Question

Topic: Customer Behavior

Why Is My Business Failing???

Posted by Anonymous on 2/9/2006 at 9:05 AM ET 200 Points
Okay, I don't know if you all can help me, but I'll give it a shot. We have a printing business through a company called Press a Print. We print logos on products for marketing campaigns etc. When we signed up with them, they told us that this would be easy - we didnt have to be salespeople, we could do it part time, it would basically sell itself, it is economy proof and so on. It all sounded true in theory.

We have been at this since 03. At first things were good, not great, but not bad. Lately we have been doing nothing. We have a program on our website that allows us to send out virtual samples of our product with a copanies logo on them. We send these out, call the next day to follow up, but still no bites. What is going on?

We do not have much time to work on this business (full time jobs). We have sent out close to 30 virtuals in the last week. We have our website, but not an overly good marketing plan right now.

Is it due to the economy? Not enought effort into marketing even though it is supposed to sell itself? Do we actually have to have a salesperson personality? Do we not stand out from competition?

I am the first to admit that the effort Press a Print puts into this, and the help they give us is very little. And the response I get from follow up calls is that "we are happy with the people we have now".

Can someone explain this, or is that hard to do? Thanks in advance!
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by darcy.moen on 2/9/2006 at 10:04 AM Member
    Companies like www.cafepress.com have set up a very simple affiliate system, as well as have made it very easy for anyone and their service group to sign up. I wonder if perhaps they have come to dominate the market?

    Darcy Moen
    www.customerloyaltynetwork.com
  • Posted by adammjw on 2/9/2006 at 10:29 AM Member
    As any place you have a strong competition to face. Promotional business online have been developing very fast last years and it's not enough to sit with your fingers crossed and wait for a windfall. As not much have been said about the way you are doing your business now ,no link to your website I will just give you some fodder to ponder on with the following link. Cafepress is not the only one pls look at: www.customink.com, www.spreadshirt.com,www.branders.com and see where your are. Do not miss out on www. technologo.com as well.
    If you need some more detailed feedback pls contact me offline clicking on my profile.

    Adam
  • Posted by Frank Hurtte on 2/9/2006 at 10:58 AM Member
    Jessalex...
    First let me say, I think the virtual sample idea is a good one. But, it has been my observation that unsolicited stuff like that will draw a 1-2% hit rate at best. Think of all the mail, email, phone messages etc that cross a decision makers desk. I am not exactly sure how you are sending out the virtual stuff but I would guess that at least a portion of it is filtered by the Spam filters we all use.
    So your options are to kick up the number of mailings. 100 gets you 1 customer, or try some different angles.
    Here are a couple of angles that I would recommend:
    1) figure out a way to tie yourself to a manufacturer with dealers or distributors. Your offer would be instant product with both peoples names on it. You would ask the manufacturer to help do the promotion. They send out a brochure letting their dealers know you can produce things quickly for trade shows, recognition events etc.
    2) work with a non-profit to provide things like United Way and Company logoed product. Again, using the non-profit to help you market.
    3) talk to someone in the advertising specialty business to see if they would use you for their quick turn-around needs. You give them 10% commission for selling.
    Hope this helps...
    Frank Hurtte riverheightsconsulting.com
  • Posted on 2/10/2006 at 1:42 AM Member
    Do you stand out from the competition? absolutely not. just from reading your question, i have no idea what makes you different, and i should. do you yourself know?

    so what do you want to happen? you want more customres, but potential clients seem to have the same problem i have in figuring out what makes you special. part of your problem is relying on others, first on Press a Print, then in a way on these messageboards.

  • Posted on 2/10/2006 at 1:54 AM Member
    however, you seem ambitious and risktaking, going into business on your own. and you are still trying, as coming here for help. and you haven't quit yet and just go back to your day jobs. i respect that.

    two things. you said in the beginning that things were going okay, so use that. get some testimonials from those people, saying how well, or cheap, or fast, or high quality you were. you can use that as leverage, to show potentials that you're not somebody who has no idea what they're doing.

    second, make it so that they would be foolish to say no. do the work for them. let's say there's a big nerd convention coming to town. nerds like pizza. so you go to a nearby pizza point, and tell them ordering 5000 pens or pocket protectors and passing them out, would only cost $x, but if there's a conversion rate of 5%, they can expect ordering multiple pizzas for revenues of $y, which is much greater than $x, please call me now before i offer this to the domino's next door.

    so, leverage what you have, and tailor your sales pitches.
  • Posted by telemoxie on 2/10/2006 at 7:05 AM Member
    Sounds like some good advice above. I know that I personally love to receive promotional materials from companies, whether it is coffee cups, or tshirts, pens...

