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Friday
June 25, 2010 Sprint Your Way to SavingsFiled under: Guest Blog, Member Benefits Are your clients, family, friends and colleagues contacting you more frequently on your cell phone or by text message? Landlines, what are those? I recently spent a few days in New York visiting family (yes, I’m a native New Yorker transplanted to Pennsylvania). At dinner one night, I was amazed at the number of people either talking on their cell phone or feverishly texting – something I try to avoid. Seems those of us who are “hooked” never turn our phones off because we’re afraid we’ll miss something. With cell phones and wireless technology being a major mode of professional and personal communications, having the ability to cut monthly costs is a welcomed opportunity – an opportunity ASI members are taking advantage of through an exclusive discount program with Sprint. I’m thrilled to tell you we recently negotiated even better discounts* that enable members, their employees and families to save even more.
No worries if you’ve already enrolled – your account will automatically roll over to the new enhanced rates. You won’t have to lift a finger to save even more on your wireless services. If you haven’t enrolled yet, put your phone or blackberry down and click here to get started. Please don’t hesitate to email benefits@asicentral.com, with questions, comments or suggestions regarding ASI’s Member Benefit programs. – Cathy Cathy Martino is ASI’s affiliate relations manager. *Discount does not apply to Simply Everything Plans and Mobile Broadband plans.
Friday
June 11, 2010 We’ve Got Your NumberFiled under: Guest Blog, Member Benefits, News About ASI, Using Ad Specialties What would you say if someone offered you a complete customer service center – for free? That’s exactly what ASI is now offering distributors who buy our 2011 Spectrum catalog. In December, the first 100,000 Spectrums will come complete with an 800 number on each page that leads to an ASI call center. When end-buyers need info on any of over 500 products, a representative will happily provide it. Better yet – the ASI representative will then contact the distributor to let them know they have a hot lead and an interested client. There’s no additional cost. The catalog just needs to be preordered before August 4. For more information, click here to read our press release. With this latest program, distributors can better market themselves as a sophisticated, full-service operation – no matter their company size. And suppliers now have a way to track the performance of their advertising in the catalog. Spectrum is already one of the most recognized catalogs in the industry, and the 2011 edition will still feature all of the qualities that make it so successful: • “Customer Favorites” section, highlighting the most popular products Spectrum, which prints in November with a total circulation of 625,000, is just one of nine customized catalogs offered by ASI as sales-generating tools for suppliers to advertise a wide variety of products and for distributors to sell, market and promote their brand. Please contact me at dbrown@asicentral.com or at 800-546-1350 if you’re interested in learning more about the program. Since we’re printing a limited number, this will be on a first-come, first-served basis, so I urge to be the first to take advantage of this special program today. – Dan Dan Brown is ASI’s executive director of distributor services.
Friday
June 4, 2010 Save Thousands in Credit Card Processing FeesFiled under: Guest Blog, Industry Initiatives, Member Benefits Does your jaw drop to the floor each time you open your credit card statement? One comment I often hear from members is they’re getting “killed” with additional merchant account fees. You may not know, but there are two types of merchant account rate/fee structures:
Ours is a B2B industry and most cards used are key-in business/commercial cards. With most merchant accounts being the “tiered” type, the majority of transactions fall to the higher non-qualified (NQ) rate, which can be as high as 4% or more, depending on the processor/provider. Yikes! An ICP account eliminates all of those additional mid and non-qualified fees. However, ICP pricing is traditionally limited to large volume merchant accounts ($120,000-$250,000 in annual processing volume). Now, this is no longer the case, thanks to a new and exclusive ASI member program. To help members save even more, ASI affiliate Access Group has agreed to offer all ASI members interchange plus pricing, regardless of their processing volume. You can even get a free, no obligation savings comparison to see how much you will save by switching to the ASI member program. The comment I hear the most from members who have switched to Access Group is “Wow, I’m saving at least 30% on processing costs each month.” Some bigger member companies who switched are now saving as much as $40,000 annually. Be sure to take a few minutes to look into this great ASI member benefit, get your savings comparison and let me know what you think. Click here to request your free, no-obligation savings comparison to see how much you can save with the ASI member merchant account processing program. In addition to discounts on merchant account processing, ASI members save on shipping, equipment lease lines of credit, wireless services with Sprint™, graphic and design services, and much more. Visit http://www.spotasisavings.com/ (asicentral username and password required) to learn more about how your ASI membership can save you thousands each year. Please don’t hesitate to email benefits@asicentral.com with questions, comments or suggestions regarding ASI’s Member Benefit programs. — Cathy Cathy Martino is ASI’s affiliate relations manager.
