Welcome to the promo playbook, the podcast where
suppliers come to win in the promotional products
industry. We're your hosts, Lisa Faustik and
Adrienne Barker, bringing you insider insights,
expert strategies, and no fluff advice to help
suppliers navigate the promo channel like pros.
From marketing to distributors to mastering software
onboarding, we cover it all. Whether you're new
to the industry or ready to scale up, this is
your playbook for success. Let's get started.
Hey everybody, welcome back to the promo playbook.
So glad you could join us. Today we're going
to dive into the subject of the different types
of distributors that suppliers can sell to. And
the term buying group is often used as a general
term to describe these different types of distributors.
But what we have learned over the years is that
they're very different. There are national distributor
organizations like Halo, Geiger, American Solutions.
There are affiliate networks like I Promote You
and Kaiser and Blair. There are franchise companies
like Proforma and Fully Promoted. Technology
and enablement platforms like CommonSkew and
Facilis. True buying groups like Reciprocity
Road and Premier Group. There's a lot to dive
into. So we're going to pick this up. Thank you,
Adrian and Kim, for joining me on this call.
And since you both have experience with this,
you know, we were sort of debating before we
got on our podcast how many of these there are
in the industry. And we're not really sure. I
think there's at least 20 and maybe as many as
50. So if folks out in our audience know of some
of these groups that they could bring to our
attention, we would love that. But we are going
to focus today on finding the right person. How
do you decide on your strategy to pitch yourself
to these big buying groups? And is it the right
choice for your supplier at this time? So Adrienne,
I'm going to ask you first, what's your opinion
on going after a large, let's say, buying group
or affiliate network out of the gate? So I love
that question. So first of all, I think out of
the gate, you should start smaller unless you
really want to have proof of performance. So
I think that's really important. So let's just
say you've gone to, you've got have a consultant,
you have everything you need and you're like,
okay, I'm ready. Now, are you ready on the inside
with the right support? Is everyone trained?
Because in order to get to, and let's just say
number one, Halo, in order to get to halo, you
gotta have a lot of things set up and you've
gotta have your accounting. And there's so much
Lisa, I'm gonna just stop and say, you have to
make sure as a supplier, no matter where you're
selling to, that you have a very strong accounting
department. That is probably the most important.
Lisa can say, no, no, it's the decoration is
the most important. And Kim can say, no, no,
it's getting out there and making the sales calls.
But to me, it's gonna come down to your accounting.
department. That is what's going to make a big
difference. I love that insight and we can unpack
why that's important. And one of those things
is a lot of these groups ask for a rebate and
they want to understand that you can pay this
rebate and you need to have some money in your
bucket to be able to promote yourself at a national
or a big buying group. So we're getting a little
ahead of ourselves. But that's a great point,
Adrienne, that you need to have a strong accounting
department or a strong outsourced accounting
partner that's doing your accounting for you.
So thanks for bringing that up. That's great
insight. What do you think, Kim? I agree. I feel
like you have to crawl and then lock and then
run in this industry. And I think you need to,
to your point, Adrienne, you have to start small,
like get the easy stuff done first. before you
get bigger because the larger the distributor
or partner, the more complex. And if you haven't
mastered just the basic, get an order, figure
out your proofing, get it out the door, get your
invoice out and get paid at a small scale, you're
definitely not going to figure it out at a large
scale. Yeah. So really, really good insight.
So get your house in order first before you put
some of these bigger partners on your roadmap.
So when you are ready to go after some of these
folks, how do you decide which ones and how much
of a commitment is that? Adrienne, you mentioned
Halo. That's a great example. That's sort of
the top of the mountain, right? Super well -known,
respected group where you want to show up and
not really make any mistakes. How would you even
get in front of the right person at Halo to be
able to know what the process is to be onboarded?
So that's one thing is how do you network to
find out who the vendor relations person is or
who the right person is that you can even pitch
your supplier company to? What do you guys think
about that? I have the answer. To me, they're
on LinkedIn. They really are on LinkedIn. I mean,
obviously you could pick up the phone and say
supplier vendor relations. First of all, just
knowing that terminology is great. So it's either
called supplier relations, vendor relations,
and the smaller distributors may even have someone
that handles it. I think it makes sense for any
company to have that supplier relations person
that's going to handle the communication. But
it really is important to understand you've got
to reach out to them and you're going. So first
of all, can we just back it up? In order to even
come into the industry, or at least into PPAI,
you have to, and ASI too, you have to have proof
of orders. So you have to already, this is the
craziest part about it, and I don't recall if
it's three or five, but you have to already prove
that you have orders. So you can't just say,
oh, I sold to Sally Sue. No, you have to have
proof of it. You have to have the invoice. You
have to have all of that. So the industry is
protected. in that way. They don't just want
anyone to come in and become a supplier. And
then once you actually have the proof, and you're
able to get a PPAI or ASI number, then you're
going to move forward. I just want to like remind
people that's really an important step. And yeah,
working with consultant helps too, because it
can help you to guide you to maybe kind of find
other ways to do it or find clients that you
can sell to right away. Lisa, sorry about that.