    The Press A Print website says, "How much you want to make depends on how hard you want to work." I would agree that you need to work hard, and smart, to get the income you want. Sure, the products will sell themselves to a degree - but you need to get them in front of folks, and that takes work.

    If I were in your business, I would go to every trade show in town (companies who exhibit at trade shows need ad specialties). I would buy and read one or two very good books on sales (Tom Hopkins is one of my personal favorites... Tom says that "selling is the easiest job in the world if you work it hard, and the hardest job in the world if you work it easy:.).

    If I were in your business, I would also do a web search of ad specialty companies, and I'd visit 100 or so sites, to gather info on the benefits of specialty advertising and the types of companies they sell to. If I had your franchise, I would identify successful firms who are non-competitive (because they are in other regions) and try to find 3 to 5 who will mentor you.

    Regarding sending out 30 - I agree with the 1% expected response figure listed above. Sending out 30 virtual samples is a good thing - if you do it EVERY DAY.

    You say you are calling 30 folk. If it were me, I would be sure I was calling on companies with sufficient budget for this sort of thing, companies who already spend money on advertising, and I would call on the sales team, the marketing communications manager, and maybe the CEO.

    (and calling just one day later is a bit too soon in my book. If someone already has interest and has requested info, that might be an appropriate time - but if you are generating interest, it may come across as a bit pushy).

    Are you networking? Are you attending local meetings of businesspeople? Have you met in person with your former customers?

    If you speak with someone, and they seem helpful but not interested, ask, "If you were me, and you were selling this product, how would you do it?" - or - "If you were me, and you were selling this, who would you call on?". Sometimes people will give you fantastic ideas and advice.

    It sounds to me as though you had started with a bit of passion and drive, and that the effort level has fizzled a bit. You need a fresh burst of energy and effort.

    Thanks for finding us and posting this question, and good luck.
  • Posted by michael on 2/10/2006 at 9:41 AM Member
    Now that you've been beat up let me encourage you to take a look at why you're doing this program. If you're doing it for the money there are better ways as stated above....better marketing, better affiliates etc.

    The question is whether your passion is the promo products industry or not. There are so many people doing this ASI stuff from their kitchen tables that it will take actual work to earn money. One of our customers (no longer because he didn't want to change the way he did business, just wanted better results) sent our 30,000 catalogs per month. That's all he did. Never updated addresses. Never spell checked the catalog. Nothing. Just thought volume was the answer.

    Answer that question for yourself about if this is your passion. If not, you have a job already. You have time to sit and think it through. There are programs out there to sell stuff thru the internet that don't cost anything (not talking about ebay!) but you still have to work at it.

    Michael
  • Posted on 2/10/2006 at 6:37 PM Member
    I know a lot of people in the town I live in who try this kind of business. It's tough and does require a lot of selling and advertising. Here are some things that I can offer you to help.

    1) Research e-Bay. A family friend of ours sells mercandise with company logos, as well. He tried to sell us some items, but when we did a search for the same items online, we found out we could get them for $1 a piece less if we ordered them on e-Bay. This is a MAJOR comeptitor.

    2)Is there a college nearby? I have belonged to many clubs in college, and they all give out free t-shirts with logos on them at the first meeting. They advertise like crazy to get people to join. They hand out cups, shirts, magnets. All kinds of stuff.

    3) Nerd Fests (aka comic book conventions). I'm a nerd and proud of it. And you know, most of my fellow nerds have at one time or another tried to publish his or her own comic books. They also all know that if you want to have your book picked up by retailers, you have to woo them like crazy. That means media kits with shirts and keychains and mugs and everything else. Get out there with some sort of promotional package that comes with a reasonable (I don't expect you to give away the farm) price tag.

    4) Team up with a self-publisher. My family owns a print shop, and I know from first hand experience that people publishing books buy a lot of merchandise to sell with their products. If they're in the process of publishing something, you can bet that they have money stashed for merchandising and marketing, too.
  • Posted on 2/10/2006 at 11:55 PM Member
    I agree with all above. Choose a niche that you're passionate about with people you can relate to and focus on that... own the niche by contacting everyone you can think of in that industry and tell them why you're the best souce. Present your POD (point of difference). if you don't have one, get one.

    AND/OR
    Think about the first places people go to when they want to start a new business and target some advertising/marketing around that.

