Marketing and Sales

Out of the 31 National Hockey League teams that took to the ice this most recent regular season, nobody had lower expectations placed on them than the Vegas Golden Knights. As a new franchise, the Nevada bunch stood no chance of competing against established Western Conference foes, many naysayers proclaimed, and would certainly mimic the…

In his 1711 poem “An Essay on Criticism,” Alexander Pope declared, “To err is human; to forgive, divine.” While those sentiments serve us well in an assortment of situations,…

Michael Reisbaum, BASI, has joined Blue Generation, Long Island City, N.Y., as director of national accounts. Reisbaum comes to Blue Generation with experience as a distributor, decorator and supplier representative. "I'm thrilled to bring experience on all sides of the industry, as well as my network of remarkable and successful promotional product distributors to Blue…

BEL Promo, Medley, Fla., announced that Susan Lewandowski is joining the company as general manager, and will lead the new BEL Promo transformation into 2018 and beyond. Lewandowski spent 23 years with ASI in various roles, including supplier sales manager, special projects manager and tradeshow manager. More recently, she…

PPAI's annual industry sales numbers are out, and the results are encouraging. In a press release yesterday, PPAI reported that promotional products industry sales for 2017 increased 9.31 percent, totaling $23.3 billion. That's the highest sales volume in 18 years. To compare, the industry saw a sales increase of only 2.4 percent in 2016. PPAI…

“We are pleasantly surprised with how everything is unfolding,” Phil Sklar, co-founder and CEO of the National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum, said as he gears up for the opening of its permanent Milwaukee location. “We have definitely exceeded our expectations, and we’re really looking to inspire more enthusiasm for bobbleheads.”

Are you asking prospects to: answer questions leading to an outcome you want? Be persuaded by research to form a conclusion? Beware.

Two of the most popular writing strategies in B2B sales email messages fail to provoke desired behaviors. Especially replies. Instead, they put your customer in a vulnerable position. Literally. I’m talking about asking prospects questions and/or offering persuasive research. Both tactics fail or under-perform. Because both result in tipping-off customers to your motive: To sell […]

Last week, I attended a procurement conference in Washington, D.C. It was a content-driven, thought leadership, focused event. Because I was attending this event as a supplier, my focus was to meet as many valuable contacts as possible. Most people consider me an extrovert, but the thought of having to network with people who may be hesitant to do business can cause even the most vivacious, outgoing woman to have turtle-like symptoms. How should I introduce myself?...

It's unlikely that cotton will lose its spot as the top material for apparel production any time soon, but increasing costs, uncertain availability and several other issues are worth monitoring...