Date Published: 2010-05-01
Profiting from Corporate Embroidery
Embroidery expert, Pat Williams shares practical tips and advice on how to succeed in the corporate identity apparel market… Corporate identity apparel is a lucrative niche for the commercial embroiderer. But to make the most of the opportunities in this area, you must use every one of your 'business senses'.
On your mark…
First things first, if you are supplying 'professional' clients, you need to prepare yourself to make sales in a professional manner. Start by choosing a professional name that will appeal to corporate buyers. Design, or have designed for your company, a professional looking logo that you can embroider on your shirts, briefcases and other items that you might take on a sales call to any corporate customer. Keep this design simple, legible and memorable; for example, too often, novices will add too much 'drop shadowing' – colour blends and outlines that don't really translate to clean embroidery. Next, establish a website for dealing with corporate customers. It's not that I expect a lot of new customers to actually pop up from the website, but you do need a website address on your card – it goes towards the professional image you are establishing for your business. You need to link your website to your suppliers' catalogues. I prefer to keep those links to just one or two of your favourite vendors: if you are talking to a customer on the telephone it becomes very easy to discuss various styles and options when your customer can review some of what you have to offer during the call, via the website. You can always make it clear that you have many other options to choose from. You should obtain a freephone number. They don't cost much and will be added to your regular phone line. Be sure to put this number on your business cards. Once again, it gives the impression that you are a serious business. Also, produce a company brochure. Keep it simple, and make sure your contact information and the benefits of doing business with your company are listed clearly and concisely. Product knowledge is essential. Know where the garments are in your catalogues: know what section the high-end garments are in and where the budget garments are located. Being able to quickly locate the garments your prospective customer is interested in is critical to giving you that professional appearance.Get set…
Networking - Join business organisations to meet other business people on a one-to-one level. Don't try too hard to close a sale at these meetings, but make sure you collect as many business cards as you can, so you can build a list of prospective clients to call Trade Shows - Book a stand at local trade shows as a way to meet prospective customers. Working on a committee that is setting up the trade show is a good idea, too, as you will have an insight into other businesses that are renting a stand at that show. All of these businesses are prospective clients that would benefit from your services in outfitting their trade show people in your embroidered garments. Cold calling - When you make cold calls up and down a business centre, it's unusual for you to get to actually see the person in charge of buying corporate apparel – the timing of your call might be an interruption to the person you need to see. It is better to be prepared to just leave an enticing brochure with the receptionist and request an appointment with the person in charge of ordering corporate identity apparel. Preparation - In sales, you are likely to get ten 'no's' to every 'yes'. So you really want to be prepared when you get that one 'yes' for an appointment to talk to the buyer, and that means really knowing your product. Understand the difference between pique, interlock and moisture wicking fabrics; know the advantages of combed cotton, mercerized and double mercerized shirts. If you come across terms in the descriptions of the garments that you aren't familiar with do the research to find out what they mean. Presentation - Do not, and I repeat, do not walk into an appointment with an arm load or suitcase full of garment samples. The one thought your customer will have is, "this is going to take too long". They will then proceed to see how fast they can get rid of you. Carrying a bunch of samples also makes you look overloaded and undoes all the good work that's gone on beforehand by making you appear unprofessional from the moment you walk into the room. You want to have a free hand to shake and be able to make eye contact with the customer rather than dragging around a lot of stuff. Listen - On that first appointment your goal is not to sell anything to the customer. You want to listen, listen and listen some more: find out what it is that the customer wants. Then, with some thoughtful questions, you can determine if they are interested in 100% cotton, or 50/50 blends; are they looking for quality executive level garments or are they interested in the largest number of shirts for the cheapest price? This first appointment is a fact-finding mission. Determine what their needs are and how you can fulfil those needs. Artwork - Take a good look at the available artwork and determine if this is indeed something that you can embroider on garments; is the design suitable for caps as well? Have the artwork emailed to you so that you can send it on to your digitizer. Quotes - After you have determined the above, let the customer know that you will be back in touch with a quote for the whole project. This gives you time to get your thoughts together, find out what digitizing will cost and estimate how many stitches you have so you can determine the embroidery costs. It is more professional to say you will have the quote to them in the next day or two than to sit there and try to determine the costs on the spot. Terms and conditions - This first meeting is also the easiest place to explain your company's financial terms. It is a casual meeting, in which you can explain that all orders require 50 percent down, or 100 percent up front, or 'due on receipt of garments' and so on. This is the time to say we accept Visa, MasterCard and or any other forms of payment you take. It's easier to do this now, when the customer wants something and you are saying you can supply it, but under these terms.Go!
