[Jarod]

Hey everyone,

I have a meeting with a potential client tomorrow who owns a small bar in town. She wants to buy shirts for her employees, and possibly a few to sell to her customers. I am just looking for some insight on what to bring for my original meeting. I will be going into the bar, and talking with the owner. Right now, my plan is to bring in some business cards, a few samples, and a catalog from my supplier. I also have a coupon for 10% off your first order I will give her. My question to you all is what, if anything else should I bring to the meeting. Also, are there any specific things I need to talk about in my "presentation" I won't be trying to sell her on the first meeting, because I need her to select a style of shirt, and give me a quantity. Hopefully you all can give me some tips, thanks!

 

[tkster95]

Good luck tomorrow. I've been to my fair share of meetings with bar owners to talk uniforms. If anything maybe you'll get a free burger and beer out of the deal.

One thing I found difficult in situations like this is they always want to talk numbers. It usually starts off like, "So how much for 50 shirts, 2 color front?"... you give them a number, they they ask "how much for 20 shirts, 10 hoodies, 20 tank tops 2 color front 1 color back?" then 10 mins later they're asking about wind breakers. Soon enough, they'll draw something on a napkin and ask how much to print that on a shirt.

Don't go down that road with them unless you have a pricing matrix and options for them to choose from right there. Other wise they'll keep asking pricing questions till your head spins. They'll try to pin you to some unbelievable low rate and hold you to that.

If they mentioned something about selling shirts to customers 99.9% of the time they're going to ask about consignment.

Don't stress yourself out too much about it. Your talking t-shirts here... what's the worst that could happen?

 

[Jarod]

Thanks Tom,

I won't be giving her any pricing tomorrow, simply because she is not interested in basic tees, she is interested in a few different styles, and I don't think I can memorize the pricing for 1000 different products in 1 day My plan is to get what she is looking for written down, have her take a look at the catalog and possibly email me with the styles she is interested in, and I will send her a detailed quote from there.

 

[Danny vital]

Definetly bring the supplier catalog. I've found if you leave a catalog with a potential client you end up hearing from them time and time again as they will keep browsing it.

 

[20vK]

Ask if they can bring one of their old shirts for you to see. Then you have an idea of what they had before, what they liked and what they didn't.

I've had so many customers send me a design then show me the shirt they were really happy with, only to find the shirt had a really crappy print. It puts you in a very strong position and you get to educate the customer too. You also get to see which brand of shirt they had.

Show them some of your work - lights, darks and something with negative space in. Spot colour, halftones and cmyk or sim process. You can talk about cottons and blends - maybe a blend would be much better for hard-working bar staff. We include that option for the same price and customers really appreciate that.

 

[Jarod]

Thanks everyone,

Tom, you mentioned consignment. I will be printing them with plastisol transfers, order from another company. How would I go about doing consignment with the customer, and do you recommend it. Others feel free to answer as well

 

[Jarod]

20vK,

The only problem is, like I said they are looking to get Vneck shirts for the female staff. I can not find many blend shirts in this style, there are some, but they don't seem to come in the color (green) that they are looking for.

 

[tkster95]

Consignment is when you front the shirts and get paid when customers buy, as opposed to being paid upfront like with wholesale. In most cases its when you have a line of shirts and you're trying to place them at a store front. Its a easy sell because the vendor doesn't have to front any money for the product. When a sale is made you both get a cut and everyone's happy.

Last two bar owners and last pizza shop owner I spoke with all wanted to buy employee shirts wholesale like normal... they I would front them an extra 25 or so that they would try to sell to their customers. They presented it as an opportunity to tap into the market they've created (by having the bar / pizza shop in the first place). They all pretty much said that they didn't want to invest in any inventory, but if I wanted to take the chance they would allow me to do so.

As I mentioned consignment is a great, easy way to place product. I have had bad experiences with it though. I have done about 4 consignment deals since I started and am lucky if I broke even throughout them all. I was in some great spots and selling a lot of shirts, that wasn't the issue... the problem was, that I was also losing a lot to theft. I couldn't control the theft and have since pulled the plug on all my consignment deals.

