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Whenever I see positive trends in the promotional products industry, I take note. Here are five industry trends that can help you, the promotional products sales professional, sell more and close orders faster!  

Free Ground Shipping

I don’t know about you, but I’m an Amazon Prime member and love the free ground shipping service my membership provides. It encourages me to buy more and to make decisions faster. With that in mind, I was excited to see one of my favorite suppliers, iClick (http://www.iclick.com), offering FREE ground shipping on all its products all year! Free shipping helped me bring in a large order with a hesitant buyer. The free ground shipping sealed the deal. Is this the wave of the future? I know there are other suppliers trying this. And I know this service lends itself to smaller products like pens and USB’s, but with more clients asking for free shipping, perhaps more suppliers will build this into their pricing model.

Free Vector Art

Vector art is the preferred art for reproducing most logos on promo products. However, not every client can provide vector art. GMG pen (http://www.ultrapens.com), another one of my favorite suppliers, is the only supplier I know of that will convert whatever art you send to into vector art free of charge! It’s a great added value and will save you the time and effort of having to pay someone to convert the art.

Made in the U.S.A

Lately, more of my clients have been concerned about safety issues and more are requesting Made in the U.S.A. items. Many of our top suppliers have links and symbols for U.S.-made products on their home page. This makes it especially easy to find products, and helps avoid unnecessary phone calls to suppliers. Another favorite supplier, NEXT (http://www.nextpromotions.com), helped me find the perfect product for a client who insisted on Made in the U.S.A.!

Speaking of Made in the USA. Whenever I need vector art services or graphic design I use http://www.theblusky.com David , the owner is USA based, talented, fast and comes from our industry. You can count on him to get the job done.

Free Virtual Mock-ups

Speaking of free art services, all my favorite suppliers are providing unlimited free virtual mock-ups. If you’re not taking advantage of this service with your favorite suppliers you’re missing the boat! Every time you meet a new prospect, ask him/her for a copy of their logo and then have virtual mock ups made with their logo. When a client sees their logo on an item you have much better chance of getting the sale. I recently received this note from a distributor who provided a free virtual and brought in an order the next day! Since then she’s received a repeat order for the same item!

“Thanks for the tip on the free virtual mock ups. Since I am accomplished in Illustrator, I usually do them myself but I had a customer who was looking at the Pop Sockets so I thought I would send iClick( http://www.iClick.com) the logo. They did a great job on the virtual and it landed an order this morning! Loved the content on your webinar. Looking forward to more in the future.”

Free Industry Sales Training

I’ve been an educator and featured presenter providing free sales training at industry trade shows for PPAI and ASI for almost 20 years. I’ve noticed that top sellers are always the ones that take advantage of the free sales training. It helps them stay current and learn the latest selling techniques. Industry trade shows aren’t the only place you can get free education. PromoCorner and Identity Marketing have done a great job of bringing a diverse group of thought leaders in the industry together to share their knowledge. Additionally, there are a plethora of free webinars available from PPAI and industry business coaches.

If you missed my latest FREE webinar on Doubling Your Sales in the # 1 Rich Niche, Education, you can access it here (https://promobizcoach.com/top-suppliers)!

Are you using any of these trends to bring in orders? Please comment below.