April 2020 sales at the Achievement Gallery (asi/103570) are already up over April 2019.

Yes, sales of personal protective equipment (PPE) have helped produce the increase at the Albuquerque, NM-based promotional products distributorship.

However, President/Owner Melanie Burns told Counselor that she and her team at the 26-year-old firm have also continued to generate ample business through sales of promotional products.

“We’re getting promo orders to come in,” Burns told Counselor. “We were up in March, and we’re up again in April. We’ll probably do about $200,000 this month.”

Achievement Gallery is among the promo distributorships around the United States that say they’ve found ways to keep traditional promotional product sales moving amid the marketplace disruption wrought by shutdown measures tied to the COVID-19 pandemic.

On the whole, the outbreak and its related economic fallout have had a drastic impact on the ad specialty industry. Distributors’ collective quarterly sales declined year over year for the first time in more than a decade during the first quarter of 2020.

Sales in the #promotionalproducts space were strong through early March. Then #COVID19 struck, triggering the industry's first quarterly sales decline in a decade+ https://t.co/YWC2dPX06a @asicentral @johnsresnick @ASI_MBell @Bellantone @Tim_Andrews_ASI

— Chris Ruvo (@ChrisR_ASI) April 13, 2020

Still, certain distributors like Burns say there remains promo and print business out there to win. And, they’re going about getting it.

At Achievement Gallery, strategic proactive prospecting has helped spur continued promo sales. Burns and her team have consistently contacted clients through email and phone calls. Where applicable, they’ve conveyed that, even if clients don’t have an immediate need, they might want to consider ordering branded collateral now for future events or initiatives.

“We’ve stressed that rather than put things on hold until later, they can order now and have their products ready to go,” Burns told Counselor.

Clients that are buying include custom homebuilders, universities, state and city police forces, banks, credit unions and information technology companies. Products sold run the gamut, from stress relievers and phone holders to backpacks and apparel. “Some clients want their products now, but for the ones that don’t we provide free storage in our warehouse,” Burns told Counselor.

Elsewhere, California-based Proforma Progressive Marketing (asi/300094) engineered a 46% year-over-year sales rise in the first quarter of 2020. Owner/President Brandon Kennedy told Counselor that PPE sales accounted for about half of the increase, with promo/print driving the rest.

Certainly, a strong January and February were essential to propelling the rise, but March – the month when sales dropped off a cliff for many promo distributors – was also up. Adding new clients helped.

“So far, April is off from April 2019 but not a massive amount,” Kennedy told Counselor. “We have decent projects we’re working on, so I’m optimistic we’ll be where we need to be come the end of the month.”

Customers that are ordering promo and print include businesses in farming/agriculture and oil/gas, Kennedy said. Others include healthcare entities, manufacturers, schools, banks and technology firms. “We’ve even had some restaurants still buying or planning for the future,” Kennedy told Counselor.

He continued: “We’ve provided various types of products. A lot of what we’ve done is uniforms, gifts for employees working from home, carryout reusable bags, pens, tech items and printing materials. We’ve lost our fair share of event orders, for sure. However, there are other ways for these clients to engage with their clients and prospects, so direct mail or drop shipping have been very popular discussions to have.”

As is the case with Achievement Gallery, Kennedy says that persistent, tactful prospecting that focuses on ways to create value for clients has helped fuel business.

“My team has been amazing,” he told Counselor. “We decided collectively that none of us are going to sit around and wait for the phone to ring. Rather, we would engage our clients. … We never stop caring about those clients and trying to help. We strive to be uber-creative and authentically compassionate human beings. We reach out to clients regularly, asking them how they are doing, saying hello and seeing if we can help with anything at all. This isn’t a time to go hide; it’s a time to be present, helpful and to gain market share.”

Meanwhile, New York-based Innovative Promos (asi/590133) has kept promo product business moving, too. Owner Jacquie Baldante told Counselor she’s had particular success with residential housing developers, real estate agents and a property management company.

Jacquie Baldante, Innovative Promos

“Many real estate agents are ordering reusable grocery totes with their info on them,” said Baldante, noting that agents who belong to an office with more than 800 realtors have ordered as many as 500 bags each for themselves. “We’ve also worked with a developer to provide reusable grocery totes and stylus pens for a new condo development. … A developer also ordered cutting boards for another new development.”

Other distributors continuing to score promo and print sales include Greensboro, NC-based Print Plus Inc. (asi/301761).

Stephanie Ward, Print Plus

“We’re still doing substantial business with our medical markets, mostly print for in-house use,” Print Plus President Stephanie Ward told Counselor. “Recently, we’ve also seen an uptick in apparel orders; clients are still using wearables to reward good employees and are wanting to put their brand out there with shirts, caps and jackets.”

Ward continued: “In addition, we had a fun project that involved printing a giant window menu for one of our restaurant clients, and then supplying the ‘curb hops’ (her entire wait staff) with branded rain jackets so that they didn’t get wet taking the food orders out to the vehicles.”

Admittedly, sales are down at Louisville, KY-based Goodson Clothing & Supply Co. (asi/210364). Still, proprietor Landon Wade told Counselor that the distributorship is continuing to have success in certain areas. “Our online stores for essential businesses like banks, gas stations/convenience stores, accounting firms, law firms and others have been fairly resilient,” Wade said. “The other thing we’ve had success with has been neck gaiters, which are a versatile item some are using to cover faces. Clients in construction or ancillary construction are buying these.”

Back north, Utica, NY-based A&P Master Images (asi/102019) bucked the industry’s downward trend and executed a 20% sales increase in Q1 2020. A pivot to selling and even manufacturing certain personal protective equipment items was fundamental to driving the revenue rise.

Nonetheless, CEO/Co-Owner Howard Potter told Counselor that custom apparel and promo orders are close to normal levels. “Essential businesses needs are through the roof,” Potter said. “They are hiring more staff and giving more items away than normal.”

Other businesses, including nonprofits and breweries, have created online stores with branded merch to generate income as their usual revenue streams have dried, Potter noted. “New and existing customers who are still operational are also buying,” Potter told Counselor. “Some are buying more than normal to promote during this time since some of their competitors have stopped all of their advertising.”

Las Vegas-based Stoked On Printing (asi/242727) has taken to creating no-upfront-cost online merch stores to help raise funds for local businesses that have had to shut down. It’s been a win-win so far, said Kevin Oakley, customer success president there.

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“This is definitely helping by getting some type of cash still flowing into our business as well as keeping our presses running,” Oakley told Counselor. “Not only that, but it’s been a great thing to build relationships with businesses that might not have responded to working with us in the past. It’s a really cool thing to see them getting some type of revenue flowing into their business while they are having to shut down.”

The takeaway from all the promo activity is that, while times are difficult in the extreme, there is still business to be gained. “Just keep planting the seeds,” Kennedy said. “Things will eventually start to grow.”