No, no, that's awesome, awesome insight. And
I think we can do a whole segment on that, is
what do you need to even get in the industry?
And I've gone through that myself with several
of my consultant partners, and it is not easy.
You really need to have the documentation to
Adrian's point. So we can dive into that. And
another reason to have a good strong partner,
right? Like Gemline. or another or hers, you
know, to help pave the way because they're already
in the system and they're already selling to
some of these national accounts that we wanted
to focus a little bit on in this segment. And
I'm realizing as we're talking, maybe it's premature
to be talking about this today. Something you
touched on, Adrienne, I wanted to unpack, which
is sometimes it's your selling to a rep of one
of these groups, whether it's a Geiger a Kit
Kaser Blair, a Vernon, a Halo, and they fall
in love with you. They fall in love with your
brand. They love what you're doing. And they
can be a champion for you with the vendor relations
person at the national level. So a lot of what
we're going back to is you have to earn your
stripes. You have to prove yourself. You have
to build trust. You have to be able to deliver.
to be able to function as part of one of these
bigger groups. Many of them do look for a lot
of things. So I think I'd like to talk about
that a little bit in terms of being ready. They
do look for a lot of concessions, support, pricing.
So what have you learned, Adrienne, through your
processes about what these nationals look for
or buying groups or franchises? What do they
expect from their distributors? So they are going
to expect from the supplier, you mean? Yes, the
supplier. So first of all, we'll go back to from
the accounting department to your customer support.
So make sure all your departments are lined up.
Make sure that you understand that samples are
going to sell. Make sure you have a strong sample
department. Consider, can you afford? What can
you afford? Can you afford giving free samples?
Can you afford Looking some suppliers i say if
the distributor has a showroom i want space in
that showroom what is it gonna cost you in essence
of your giving free samples that's like. Getting
space on the shelf that's something that we all
have to do that's any of the food or retail right
there looking for that right side same thing
so you gotta make sure that you it comes down
to having enough mula you have to make sure that
you can. afford a rebate if that's what it is.
And the rebates could be tough. You have to also
make sure you can afford 45 days, 60 days. Some
of these top ones, they could take that much
time. Also, you have to make sure that you are
able to dot every I and cross every T because
distributors are going to make mistakes. They're
going to have issues. They're not going to have
rush orders. They're going to have wrong shipping
information. They're gonna need things for you.
How do you have quality control? I mean that
list is so long, right? So my mind I'm thinking
that is everything because the last thing you
want to do as a supplier Is think that you're
all set get your orders and then realize I don't
have anyone checking the orders before they go
into the box I mean that's serious, too. And
also If you're looking to work with a halo, let's
say we know halo works with some amazing theme
parks You know, they may want to look at your
factory. They may want to tour. They may want
to see how are you giving bathroom breaks? Are
you hiring 15 year olds here? And are they working
like long hours like all of that? So this is
something you have to have that 360 view of everything.
Thank you for bringing that up. Do you want to
add to that? And I was going to add it goes back
to what we talked about in an earlier podcast.
You have to have someone dedicated to this market.
Everything that you just said is a great example
of you can't just Be like hey i can put a logo
on it check on in promo products right it goes
back to being able to have a dedicated resource
internally to be able to manage all of that external
stuff with your distributor supplier whichever
road but it's a lot it's a big checklist and
if you're. You don't know what you don't know,
right? And you don't want to, this is not an
area where you want to learn on the job. And
because you only get one or two chances, it's
not three strikes and you're out. It's like one
or two and that's it and like game over. And
I have a whole podcast on that. Right. So I just
think it reinforces the idea of that relationship
and having. being really serious about getting
into the market and understanding what you're
jumping into. OK, so I'm hearing from both of
my experts that really you got to be ready. You
got to have your foundation built. You got to
have your team in place. So I sort of want to
go riff off that to sort of give. Lister is a
quick list of all the things that one of these
groups is gonna require from you so when you're
thinking about going after a buying group a national
franchise company you gotta find the right person
internally to pitch yourself to. They're going
to be looking for things like compliance, as
Adrian mentioned. They're going to be looking
for safety testing. They're going to be looking
for making sure that you have your HR manual
in place. I mean, it is a deep dive into your
business. So you want to be prepared for that.
