It’s been a challenging year, and because of that, without the help of order financing you may not have felt comfortable taking on larger promotional product orders — particularly when credit is involved, or you’re tight on cash. Between clients cancelling orders to cut costs at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and most trade shows being cancelled for the rest of the year, the promotional products industry has taken a significant hit in 2020.
A June study by NAPCO Media showed that business report activity in the promotional products industry was falling more than it was rising, and the same applied to forward-looking measures of business activity. As a professional in the promotional products industry, what are you doing to counteract this?
Understandably, you’ll want to focus on more sales, in order to support your business in this challenging time. However, not having the resources available to place large orders for clients may be holding you back. These concerns can limit you on larger transactions that can provide significant income to your business from new and existing customers.
One thing you can do to alleviate these stressors is partner with a company that provides order financing, so you can focus on selling and protect your business from assuming financial risk. But first, let’s dig into a few ways that order financing can support your growth strategy.
How Order Financing Helps Your Business
What matters most now is being able to focus all of your time, energy, and effort on direct income-producing activities, which order financing can allow you to do. Our previous blog on order financing further details its benefits, but we’ll summarize the key points below.
Fulfill Large Orders with Confidence
Imagine you’re talking to a client who’s interested in placing a large promotional products order. That’s great news, right? The only problem is that the supplier for these products requires a downpayment, during a time when both you and your client are probably running low on resources. If your customer doesn’t want to make a prepayment, and you don’t have the money to pay the vendor upfront, you risk losing out on the sale.
That’s where order financing comes in. An external third-party can provide these necessary resources for you, your customer, and the vendor. Order financing ensures that you’re able to fill any and all orders you can sell. You won’t have to worry about what you can afford to fulfill at that time — just focus on what your clients are willing to buy, and on providing exceptional service and support to them.
Keep Your Cash Flowing
Cash flow is always important to the health of your business, but especially in the midst of tumultuous times like these. Order financing provides a significant competitive advantage to your business because you don’t have to have all your cash tied up in down payments for large orders. Preserving these valuable resources means that you can apply them in other ways to improve, strengthen, and accelerate growth for your business, allowing you to hire additional sales associates, invest in marketing and outreach, and more.
Stop Drowning in Paperwork
Focus your time on what truly matters to your bottom line — selling, rather than on administrative tasks like filling out credit applications. Your time is valuable to your business, and every second you spend on tasks that aren’t critical to growing your business translates into an opportunity lost. Make sure you’re spending your time where it will be most effective and in ways that best align with your skills. Order financing eliminates this need from your task list, ensuring you’re able to do what you love to do the most — selling products, building relationships, and growing your business.
Don’t Take On More Risk Than Necessary
During a critical time like this, it’s essential to keep your business from assuming more risk than it already is. By allowing another organization to assume the initial risk from financial activities like managing credit arrangements, you’ll be able to better protect your business and position yourself for post-COVID success. There is a competitive advantage here as well — through order financing, you can continue to take on virtually any size order without taking on the risk. Other organizations that don’t have this capability may not be able to compete with you, ensuring that you win more orders and serve as the promotional products provider they turn to whenever they have a need.
Avoid the Awkwardness of Deposits and Prepayments
Your clients will likely be especially wary of awkward arrangements such as prepayments at a time like this, when their businesses are also limited on cash. Increase customer satisfaction and trust by not having to ask for prepayments from your clients, since order financing covers any necessary deposits or down payments.
How iPROMOTEu’s Order Financing Can Help
Now is the time to position your promotional products business for success with order financing from iPROMOTEu. Partnering with a company you can trust to provide the support you need, while also valuing your freedom as an independent business is more important now than ever.
Fortunately, we’ll be here to help your business throughout the pandemic and beyond. Learn more about becoming an Affiliate, or contact us today to learn how we can support your growth strategy.