    All government agencies run start-up programs. Go and present your concept to them and ask for referrals.
  • Posted by djohnson on 2/13/2006 at 10:36 AM Accepted
    I am not sure I went to the right web site (www.pressaprint.com) but since nothing came up when I googled it, I am assuming I stumbled upon the company you are referring to.

    It appears that this company is much different from cafepress.com and the others that were mentioned. It appears as though you are not only responsible for the sales and marketing of your product but also the production. And since it appears as though you are not salespeople and only have a small amount of time to devote to this business, there are some practical things that can be done to help you increase your sales.

    The t-shirt and specialty advertising industry is VERY competitive. Because the start-up cost is relatively small for these businesses, there are a lot of players from the big national companies to the small guys silk screening in their garage. I did some work with a guy who ran his business out of old chicken coops and he has become the largest silk screener in Maine. He buys close outs and discontinued t-shirts from his suplliers and then designs t-shirts for the tourist industry. He then sells them to anyone that will buy them including convenience stores, gift shops, restaurants, video stores, etc. All the shirts he designs are Maine focused with Moose, blueberries or lobsters printed on the front with MAINE printed underneath. He sells them dirt cheap and suggests that they are resold in packages like 3 for $12. He doesn't make as much per shirt but because his customers blow the shirts out quickly, he has a very high reorder rate. He does very little custom work because that part of the business is too competitive.

    If it were me here is what I would do:

    I would work with a graphic artist to come up with a series of designs that are unique to your area. Every area has a tourist industry of some sort. Why do the tourists come to your area? For Maine, it is the Moose, lobsters, blueberries, lighthouses, etc. I would find a void and fill it.

    I would then hire an independent rep. who already has an established account list to sell the shirts for me. You might hire more than one. Typically independent reps. carry several lines and have established relationships in their market area. This will help you overcome your lack of time to devote to sales.

    I would point out that NOTHING sells itself especially in an industry as competitive as yours. And as most have indicated above, there really needs to be something that differentiates your business from everyone else. If you can not identify the thing or things that make you different, your sales effort is going to be difficult. And, there is nothing as powerful as direct sales for your industry.

    I would also sit down and reflect on what you really want to accomplish with your business. Do you want it to replace your full-time incomes or just add a supplement. It is going to be very hard to experience any success at all it unless one of you can't commit more time to growing your business. Perhaps, one of you scales back to part-time at your regular job. Unless you are making 6-figure incomes, your business, done correctly, can easily replace at least one full-time income. And, if you are driven enough, it can replace a 6-figure income, too.

    Which brings me to my next point. Do you have a business plan? Forget about marketing for a minute. It doesn't sound to me like you have adequately planned to grow your business. Do you know how much you need to sell to replace one of your incomes and if you do, have you developed a strategy to do it? Have you set sales goals? Have you researched your industry to know what is selling and what isn't. I am in the middle of a t-shirt project myself. I have developed a self-funding advertising program for my clients. Basically I want them to by a certain amount of advertising for the month of March. I have traded with a t-shirt printer to have catchy t-shirts designed. If an advertiser buys my "March Madness" package, I am going to give them enough t-shirts that, once sold, will cover the cost of their advertising. This is the kind of "outside the box" idea that you need to develop.

    I would also encourage you to establish a networking strategy. Are you a member of your local Chamber of Commerce. Do you attend networking meetings with an organization such as BNI (www.bni.com)? Are you out there among potential customers at any chance you can get? You may even adopt a cause to market around. Perhaps there is a little league team you can sponsor or a non-profit you can donate shirts to. The more civic oriented you are, the more respect you will develop in your community. Remember, if you are not willing to do this, someone else is and they are going to get the bulk of the business in your area.

    Building a business of any size is difficult even when you have committed a full-time effort to it. It is especially difficult if you are doing it part-time without a plan. You can salvage your business and prosper but, you have to realize that it is going to take a tremendous amount of work. There are tons of "hungry" silk screeners out there that are going after the same customers you are.

    I think your problems are more deep rooted than not having a marketing strategy. It seems to me like you may have to re-think your entire operation from beginning to end. You may find that you are not willing to put in the time or effort required to turn yours into a viable business. You need to be brutally honest with yourself and move forward only if you are committed to making it work. If not, sell your equipment and find something else that doesn't require as much time or effort.

    I could go on and on about this but, I think I have made my point. Hopefully, I have helped a little.

    Good Luck,
    Dave Johnson
    www.cards911.com
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