Hazard Fixers

From first-aid kits to flashlights, safety items are useful to everyone at some point, so providing these products gives end-users much-needed security. "Generally speaking, people like to feel safe, and the gift of safety accomplishes that," Michael Gisser, executive vice president of Superex, Toronto, Canada, said. "And it also shows your clients—maybe more so than with another type of promotional product—that you really care, because it's not something that sits and gathers dust but it's something that's [for] personal use that will help keep you safe or make life easier by having a really, really useful product," Gisser added.

Here are four tips to consider when selling safety products.

1. Pitch to Virtually Any Client

While top safety markets include transportation, insurance, real estate, construction, manufacturing and health care fields, there are also a lot of other categories to consider. "That's the beauty of safety items. [They are] truly across all markets," Gisser said. "We're all human and we all want to feel safe."

Gisser advised that safety products work for any industry when used as premiums, thank-you gifts or awards. His company received an order through a distributor for portable power stations from a real estate agent who gave them to clients after they purchased a home. "It went a long way—not just a house but a safety solution to go with it, and I was told it was very successful and well-received," he said.

Safety items can also tie into fundraising efforts, Brenda Cameron, marketing manager for Justin Case, Atlanta, Ga., mentioned, citing a parent-teacher association's search for an item to sell for its annual spring fundraiser. The PTA previously raffled off tickets and sold chocolates, but one year it was raising money for a school playground. "The distributor presented the Justin Case first aid wallet, a practical way to tie in the 'summertime bumps and scrapes' with the new playground," she noted. Every student sold 12 kits at $15 each, and the school raised more than $5,000 for the playground.