They are going to ask you for assets and content
to add to their database. And you actually have
to administrate that. You have to go into their
back ends and add your flyers and add your social
media content. a blog post, an article. Now you
might not even have those resources yet. So that's
another thing to keep in mind that even if you
are successfully onboarded, that doesn't mean
that orders are going to roll in. At that point,
you need to work the organization just like any
other sales channel. So you need to stay relevant
with that channel because you might be competing
with several other suppliers in that channel.
that sell what you sell. So what are your points
of difference? What is the white space within
that organization that you can fill? So staying
relevant, staying present. A lot of these folks
have their own shows. So that's an expense. Are
you going to be able to attend their shows? A
lot of them have sample boxes or subscription
kits that you can add samples to, but that's
an expense. they look for social media support
many of them have their own vendor internal facebook
pages where. You know you're going to be wanting
to go in there and pitch your product or answer
questions from the members who are looking for
specific products so i think that the night we
want to leave you with on nationals buying groups
and franchise companies is. It's a big task.
It's a big bite. And we're not saying don't do
it. We're just saying be prepared, be ready,
work with a group like ours that can help you
navigate those spaces and try not to take on
too many at once. I recommend focusing on one,
getting yourself set there, establishing your
brand, then move on to the next one. So we're
looking forward to hearing your feedback on that.
your comments. Do you want a whole other segment
on this where you guys can dial in? We can do
a Zoom event around this where we can have a
fireside chat style panel discussion about what
it takes to build your footprint and get sales
with these types of clients. So any closing comments,
Adrienne or Kim, on this sort of big topic? That
was just so perfect, I have to say. I love the
only thing I Just want to like recommend is well
lisa said do one at a time, but also work with
some smaller distributors You want to get some
orders in my dad would always say break the ice
Just break the ice get your first order in after
you become a a member of the industry And so
yes top and know that it's going to take a very
long time And I love that you mentioned that
you know about going into the show rooms and
a lot of distributors they say We want someone
to come in. They really, I just want to say the
distributors want the suppliers. That's important
to them. You know, and if you have someone that's
championing for you, definitely ask them if they
will go to their supplier relations and give
your name and follow up to so that you have them
in the back end. So don't think, well, I'm not
going to ask them. No, you ask them when they
tell you, we love working with you. That's important,
but definitely get the business in from the small
up. So you're literally going to kind of make
a sandwich, and then the middle is going to be
all your juice and your delicious bologna. No,
I'm kidding. You're not going to eat roast beef.
That's a great comment, Adrienne, and we will
be having a podcast on our small to medium -sized
distributors, how they really are the meat and
potatoes or roast beef of the industry and how,
as new suppliers, they... are your best friend
and they are underserved in my opinion in the
industry and could really benefit from fresh
new products, fresh new approaches, fresh new
partnerships. So we'll be working on that too
in the future. And they're a great way to just
sharpen your teeth and get it going, right? They
can ride the wave with you. They absolutely can
and you shouldn't, especially when you start
out. don't underscore how powerful some of those
small and mid -sized distributors can be. Yeah.
And I was one of them myself for 11 years and
Adrian also. So we know the power of the boots
on the ground distributor. We love them. They're
our favorites. Maybe you don't. I just want to
do a shout out. Well, if we do a shout out to
our regional associations under the PPAI umbrella,
even just go be a member of your new supplier.
Join the one that's closest to you. This is where
you're going to get that small and juicy distributors.
And this bigger ones are there too. So don't
forget our regionals. They are there for a reason.
I think we have our next topic. Yeah. Talk about
regional shows. Yeah. So we have the idea of
budgeting. How much money do you need? We have
discussing regional shows, how to partner with
small and midsize distributors. I mean, there's
so much great stuff we're excited to share. So
we'll see you next time. Thanks for tuning into
the promo playbook. If you found value in today's
episode, be sure to subscribe and leave us a
review. Got a topic you'd love us to cover? Connect
with us on LinkedIn. We want to hear from you.
Until next time, stay smart, stay strategic,
and keep growing your supplier success.