Impressions - April 2010 - (Page 58)

EMBROIDERY >> HANDS ON DIGITAL DECORATING >> HANDS ON EMBROIDERY HANDS ON DIGITAL DECORATING HANDS ON SCREEN PRINTING HANDS ON TECH TIPS HANDS ON Are You Leaving Money >> on the Table? TECH TIPS HANDS ON Boost your company’s bottom line by adding sublimation services. SCREEN PRINTING >> HANDS ON If your shop is currently working with a local sports team in embellishing their uniforms, consider adding sublimation capabilities to garner additional business for team awards, events, and coaches’ gifts. Photo courtesy of Sawgrass Technologies, Charleston, S.C. w hich is easier: adding a new customer or servicing an existing one? The answer is quite obvious — servicing an existing one. Like it or not, it takes a lot of time, energy and effort to bring in new customers, yet most of us are always looking to continually build our roster rather than take full advantage of the customers we currently have. Why is that? In most cases, it’s a simple fact that we have maxed out on what we are offering to our current customer base, so therefore it becomes an absolute necessity to continuously look for new clients in order to expand our business and increase our proﬁts. But wouldn’t it be nice if every existing customer suddenly decided to spend twice as much money with your company? Think of how much more efﬁcient it would be to Impressions >> April/May 2010 spend your time ﬁlling orders rather than knocking on doors begging for new business. In all likelihood there is a good chance that your current customers have plenty of needs that you simply aren’t meeting with your shop’s current decoration capabilities. The truth of the matter is that most shops only offer one or two forms of decoration, whereas the average customer has much greater needs. The bottom line is that you might just be leaving money on the table. ASSESS CLIENTS’ NEEDS Let’s say that you are an embroiderer and you do a lot of work for local schools. If so, there is a good chance that you produce caps, plackets, sweats and maybe a handful of other garment items with small embroidered logos. That may seem like enough potential work, but what else are your customers buying from other sources? Schools all have a need for plaques, awards, identity products, spirit items, athletic uniforms and a bunch of other stuff. But chances are if you are just an embroiderer, screen printer or even both, you aren’t getting that business because you don’t have the capabilities to produce it. Now you might be thinking that that’s OK, because you are quite happy with the portion of business that you are getting. But there is another danger to consider here. If your customer goes looking elsewhere for, let’s say promotional items, and ﬁnds a source that can do those things plus whatever it is that you do offer, he may never come back. Now that is scary! impressionsmag.com 58 http://www.impressionsmag.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Impressions - April 2010

Impressions - April 2010
Contents
First Impressions
FYI
Product Gallery
Winning Wearables
Head Turners
Star Students
From the Outside Looking In
Technique
Graphics and Design
For Screen Printers Only
Are You Leaving Money on the Table?
Online Directory
Business to Business
Classifieds
Ad Index

Impressions - April 2010