Neel Patel  February 14, 2022

How To Successfully Sell Promotional Products In Covid-19 Pandemic?

The massive outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic has hampered the economy all over the world. Many nations have suffered a huge economic loss. Many companies have shut down their business. A lot are striving hard each day to survive in a competitive market.

In such grave times, the promotional products industry has shown a surge in demand. Businesses need to analyze their sales policy and make changes accordingly to encash the excellent opportunity. Moreover, they need to take quick and efficient actions to reap the prevailing situation’s maximum advantage. Let us understand how businesses can successfully sell promotional products in the Covid-19 pandemic:

1. Industry Data

Well-researched data always helps in outlining the business plan. It saves us from committing mistakes and take wise decisions to operate the business profitably. Undoubtedly, the demand for health care products and personal protective equipment (PPE) has surged after the breakout of the Covid-19.

As per a survey conducted in the Covid-19 Promotional Products Industry Recovery Research study, 69.8 percent of the businesses have shown growth in healthcare and personal protective equipment (PPE).

Further data of the same study has shown a bit of change in promotional products’ sales graph. Certainly, health care products and PPE tops the chart with a slight decline in the sale. In June and July, 67.5 percent of the researched businesses showed growth in sales. 17.3 percent reported no change in the sales graph in between April and May. The reason is obvious, as, after the pandemic outbreak, people have become conscious of maintaining healthy hygiene. PPE items such as masks, sanitizers, and others have shown an increase in the demand and kept the workers on the toe.

In the sales chart, apparel holds the third spot. Since the rise of the Covid-19, the sale of apparel has boosted in contrast to 2019. 18.6 percent of the promotional products industry has shown an increase in sales in the month between June and July compared to just 10.6 percent in April and May. The 8 percent surge is the biggest for any product item during that period.

Moreover, print products have also shown scale in sales. They ranked second in the top-performing list between June and July. The sale increased modestly from 17.8 percent to 18.7 percent during that period. The printing products are the perfect tool for marketing for relatively low expenses. A product such as a clear tote bag has contributed to the increase in demand. They are convenient to carry everywhere.

Additionally, the home, office, and drinkware items have shown marginal growth in demand too. The drinkware products increased to 10.7 percent from 7.5 percent from April-May to June-July. Office and home products increased to 12.4 percent from 8.5 percent at the same time. Therefore, the businesses engaged in producing products such as PPE, health care products, apparel, print products, home, office, and drinkware items have an excellent opportunity to scale profits in times of pandemics.

2. Move Your Attention to Sales

To gain the maximum advantage of the increase in demand, businesses need to shift their focus towards sales. After all, in the end, businesses need more and more sales to survive in the competitive market. The mantra to attain favorable results is to organize the distribution channel to concentrate on sales as far as possible.

To accomplish this, you need to have a well-built support base. It covers cooperation in departments such as back-office assistance, order financing, and sales and marketing. Once these departments are set up properly, you can efficiently scale your attention towards sales and tackle the challenges.

3. Order Financing

Order financing is a vital department in the promotional products business. It would help if you looked after it properly. If not managed efficiently, it can be a huge obstacle to the business’s proper functioning.

The vendors expect you to settle a credit application, issue a notable down payment, or even deliver an installment on order. Moreover, these services are not the same for bulk orders. These services can seize the time, which is worth making extra sales.

By assigning an efficient team to look after the order financing, channel your time towards increasing sales. Moreover, you don’t need to think much about the business’s cash inflow or utilizing personal capital to meet the orders. This allows your orders to keep stepping onwards and keep your vendors and customers pleased. It also strengthens relationships and increases revenue.

4. Back Office Assistance

As the sales increase, earnings increase; however, it increases many administrative jobs that can swiftly consume the precious time that could otherwise be used for increasing sales. It is an ordinary problem experienced by many distributors.

The solution to the challenge is back-office assistance. It allows you to concentrate on increasing sales. The team can handle any work, including lengthy tasks such as invoicing, order follow-up, rush order aid, accounts receivable support, and out-of-office maintenance.

5. Sales & Marketing Help

The order financing and back-office support can borrow you a lot of time to focus on scaling sales. Still, you may need additional support for marketing aid and supplementary sales.

By taking the help of professional sales and marketing teams, you can operate more efficiently. With their services, you can easily create favorable chances and function at the best capability.

Through this, you can compete methodically with the other businesses in the industry. With marketing propaganda to collateral, coaching, seminars, and sales growth, you can establish the distributorship to a higher level.

6. Virtual Assistant

Sometimes, managing a business with the existing employees may seem difficult. Moreover, you may not be comfortable adding employees to the organization. To tackle this, you have the option to hire a virtual assistant. They are perfect for filling the slot until you decide to include a new employee in the business.

They can help in doing valuable tasks such as order entry, product research, database management, order management, supplier communication, customer interactions, problem resolution, prospecting assistance, social media support, and much more. For short-term projects, they are economical and probably the best option.