Do you know when you’ve lost a customer? How many have you let slip away this year? If you’re like most of us in this business, you’ll only find out indirectly. It may be when you call to inquire why they haven’t ordered recently.  Or worse, you may see them around town wearing their shirt that you didn’t produce.  It doesn’t have to be that way.

Let’s face it, we’re all way too busy with our own day-to-day work schedules to really pay attention to our customers. It’s more common than not to leave it up to them to call us when they’re ready to buy. This is very inefficient and dangerous to our business health.

By the time we’re aware they haven’t ordered recently it’s usually about twice as long as it should have been, maybe longer. This is a really important point. What happens is, we’re not at the right place at the right time when the customer IS ready to order. If by unlucky chance, someone else walks in selling decorated apparel, well, we miss out on the sale opportunity. Worse yet, we may have permanently lost the customer. At the very least it’ll be some time before they’re ready to order again.

The solution to all this is some simple automation. There are dozens of contact management software packages starting as low as $29.00 that will allow you to preschedule a follow-up with your client.If you’re on a PC you can use Outlook. On a MAC Entourage or iCal.

Make it a habit of entering some follow-up dates on the calendar as soon as the client places an order. The first should be about 3-4 days after you deliver the job. You want to make sure everything is good and  they’re totally happy. Then another one about 8 weeks later to see how they’re doing on inventory or if they have any other needs. You can also use this second contact to ask for a referral if they don’t need anything from you.  Ask them when you should follow-up if they’re not ready to order and  schedule the third date.

Everyday when you come in, the first thing you should do is check your calendar to see who you’ll be calling today. This approach accomplishes a couple of things. First, it keeps you in the mind of your customer so they’re less likely to stray. Secondly, it reinforces your interest and concern for them and this helps to build loyalty too. Third, you can dramatically increase the likelihood of getting multiple orders over the course of the year. You’re helping them to remember it’s time to reorder.

One of the common problems I hear all the time from t shirt decorators is “my customers don’t take us seriously.” In general, the public sees apparel decorators as “just another t shirt guy.” We must be recognized as the premiere  authority in our market or niche. Our credentials must be unchallenged. Our technical ability recognized  by the marketplace. Our reputation must go beyond our local market/niche to encompass everything about how our product is used.  But how do we accomplish this?

We want people to recognize the opportunity to access  our skill set locally and to feel welcome in doing so. Part of accomplishing this involves how we address  risk or guarantee.  I know of very few printers who express a policy on guarantees. Yet, when you talk to any PTA mom in charge of buying shirts for the school, it’s the number one concern.

They want to make sure they are making the right decision ingoing with you and they don’t want to be embarassed by making a mistake. We want our clients to know they’re welcome and that the business they do with us will be a positive “experience” they can talk about and pass on to others.

Jay Abraham calls this “Preeminence.” We want to encompass everything about what we do and how we do it. We’re here to exceed the expectations of how our clients use our products and delight them with the final outcome.

One of the  goals of Preeminence is to create a story that goes along with the experience. The easier we can make it to tell our story, the more word-of-mouth referrals we receive. This is important because a referral comes to us with a different expectation and a different mindset than someone off the street who doesn’t know us or what we do. Those individuals require much more time and effort for us to prove we’re who we say we are and that we’ll do what we say we’ll do.

A second major goal of Preeminence is the role of authority. If you’re truly an expert, your aim is to completely educate and position yourself as the sole provider of the goods and services your customer is looking for. As such, you have an OBLIGATION to completely inform and educate your customer.  You want to become the trusted advisor. In the process, you’ll automatically establish yourself as different from all the  price cutting, low balling, fly-by-night competitors who’re continually starting up and closing down.

The role of education is all about just one thing, education. This isn’t some hidden sales pitch. The commercial focus is minimal to nonexistant. Our entire goal is simple to build confidence in our position as an expert in the market at what we do.

If you want clients that refer you, you’ve got to make sure you do everything humanly possible to create an experience worth referring others to. If your customers aren’t  impressed enough with your service to where they’d want to use you again, then they certainly aren’t going to refer you to other people. What most businesses miss is the “Wow Factor.” A business transaction that exceeds what they were expecting.

If you don’t know how to create this Wow Factor, don’t be concerned. You can start small and build on it.  I recently read an interesting piece by Dan Sullivan, founder of The Strategic Coach Inc. in Toronto, Ontario Canada.  Dan is reknowned for his business intellect and knowledge. He’s identified four habits he calls the “Referability Habits.” If you want your  business to generate referrals, you need to start by  following  these four simple habits:

1) Do what you say you’re going to do.

2) Finish what you start.

3) Deliver on time.

4) Say ‘please’ and ‘thank you.’

Regardless of how good your product or service is,  how great your employees are, how honest you are,  how highly skilled and trained you are — if you break just one of these referability habits you ‘ll have dropped the ball. When you break one, you’re saying to your clients, employees, and to everyone you associate with that you don’t respect them and you’re undependable. If your customers and clients are annoyed with you, there’s no way they’ll ever refer you to others.

I don’t know about you but the summer months have slowed in recent years.  The end of July is soon upon us then the Dog Days of August. It used to be the summer was our busiest time of the year. No longer. It’s not just the economy either. The middle of the summer is when everyone is either on vacation, thinking about vacation, or can’t get an answer because their superior is on vacation. It’s maddening.

The decision making process is slow enough as it is. But here are a few things you can do to speed up the process to get a decision made.

