, ask yourself
if the purchase or investment
will help you serve clients better
in the long run. If the answer
is yes, the expense likely is
justified.
3.
It's easier and more cost-effective
to retain and build business through
a current client than finding
a new one. If you add a new product
or service to your repertoire,
remind existing clients regularly.