Now that you have the order your work is half over. The next step is to really make those garments 'pop' for your customer. Well-embroidered shirts will bring the customer back to you time and time again. They will also help to win you referrals that will further increase your corporate sales. Producing the ultimate corporate shirts starts with the digitizing of the design. A bad embroiderer can screw up a good embroidery design by use of improper tensions, hooping methods, incorrect choices in backing and poor colour selection. However, even the best of embroiderers can't do much to correct an incorrectly digitized design. Once you have your properly digitized design, choose your colours carefully. In cases where the customer is letting you choose various colours to match the garments, look carefully at secondary colours in the shirt, such as a stripe around the collar. Putting the logo in the exact colour match to that stripe will raise the perceived value of that shirt considerably. When the customer insists that the colour of the logo is 'set in stone' as part of an established corporate colour scheme, be careful in the sales process to confirm that the embroidery colour is going to look good on all the shirts the customer has ordered. Speaking of threads – rayon thread has a higher perceived value than polyester thread. The sheen of the rayon thread is what the customer is expecting. If the garments are white – and highly likely to be bleached – you may want to consider polyester thread, but in all other circumstances I would use rayon thread. Careful considerations should also be given to the types of backing you will use. For logos that will be sewn on white or light coloured shirts you will want to use a poly-mesh or no-show backing. Larger logos with heavier stitching, like the common 2.5" circle, may need to have a mid-weight cut-away backing. But you never want to use multiple layers of a cut-away backing on a corporate shirt. If you feel that you need that much backing there is most likely a problem with the digitizing. The poly-mesh and tear-away is recommended as these products won't leave a 'badge' of backing showing through the garment. Smaller needles, such as a size 70/10 will produce higher quality lettering and details in logos on your quality corporate apparel. Be sure to use a topping on pique and other textured knits. Even though it takes time to use these embroidery aids, the quality of your final product will be improved as a result. Now that you have produced your first order for a corporate client, it's time to start 'upselling'. If the order was for shirts only then add a couple of hats that complement the shirts. Nine times out of ten you will receive a hat order straight away. If, on the other hand, the original order was for hats, send a shirt back with the order. Make it a good quality shirt, as more often than not the customer will place an order for the exact shirt that you gave them.Bagging the order
There are a couple more tips for completing this corporate order that will ensure your customer returns. In corporate sales, presentation is everything. To make yourself stand out from the rest of the competition 'bag the order'. When each shirt is individually bagged it is easier for the customer to store and to hand out to the final recipients. Adding a little printed label to close the bag raises the perceived value of the garment even higher. Print the labels with a simple message – for example, 'Embroidered especially for you' – along with your company name. This is a little touch that doesn't take any time to print and apply, but you will now get your name out to everyone that receives a shirt, rather than just to the person that ordered them. If your customer has allowed your catalogue to be distributed around their company and has let each employee pick multiple styles of shirts, it can be a real issue for them to tell which shirts should go to which employee. If you take the bagged shirts and bind them together for each individual employee, you will save your buyer hours of work. I use a roll of adding machine tape to do this. I wrap the tape several times around an individual's group of shirts and write the employee's name on the tape. It's an easy way to keep your buyer happy for very little cost. Some companies will keep a stock of the embroidered shirts on hand, and will usually leave them in the box you shipped. Purchasing agents may change from time to time, so to avoid losing the customer when your contact person changes consider having boxes printed with "To reorder call 0800…." to make it as easy as possible for the new contact to find you. Whether your embroidery company is large or small, implementing a few of these ideas should put you on track for success in embroidering corporate apparel.|
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