Even though I probably just broke even... If given the opportunity to go back and do it or not do it again... chances are I would still go ahead with consignment if that was my only way to place shirts. I have always found it tough to turn down and opportunity, slight as it may be, to sell shirts. Good luck.

 

[Jarod]

Thanks Tom,

I think I would like to pass on the consignment deal if she even asks about it. I will mention that if she would like to sell shirts to her customers to up the qty she is purchasing, and save money on each shirt. From what she has told me so far, she wants the staff shirts the same as the customers, only she wants staff written on the staff shirts. I will be placing those with vinyl.

 

[KristineH]

We're in the business of custom printing. With their company logo, no way would I do consignment - what happens if they can't sell them? Then you're stuck with 25 printed shirts that you can't do anything with.

Bars that we work with either take orders and order all once every few months or buy stock to sell. Don't bring up consignment unless you have another place/way you can sell garments you take back - we would only do this if we had a clothing brand we were selling.

 

[Jarod]

Kristine, same mindset I have

 

[KristineH]

Ah, I was typing as you posted. I'm on the iPhone app so I didn't see your response.

Sounds like you have a pretty good idea of how you want the meeting to go and a plan of action. Let us know how it goes.

 

[Jarod]

No worries Kristine, and thanks for the kind words. I will post an update after the meeting tomorrow

Another quick question if anyone may be able to answer. Like I explained, the customer is interested in V neck shirts. I know that they are quite a bit more expensive than regular tees, I was thinking of proposing the idea of her or I (for extra of course) cutting the regular shirts to make a v neck. The only problem with this is the shirts are very flimsy without the hem, and I don't think I would be comfortable selling her an inferior shirt. Should I propose the idea, or no?

 

[jennGO]

Jarod, I am just getting started in the biz but I would not recommend cutting a regular shirt to make it a v-neck. It won't look classy and could get destroyed in a few washes if not done properly. I'm sure once the client sees the price difference they will decide if the v-neck is worth it.

 

[Danny vital]

If she wants v-necks she will pay for them. Cutting shirts to make v necks sounds like a nightmare man.

 

[20vK]

Don't even think about cutting shirts up - If I was a customer and someone suggested that to me, It would turn me off completely. I would think they're total amateurs and most likely would never deal with them.

As a customer, if I want v's, then I want v's. if I don't want to spend the money on V's (which are a couple of bucks more - nothing for a thriving business), then I'll buy standard shirts and the staff can cut them up as they please.

Just focus on giving the customer all the options and let them decide how much they want to sell. But to open yourself up to risk by cutting a garment sounds ludicrous to me.

Consignment is for retail situations. The shirts should be sold for retail price and you get a larger portion of sales than if you had sold them upfront wholesale. The retail outlet is responsible for all stock. So if something gets stolen, you are still owed your cut - it's based on the number of garments you supply, not what is sold. If you found shirts were getting stolen at every outlet, then it's probably because you had an insufficient agreement in place with the owners. There's every likelihood that they were even selling them and just told you they got stolen, or staff were stealing them. If you didn't make money, then the exercise was a disaster, in my books.

Anyway, you're here to take an order, not offer free stock for them, so get your order and charge them your supply and print cost. Let them decide how much they want to spend.

 

[Jarod]

Thanks 20vK,

Another quick question for anyone who would like to answer... I have the option of bringing in my laptop and giving her a quote on the spot if she tells me one of the shirts she likes, would you recommend this, or just having her call me after looking at the catalog for a little. Than I can give her a quote than.

 

[Danny vital]

Yeah man get the deal done, get 50% and get printing!

 

[20vK]

Never say no to a cheque!

If you have the opportunity to give them a price, then do it straight away. You may well walk away with a cheque.

If you leave it, she may go with someone else.

You've got a meeting, so she's interested in giving up her time to sort this, which must mean she's somewhat serious. As said before - go for it and walk out with a deposit!

 

[Jarod]

Another question... lol,

I was planning on giving her 10% off for her first order. Should I give her a time sensitive deal, if she gives a deposit today, she get's 20% off rather than 10%?