Tuesday
May 18, 2010 ASI Boards Tackle Industry ChallengesFiled under: Guest Blog, Industry Initiatives, Members The ASI Advisory Board held its second official meeting at the ASI Show New York, where we tackled two very important topics – expanding the industry and selling direct. While acknowledging there’s always room for industry growth, we also addressed the need for greater diversity. As our recent Women’s Summit showed, women are now a significant industry force. But on the whole, the industry doesn’t properly reflect America’s diversity. We all agreed more needs to be done to make the industry more inclusive. ASI’s CEO, Tim Andrews, led a discussion on the many ways ASI attracts new suppliers and distributors to the industry. Afterward, one board member said to me, “If you told me we would have unanimous support for bringing in more distributors, I would have told you that you were crazy.” But in fact, we unanimously support the idea because the board is open to all the challenges the industry faces – including broadening membership scope and reach. We also debated a hot topic some might say has been done to death: selling direct. The prickliest questions included:
We intentionally avoided discussing pricing policies or specific companies, and in coming months we’ll formally review all recommendations and implement action plans. In the end, the board made numerous recommendations to ASI, including doing a better job advising members on ways to be even more active in order to contribute to the industry’s overall success. On June 4, we’ll open nominations for the 2011-2013 ASI advisory boards, and I urge you to nominate yourself or anyone else who could help advance the promotional products industry. Voting will take place in September and the new board members will be announced at the annual ASI Power Summit this November. The four ASI advisory boards that help guide ASI and the industry are:
All four boards are very active, and we have already begun acting on some recommendations. At the ASI Show Chicago, July 13-15, we hope to share an exciting new benefit for ASI members that will directly address another pressing industry issue, so please stay tuned. In the meantime, we’d love your feedback. Please comment on this blog post. We want to hear your take on the issues related to selling direct or other issues you think the ASI advisory boards should be tackling. (One important note: Please refrain from naming any names or we will be required to remove your post, which we hate to do.) – Dale Dale Denham is ASI’s senior vice president. Reach him at dale.denham@asicentral.com.
Monday
March 29, 2010 Sign Up Now for the ASI Women’s SummitFiled under: ASI Shows, Guest Blog, News About ASI We’ve been busy, with our recent virtual trade show and the launch of the new ESP Web and ESP Orders – hopefully you were “at” the show. I want to let you know we’ve got more up our sleeves, including a new event in the works – the ASI Women’s Summit. It’s happening at the Millennium Broadway Hotel in New York City, on Tuesday, May 4, during the ASI Show New York. This exclusive action-packed afternoon will provide an environment for women to network and share ideas with women leaders, peers and executives in the advertising specialty industry. We’ll have a networking reception with beverages and hors d’oeuvres, and a luncheon keynote by Barbara Corcoran. Barbara parlayed a $1,000 loan into a $5 billion real estate business, and she now runs one of the most successful real estate firms in New York City. The lunch will be followed by coffee and dessert with promotional products industry expert, Rosalie Marcus, The Promo Biz CoachTM. Rosalie will lead an interactive discussion about how women in our industry can leverage their strengths to build their businesses. There’s much more, and you’re sure to leave this Summit with new ideas you can immediately apply at your company in the second half of the year. Register by this Wednesday, March 31, and the cost of the event is only $149; after that it’s $249. To register and to learn more, click here. I look forward to seeing you in New York! -Dana Dana Reaume is education coordinator for ASI – reach her at dreaume@asicentral.com.
Monday
March 8, 2010 Take the State of the Industry Survey TodayFiled under: Guest Blog, Research
So, why is it important? Because of the in-depth reports each year on key sales, marketing and operational metrics that industry practitioners can then use to build their businesses. Nowhere else do you get the scope of this detailed information about our industry. And, it’s free to ASI members. What do you have to do? All we ask is that you take 10 minutes to complete the survey. And you could win some great prizes just for participating. There are distributor winners chosen at random for cash prizes totaling $1,500, and suppliers can win one of three full-page ads in an ASI publication of their choice. If you’re a distributor, take the survey here. If you’re a supplier, take the survey here. If you’d rather take a paper version of the study, email me at lbasinait@asicentral.com and I’ll send you the PDF you can mail back to us. But hurry, the deadline is Friday, March 19. Thank you in advance for your participation in this important research. For additional research from ASI, click here. — Larry Larry Basinait is ASI‘s executive director of research services.
Tuesday
February 23, 2010 Extend the Olive Branch by Extending Credit TermsFiled under: Guest Blog We all know the recession has wreaked havoc on the industry and made daily business a struggle, but it’s also affected the way suppliers and distributors relate to one another. Any time a company’s bottom line is affected, it can cause unwelcome practices like dried up credit terms. Distributors left high and dry must either pony-up payment beforehand or put down a credit card. Sure it makes sense to ask a distributor with poor credit or new to the industry to pay up-front, but what about all those distributors with an excellent credit score? Suppliers should ask themselves whether or not they can really not afford to help a distributor sell. Recently, ASI surveyed a sample of distributors to see how industry credit and credit terms were affecting their business. A majority of respondents were owners or primary contacts at their company, and 74% said getting good credit terms is a vital part of staying viable and competitive in the marketplace. Distributors spoke out loud and clear. “Even with a very good credit rating, it is almost impossible to get terms for more than $10,000 – and usually lower amounts with suppliers with whom you haven’t done business with recently,” said one. “You’re penalized for not doing consistent business with them. It’s very tough to work without decent credit terms.” Remember, distributors are our industry’s salespeople and suppliers provide the industry’s products. At a time when we rely on each another more than ever to grow, I’d ask suppliers to look long and hard at who they turn down when choosing not to extend terms. It may make more sense to preserve fragile relationships, by offering a proverbial olive branch or line of credit to those who are worthy. It’s easier to maintain a good relationship than it is to go out and make a new one. Suppliers can click here to learn more about checking distributor credit scores through CreditConnect. If you don’t use CreditConnect, try using another industry service so you can find out what a distributor’s credit score is. Distributors can learn more about their industry credit score by sending a message to customerservice@asicentral.com. – Gene Gene Rahill is sales director of ASICreditConnect – reach him here. |
Each year, ASI conducts the most comprehensive and important research about our industry, the Counselor State of the Industry.