How Promotional Products Professionals Can Make More Money With Premiums, Incentives and Recognition

If you are not selling premiums, incentives and recognition programs, products and services—you are missing a HUGE opportunity. These markets represent a $45 billion market (more than double the size of the promotional products industry). Your existing customers are probably already buying premiums, incentives and recognition so why not claim your share?

Who buys these products? Marketing departments, sales organizations, human resource professions, safety and quality management, and even the C-suite executives. They are buying at retail, on Amazon, from incentive houses, through gift cards and through any channel they can find to get the right product to motivate, recognize, appreciate, commemorate and grab share of mind and share of action.

Why should you learn more about this marketplace and how to develop programs and strategies for your clients? In their masterpiece bestseller, The Experience Economy, Jim Gilmore and Joe Pines identified two big ideas that can help you move your business out of the commodity space and into the value space. You must differentiate yourself from your competition, and you must make yourself more relevant to the needs, wants and desires of your customers. When you become a promotional professional who can sell programs, strategies and results-based ideas instead of a product sales person, ironically will sell more product and sell it more profitably. When you become the expert in the incentive and recognition space, you've just differentiated yourself from your competition and made yourself more relevant to the needs of your customers.

Playing in this marketplace allows you to open new markets and provides a means for you to sell more and deepen relationships with existing clients. It also gives you a strong value proposition that allows you to target new high potential prospects. By selling on-going programs, you can also level out some of the peaks and valleys in your sales cycle.