The Advantage to Buying Promotional Products Online

Buying your promotional products and corporate apparel online provides five major advantages: a greater selection, better pricing, convenience, customer service, and faster ordering time.

Manufacturers often display their entire line of products on the internet, providing you with a greater selection of products. With all of these manufacturers online, you gain the opportunity to compare pricing and quality in a simple and accessible online format, instead of wasting time flipping through endless catalogs that crowd your workspace.

Better pricing is readily available online, but you have to search for it. Type any promotional product related keywords into your favorite search engine and sift through the results until you find a company with discount pricing. Another great trick is to choose an item and have a few companies give you a quote with the price of freight included. This will get you a number much closer to the total cost.

How do these online companies afford to sell the exact same product for less than other distributors? Traditionally, promotional items are sold by a distributor who has outside sales people that will go to your place of business, show you samples, and walk you through the process of placing an order. These outside sales people are the primary expense of an off-line distributor. This expense is then factored into the price of the promotional item, thus raising your total cost. When purchasing discount promotional products online, you can eliminate this huge cost and save considerable amounts of money.

Convenience comes with the capability of placing your entire order online. All successful online companies offer this service with encrypted order forms to secure your purchasing information. It is always a necessary hassle to send the artwork to your promotional products company. This is made easy with the online form. With online ordering you gain the convenience of placing your order anytime, twenty-four hours a day.

A few of these online companies also provide customer service departments with long hours. They are set up primarily to take your calls, handle rush orders, and to answer your questions promptly. If you prefer to communicate through e-mail, this is a great way to document your order from start to finish. You can e-mail a question to your distributor, leave for lunch, and have it answered by the time you return.

A faster ordering time is the fifth major result of the online purchase. I have personally visited hundreds of clients. This obviously requires an appointment, which naturally must fit into both parties' schedules. An off-line salesperson is forced to interpret your needs prior to your meeting. They bring what samples and catalogs they have on hand, but these may not meet your needs and thus your ordering time will be extended for a second meeting. If you have any questions about product availability, turn around time, or any other factory sensitive inquiries, the salesperson will have to return to his office in order to contact the factory, in order to answer your question. When you order from an online company, the customer service team is already in their office, so they can contact the factory with your questions and call you back immediately.

I have given you five great reasons to buy promotional products online, but I must also remind you that there is always a trade-off. Online promotional products companies work very hard to cut all possible costs and to pass the savings on to you. You will find that this results in a charge for samples and pre-payment requirements. The charge for samples insures that the company will not give away products to non-customers, as this would considerably raise the real customers' costs. Paying in advance is very common among internet purchasing in general, and necessary for almost every online company to insure payment. Pre-payment is nothing to worry about. You still have the right to a quality product, and you gain an enormous savings.

One other tip, select an online company that has in-house embroidery or screen printing facilities. It has been my experience that these companies have much better control of expediting your orders, a stronger knowledge of branding, experience which allows them to better monitor quality control, and a great tendency to complete rush orders faster.

You will find that many more successful businesses are now placing their promotional product and corporate apparel needs in the hands of these qualified online distributors. The advantages are numerous; convenience, speed, selection, accountability, service, and above all, savings.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

< p>Author: Rick Sheldon has 18 years experience in the Promotional Products Industry and is currently CEO of Save on Promotional Products Inc. a Discount Online Promotional Products Company. He can be contacted at 1-800-826-8706; email: rick@saveonpromotionalproducts.com; or visit www.saveonpromotionalproducts.com.

____________________

Advertisement: Honest Riches - Click Here!

Advertisement: Lost AdWords - Click Here!

Advertisement: Get $1 Million A Month In Google Pay-Per-Click Ads Free! - Click Here!

Advertisement: Who Loves Money? - Click Here!

Advertisement: SEO Elite, the GrandDaddy of SEO Software - Click Here!

---

Where Are Your Leads Coming From?

