Let’s pick up where we left off. Last time I believe we were talking about being proud of what you’re representing. I believe that there is nothing to be proud of claiming to be the cheapest St Louis screen printing company around. Any one can give it away, but it takes a real salesman to actually sell it and create a perceived value in the customer’s eyes. In fact, if I was the least expensive custom t-shirt printing company out there, I’d be embarrassed. That would in my opinion convey that you’re not very proud of what you do so you have to refer to being the least expensive embroidery business around.
The lesson here is this. Do not sell yourself short. You’re in business to make a fair profit margin just like anyone else who’s an entrepreneur. If you can’t do that, then why are you even in business in the first place? I actually have turned a lot of business away simply because I felt it was not profitable. I can’t tell you how many times when a potential customer would reach out for an estimate and I would reply with what I felt was a fair price. One where I felt that I was competitive and would create a scenario where I was as excited to actually do the job as the buyer was having me do it for them. This is an excellent way to do business. I would then receive a reply saying one of my competitors was willing to do it for less. I would politely tell them that if they’re willing to do the work for that ridiculous price, then you should jump on it right away before they change their mind. Then I would tell them, there’s more to dealing with a Columbus digital t-shirt printing company then just getting the lowest price available. We are not the only company that is great at what we do. There are some others that I would recommend, but in my opinion, what we do far better than anybody else is simply communication. In my business, you’re lucky if anybody happens to even answer the phone when you reach out to call them. Most everything is done via text or email and the human element has been all but eliminated.
It seems that in this digital age, nobody actually wants to audibly talk to anybody. Normally if you do happen to reach out to them by phone, you’re probably going to get some type of voicemail that directs you to an email address and tells you to use that to convey whatever it is you’re requiring. It then takes a while for them to even get back with you, if they happen to reply at all. The reason I choose this approach of wanting to talk to people is that I grew up in a day before technology changed our lives. Most business was conducted either over a phone call or in person.
There’s an old saying that a candle burns brighter in a cave than it does anywhere else. By this example, I mean that when everybody else in my industry is doing things where they don’t actually have to talk to anybody, people are taking back when I actually receive their call and talk to him specifically regarding what their job entails and what needs to be done in order for us to make it a good fit for us to work together. That’s a huge advantage and his proven itself time and time again to be highly effective.