28 Feb How to Choose a Promotional Products Marketing Consultant

When choosing to buy promotional products for your business or organization, it is important to know that all distributors are NOT created equal. The majority of promotional product distributors are simply “order takers” who will take your money and offer you no real guidance to help make your project or marketing campaign more successful. I have a few pointers to help guide you in the right direction of choosing a reputable and knowledgeable promotional products consultant.

1) Check out the distributor’s website. Is it a well-designed website? If not, that may be a good indication of their quality. A site with lots of misspellings, poor grammar, and poor content should raise a red flag. If the distributor does not even have a website, that too could be a red flag. This is the 21st century, and if the distributor is not online, chances are he/she doesn’t know the current trends of the industry. Without knowing these trends, they won’t be able to offer much guidance to help your campaign be successful for the current times.

2) How long has the distributor been in business? There are many fly by night distributors that are here today and gone tomorrow. Make sure you choose one that will be in business the next time you are ready to order. Also, a distributor with many years of experience has withstood the tests of time and most likely has a lot of knowledge that could be useful for you.

3) Is the distributor part-time or full-time? Many of the promotional products distributors are part-time distributors which means they earn their bread and butter doing an unrelated job and the job as a distributor comes second to their primary career. This means you would also come second. This also means that they don’t have as much time to keep up with the current trends of the industry. They are not able to offer you the freshest advice on how to improve your campaign.

4) Check with the Better Business Bureau. You can search the BBB online database and check for complaints. Specifically, check for the resolutions. If a company consistently doesn’t respond to their complaints in a positive manner, I would steer clear of that business. If a company is not listed with the BBB, that should also be a red flag. They are probably not listed because they are afraid or they were not approved due to too many complaints.

5) Trust your gut! When you speak with the distributor, do you get a good vibe or a bad one? If it is a bad one, trust your intuition and call the next distributor that seems reputable to you. Keep searching until you feel comfortable with your choice.  Promotional products distributors are a dime a dozen, but knowledgeable consultants are harder to find.

Using a reputable and knowledgeable distributor will help ensure that your next promotional products marketing campaign is more successful.

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