Most B2B marketers spend a great deal of time analyzing the performance of their programs and initiatives. The reason is obvious: With the growing pressure on marketing... Read More

Build A Successful Business By Staying Connected

Over the course of your business life you'll come in contact with a number of other business people. They could be lawyers, business services, suppliers, customers, etc.... Read More

Too Much To Do: Four Keys to Effective Delegating

Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity. General George S. PattonMany people think they... Read More

Joint Venture: 50 Power Secrets Of Joint Venture Marketing, Exposed

What is a Joint Venture?A joint venture is an agreement in which two or more businesses work on a project for a set period of time.Joint ventures... Read More

Using Alternative Media to Generate More Customers

Last week I received a very nice thank you gift from a friend of mine, Eric Ruth, who is arguably the number one marketing coach to the... Read More

Name the Top Cable Network

When Cable began as Community Antenna Television in 1948, all it did was collect over the air TV signals and send them down a cable.When Cable networks... Read More

Five Most Common Mistaken Beliefs About Joint Venture Marketing

Apart from being the fastest, easiest, and most profitable strategy for attracting clients and boosting profits in any small business, there are so many other advantages of... Read More

Its Not All about the Cleavage! Or is It?

Times are a changin'! More women today work outside the home, earn (and control) significant amounts of money, and make large, important purchases like houses, automobiles and... Read More

20 Tricks to Help Get That Envelope Opened

When your envelopes aren't opened, you can't make money! Beforeyou can get an order, the recipient of your mailing package mustfirst open the envelope. Unfortunately, many recipients... Read More

Secret of Strategy - Part 2

How to Create Strategies That Work In Today's Markets. Of course you've heard that when you do what you've always done, you'll likely get what you've always... Read More

Metaphysical Marketing

The foundation of success is in your mind. You do not need to struggle, seek and strive to build your business. You can use mental and spiritual... Read More

Design, Design, Design

You need only one card, but make it noticeable. Make sure it says the right thing.I mentioned before that you can make some cards using your computer.... Read More

Maximize Your Lead Generation Efforts by Recycling Your Leads

The basic lead generation process is pretty much the same from company to company. Inquiries come in?they're qualified?and then sent to the sales team. Some turn into... Read More

The Power of a Survey

How many times have you been asked to participate in a survey? If you are anything like me then the answer is probably hundreds. I am often... Read More

Who is Your Perfect Client

When I started my coaching practice I believed that I could coach anyone. My marketing wasn't targeted. Taking a few clients that were "wrong" for me cured... Read More

Postcard Marketing Done Right

Say it with a post card. A well designed, colorful, high impact postcard in the mail box of your prospect is your best ticket to a new... Read More

Mortgage Marketing and Advertising ? The Magical Ingredient

Do you offer superior service, consistently close loans on time and overall are more adept than your competitors, yet you're struggling to figure out the mortgage... Read More

2 Great, Free Techniques to Get Customers to Come to You, Not the Other Way Around

Here is a powerful tip on how to substantially increase the traffic to your business weather it's online or bricks & mortar. The best news is that... Read More

Private Practice Marketing: 3 More Secrets I Wish I Knew When I First Started Out

Secret #4 - Get very comfortable asking for paymentOne of the easiest ways to set this up is to have very clear explanations in your intake forms... Read More

The M-Word

It was a real eye-opener to hear the perceptions people have about what it means to market professional services, as well as the anxiety the "m-word" (marketing)... Read More

Tricks of the Trade: Design your Booth for Maximum Impact

The fight for your customer's attention at a tradeshow has never been so intense. Budget cutbacks in the travel sector means that buyers spend less time than... Read More

So You Want To Cut The Crap And Get Into The Money?

So, you´ve been around for a while, and maybe even made a few bucks, but you still need something... well here are four magic tips: 1.The purpose... Read More

Ten Deadly Proposal Preparation Pitfalls

Let's face it, the name "proposal" is a great misnomer, but since many businesspeople take it literally, they often paint themselves into a corner of chasing buyers,... Read More

Getting Into Marketing Momentum ... The Accelerated Way

GETTING INTO MARKETING MOMENTUM: The 5 Power Principles for Getting Your Business into High GearDo you know the #1 reason why most businesses fail and why you... Read More

A Look at Color Brochure Printing

Brochures have become vital in today's workplace, serving a wide variety of purposes. Some are quite complex and others are simpler; color brochure printing is one of... Read More

Sleigh Bells Ring...And Cash Registers, Too

During the holidays, folks everywhere shop many long hours to buy gifts for the important people in their lives. Spending at this time of year is one... Read More