Sales

The FUNdamentals of Business Success Book

Designing Your Customer Experience: Stop Selling Things—Start Selling an Experience

Business Tip

Your customer isn’t just buying a product or a service. They’re buying how it feels to work with you. They’re buying momentum, clarity, and connection. The thing you sell is just the tool that delivers that feeling.

When you start to see it that way, everything changes. You stop focusing only on what you make and start designing how your customers experience it. From the first message to the final thank-you. And a well thought out and executed experience drives loyalty, repeat business and space for them to tell their friends about you.

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Balancing Growth and Authenticity in the Age of AI

AI

Growth has never been easier. With AI tools, automation platforms, and endless apps promising to double your output overnight, small businesses have more opportunities than ever to scale. But here’s the catch: while technology makes it simple to do more, it also makes it harder to stand out.

Your customers aren’t just looking for efficiency. They’re looking for a connection. In a world where anyone can generate 10,000 social posts with the click of a button, what people really crave is authenticity. And the businesses that balance growth with being real are the ones that win.

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Targeted Niche Markets and Sublimation

Targeted Niche Markets and Sublimation

Marketing

Finding your niche is essential to all businesses regardless of the industry, but it is especially true for decorators. Whether you are a laser engraver, promotional products reseller or sublimator, owning your niche is extremely important to your success. The wall of content and noise that is prevalent in today’s social media driven society makes … Read more

Developing a Marketing Funnel

Developing a Marketing Funnel

Marketing

Developing a Marketing Funnel The reason I explore a lot of these topics is because as I was learning about them and hearing them being talked about, it all sounded like a foreign language to me. I thought to myself, I work with a small business and these things are for the big corporate companies … Read more

Want More Profit? Understand How to Use Digital Decorating to Improve Perceived Value

Want More Profit? Understand How to Use Digital Decorating to Improve Perceived Value

Direct to Garment

Understand How to Use Digital Decorating to Improve Perceived Value I have been a proponent of digital decorating since being involved with some of the early commercially viable direct to garment printers in 2004. Then I fell in love with sublimation, vinyl, and bling as embellishment methods starting in 2010. That is not to say … Read more

Attracting the Right Customer For Success

Attracting the Right Customer For Success

Customer Service

Success begins with being customer-centric and attracting the right customers. When we attract the right customers we not only love doing business with them because we have common values with them, but we also open ourselves up to a lot more business as those customers will be your best salespeople. Companies should be as customer-centric … Read more

Becoming your Customers Singular Supplier; Not a Commodity

Becoming your Customers Singular Supplier; Not a Commodity

Management

Let’s kick this off with some strategies for making yourself a singular supplier to your customers and keep yourself out of the dreaded commodity world. I know we have all been told “I can get this from your competitor cheaper” and if your only reply is to lower your price, you have fallen into the commodity bucket.

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How to Work with a Challenging Customer

How to Work with a Challenging Customer

Customer Service

Long-term clients can be a boon to apparel decorators, and help bring in steady business for shop owners of all sizes. In some instances, those frequent contract jobs even help a business expand into a bigger, busier production facility. But how do you accommodate a long-time customer who might be taking an excessive amount of time to approve a job, or is just generally being indecisive? If artwork is taking a while to be approved, or a price quote still hasn’t been okayed, it’s undoubtedly going to hold you up. This is a tricky situation since you obviously don’t want to hurt the client relationship, but also need to make sure the work is worth yours, and your employees’ time.

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A Quick and EASY Way to Increase Your Sales

A Quick and EASY Way to Increase Your Sales

Customer Service

This is as quick and easy as you can find, but yet most of us neglect this unknowingly. The crazy part is that it is super easy, and the right thing to do. So here it goes (have I stalled long enough now?) … Build a better relationship with your CURRENT customers.

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Print on Demand to Make More Profit

Print on Demand to Make More Profit

Direct to Garment

Over the years, one of the markets that have been most intriguing was the print on demand market. This market is exciting because it overcomes a natural barrier of purchase by changing the perceived value of a product and can take the cost factor nearly out of the equation. This market can be highly profitable, so here are some tips, tricks, and examples for you.

What is the printing on demand market? The print on demand market is when you travel to an event or specific location to be with potential customers and decorate apparel or other items on the spot. This can be as straightforward as having pre-done transfers so you can heat press the customers chosen transfer onto their chosen shirt size and color. It can also be as intricate as having online design tools and templates with the ability to do onsite photography to then digitally create items like photo panels, cell phone cases and again even apparel. Typically, this market is serviced by a heat press and transfers and/or digital decoration, noting occasionally, screen print garments are done.

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