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The following collection is a few of our ad specialty and SOHO customer success stories. While each company and individual is different, most had two main reasons to start offering their own laser printed sublimation products. First was the low cost, high profit method of increasing sales and profit, which didn't require a big investment. Second, was a desire for more control and faster service. Offering sublimated products was the method they chose to get brand new customers, and to profitably sell more to their existing customers. While certain specifics and identities are confidential, all have agreed to us telling their success story and we thank them. The world is an awfully big planet and there is plenty of room for everyone to enjoy "Success." Georgia Working in her spare time, a small office/home
office entrepreneur, has made many thousands of dollars selling
just one item - magnetic note holders! Her biggest seller is
a 1.25" x 3.25" gold-tone aluminum plate attractively bagged
in a clear 2x4 poly-bag. It is magnetic because she sticks a
.75 x 1 magnetic strip on the back of the plate. Her minimum
order is 25 and she brings her price down to $1.25 each, if
you buy a 100. She gives customers up to 5 lines of lettering
and 1 logo, with one line change allowed. Michigan Last year, an ad specialty distributor decide that he was missing profit and sales by only offering the expensive plaques offered by most asi suppliers. He didn't want to become a trophy company. He just wanted the ability to provide faster service and still make a good profit from selling less expensive awards to his customers. After listening to him explain his needs, we made specific suggestions on how to get started, and then helped him get set up. He reported that in 1999 while he still sold about $18,000 in high-end lasered and etched plate plaques he actually made a lot more money off the $14,000 in sublimated plaques that he produced himself. He also said that he was getting an unexpected bonus in his regular ASI sales. Many of his "annual sales" order customers had started ordering sublimated desk name blocks and pin back badges. Not only was he making a profit from that, but also the increased contact from delivering the small sublimated orders, gave him more opportunities to sell other things. The story sounds very believable to us. Any good professional salesperson knows that while people do like to "buy," they usually hate to be "sold." Anything that increases contact and conversation gives the true pro an opportunity to sell, without looking like it. Texas We helped set up a part-time SOHO entrepreneur
who has a full-time job with a phone service company. He had
reached an agreement with them to supply all of their plaque
awards, badges, desk nameplates and many other items. Later
this year, he plans on approaching other divisions of the company,
with the same offer. His eventual goal is to go into business
for himself, fulltime.
Minnesota A new cartridge customer of ours has been selling
sublimated products on the web for quite some time. She told
us that she originally started off just selling ad specialties
that other companies produced. She added her own sublimated
products after a friend convinced her to give it a try. Indiana A "traditional" ad specialty company, with four sales reps, started doing their own full color inkjet sublimation on short-run T-shirt orders. They called us when they found out they couldn't print full color on metal and get a nice, cost effective look. We told them that the strong point of our cartridges was the beautiful, inexpensive job it did on sublimation metal, but our laser printer sublimation cartridges print single color, not full color. They weren't happy with the idea of only single colors because they thought that the market was in full color but said they would do some research. Before they hung up, we suggested they consider these facts in their research:
Several months later they called us and said they want to get started. We helped them get the equipment they needed, sent them a cartridge and helped them get set up, after they got everything. About four months after that, the owner called to thank us and said that the profit of single color sublimated products (using metal plates), the month before, had passed the full color sales of mouse pads and T-shirts, and his sales staff loved the competitive edge. California A printing and rubber stamp company, offering ad specialties and high-end lasered products, added sublimation to their product mix, after consulting with us. After seven months, they told us they not only were enjoying very good sales from sublimated products but had also seen an increase in sales of their other services and products. The owner said he was looking forward to the new phone book coming out because he would have listings in five new categories, that he thought would boost sales even more. Just before he hung up, he exclaimed, "Boy, were you ever right about increasing sales through cross selling!" We thanked him for the compliment, but of course that concept is not our idea. Related cross selling is already a national trend because customers are demanding maximum convenience and fast service. Smart retailers are cashing in on the demand. Ad specialty companies are doing awards, banks have branches in grocery stores, award companies are offering vinyl banners, K-Marts are enlarging their grocery selections, sign shops are jumping into sublimation and engraving, office supply chains are selling everything from badges to signs and desk name plates, and on and on. Large or small, companies are doing this for only one reason: it's profitable!
Florida A Florida entrepreneur seems to have developed a profitable "route" of kiosks, book, gift, and souvenir and novelty shops that he wholesales thousands of plaques to, in his area. He was already in the business when he started buying sublimation cartridges from us, because of our price and quality. The 5x7 plaques are done with black print on a gold plate and are not personalized. Instead, he offers the retail outlets any one of hundreds of quotes, messages and themes that he already has laid out, in his computer. Souvenir shops might want a few dozen plaques with state theme messages, while a kiosk might prefer seasonal messages for Mother's Day, Grandparent's Day, etc. Religious bookstores buy plaques with bible verses and regular bookstores usually buy motivational quote plaques. He said he even does a brisk business with several dozen convenience markets, located around area schools. Each time a school has a game with a big rival he puts "booster message" type plaques in markets around BOTH schools. The markets (and he) love it, because they usually sell out. Working out of his home, the arithmetic of his situation is very profitable. His overhead is a few bucks for gas. The plaques take about 90 seconds each to produce, cost him about 60 cents each to produce and wholesale for $2.95. Since he can get tape, metal and plaque boards in one day he usually does not even carry more than $200 in basic inventory. While we do not know the specifics, we do know he supplies other sublimated products to local businesses and organizations. To us, he epitomizes the entrepreneurial spirit of the successful independent businessperson: work hard; put the profits from your hard work in your own pocket. We have heard many other success stories but these should be enough to illustrate our two main points. First, the return on investment is quite high in the laser sublimation business. Second, the extraordinary diversification of opportunity made possible by the process is very broad and profitable indeed. We also invite you to receive a free subscription to our sublimation business newsletter, " Toner Times", and free samples and sample transfers. The newsletter provides sales, marketing and production ideas to help you save time and make more money. Click Here, to send your request. |