Add a sense of urgency/scarcity to the equation. There are lots of ways to do this. The trick is to make sure the urgency applies to your client and not you. In other words, your client doesn’t care that you have open press time and need the business now. He does care that this deadline in August 3 and he might not get his stuff because you have another big order already booked for the last week of July.

Find out what’s important to them. Is there an event involved? Is there any other time constraint? What kind of an incentive can you provide to do the work sooner? Get creative. If you are slow in the art department, give them a credit toward upgrading their art if they commit now. Think of the incentive as business development for the future.

Make sure you have all your ducks in a row. This means you understand all the steps necessary to getting the job done. If you’re doing corporate work, does a Purchase Order have to come from the Purchasing department? How long does that take? When you know all the steps, you  can ofen  shorten or eliminate some of them. This often means doing things in parallel instead of sequentially (one right after the other.)
Some of our slow times are our own fault for not doing our homework. When you consider the business/sales development cycle, there are things we can do to speed it up. Everyday you do shorten means more dollars in your pocket.

Here’s how you can help in your community.

By Mark Coudray.

We’re overwhelmed by the devastation and tragedy in Haiti.  Like all Americans, our natural reaction is “How can we Help?” Millions are being raised by text campaigns, and that’s a great start. But it’s going to take so much more.

This is your chance to mobilize in your local community to multiply that effort. Hundreds and hundreds of t shirt printers did exactly this, spontaneously after 9/11. Millions of dollars were raised at the local level as printers contacted their local customers, businesses, churches, nonprofits, and media to rally together.

The Haiti Relief T Shirt Project was the Vision of Jeff Cottrell co-owner of Screen Works Inc ,Dayton, Ohio. He patterned this Project after their highly successful 9/11 program.  Jeff’s company raised over $1,000,000 in just three weeks for the American Red Cross. They earned the recognition of President George W. Bush, New York City Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, the US Congress, Bob Taft, Governor of Ohio, and the President of the American Red Cross.  Out of that experience Jeff founded United We Stand For America.org that takes their highly successful regional program and multiplies it across America.

Hundreds and hundreds of printers and local organizations are gathering together right now to conduct a coordinated fund raising campaign in their local communities. Jeff and UnitedWeStandForAmerica.org. have partnered with Mark Coudray and TShirtSuccess.com bring this great program to the decorated apparel industry.

This effort comes at a critical time for America.  All across this country people are out of work. Jobs are gone and none of us know when or if things will return to normal. The Haiti Shirt Project helps Americans, in their own community while they generously give to aid the citizens of Haiti.

The Project combines local t shirt production with the combined local efforts of business, churches, nonprofits, and media. We’re coordinating printers, groups, and organizations right now. The pieces are in place but we need your help. Printers are going to be paid $1.00 per side for a 1-color print on shirts pre-printed with the full-color Haiti Relief Image (shown). Printers can refer organizations to sell in their communities and they’re going to get a lot of positive PR and national recognition as well as local.

Whether you’re a local organization or a printer looking to work with groups and organizations in your community, you need to find out more about this Project at TShirtSuccess.com. This story is growing nationally and globally by the day. In fact this story was picked up by MSNBC on Monday, January 25 and much more national exposure will be coming. To see the public website for this go to HaitiShirtProject.com.

You many not be ready to join us yet. We won’t be able to work with everyone, we know that already. But we want you to watch us, give us your ideas, suggestions, anything that will make this better.

This is bigger than any of us and we want you included. If you want to become part of this historic effort, enter your email in the area that applies to you and we’ll provide you with details, our credentials, and our partners on the other side.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read about The Project, we look forward to working with you.

Here is an interview I did with Scott Fresener for T-Biz TV.

Follow this link to a featured news article on this project.

We’ve been printers for over 36 years and during that time I’ve seen a lot of quotes come and go. We’ve always had a hard time with very low printing prices on contract orders. It does seem to fluctuate a bit, but right now I think it’s at an all time low.

Last week we bid on a contract job. 4000 5.6 oz shirts, four color front, four color back. Quick turnaround (two days.) This was through a reliable broker we’ve done tons of business with in the past, so he is going to put margin in the deal as well.

I called him today for an update on the job. He tells me he didn’t get it and he doesn’t know who did. But he did know what the winning price was.  So here we go. 4000 is not exactly a huge order, but it is good size nevertheless. The winning price is. . . . $1.98 landed!  As far as we can tell, the shirt the end user speced was going to cost about $1.09.  My price was competitive by historical standards, but nothing close to this. That $1.98 was for everything. I can only hope there was no broker involved.

So what’s it like where you live? Any comparable stories? I can only imagine this is desperation pricing driven by trying to keep the wolves away from the doors.

Well, I said I was done with this, but I guess never say never. I’m sitting in the departure lounge in LAX waiting to board a 19 hr flight to Dubai, eventually ending up in Tirupur, India. Over 27 hours in a plane seat! I said I was never going to go to India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, or Sri Lanka. Guess what, these are the places where big t shirt volume is happening.

I’m doing a consulting gig with a vertical apparel company that’s printing 50,000 shirts a day.  They’ve been after me for two years to come, and I’ve just been too busy. Things are slow enough now where I can take off for 10 days or so.

I’m supposed to have a good internet connection there and I’m looking forward to uploading  pics and videos over the next week or so.

Usually when I’ve gone to far away places like this I’ve flown on some pretty interesting (read scary) airlines.  This time it will be different. I’m flying Emirates Air with the youngest fleet of planes in the world. They only fly Boeing 777s and the double decker Airbus 380. I’m n the 777LR  with laptop power, USB, and Ethernet in EVERY passenger seat – Woo Hoo… I might even be able to blog while I’m over the Sahara.