It's a challenge learning to relate to a different type of buyer. Not every distributorship can afford it, but Hiatt recommends assigning someone to lead the transition. His wife Janice, P-F Unlimited's executive vice president, took charge of researching ad specialties and developing the line in its infancy at the distributorship. Mills would eventually like to devote one of his salespeople entirely to ad specialties. Do the job well.
Knowledge translates into confidence, and that translates into sales.
Troy Nelson says self-education is a key to success in the field. He attends trade shows, reads trade magazines and scours the fine print in ad specialties catalogs. Another effective way to educate customers and salespeople about ad specialties is to create a showroom. But some of the same distributors enter the ad specialties marketplace assuming the only way to compete is to offer the same products as everyone else, but at a lower price. You can't ignore price, but it's only one part of the equation.