A while ago I wrote about how I discovered lanyards. When after several years the only lanyard innovations come in a guise of different widths, printing technologies or all sorts of fancy clips and attachments I began to think the lanyard evolution is over. Well, I was wrong. Here is something new:

It looks like this is a lanyard designed to carry something heavy on the neck. At least that is what the padding would suggest. While that may be one of the unintentional benefits of this product, it does not seem to be the point. When you look closer, you see a zipper. When you open the zipper, you can pull out a hood … Who’s idea was this I would like to know .

As a gimmick, this is quite funny. As a promotional product - well, it may not be that bad for the advertiser. The large hood provides quite some area for imprint. But, how often will that large imprint area actually get some exposure ? I would say only if it rains. But now, frankly, will anyone pack this thing as a precaution in case of rain into the back, or carry it on the neck when going out ? I very much doubt so … I would say unless it rains at some outdoor event where these hood lanyards are distributed, the hoods will never be exposed to the public. So all the printable area that actually matters is what is seen on the first picture in this post. Even less than what an ordinary lanyard provides for much lower cost.

So what is wrong with this lanyard ?

It costs more than usual lanyards without any hoods, most of the printable area it offers will never be seen. It offers pretty much zero rain protection. Unfortunately as it is the case with many promotional products and BizGifts these days, this is just a gimmick, and a useless one. If you want to produce a gift item that protects people from wet weather, you better stay with umbrella or if on lower budget with cheap rain poncho.

If on the other hand you want to get peoples’ attention by giving them something silly they will ridicule and talk about, this may be one of those things .

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A while ago I made a post It Ain’t Over ‘Til It’s Over and the last thing I expected was that the particular project that inspired me for writing that post will turn it to be a major screw up. Well, almost, lucky me. But well, it ain’t over yet, so I better wait with the standing ovations for myself.

So what has happened ? Well, this time, surprise surprise, the mess up did not come from our supplier but from our customer’s client.

Imagine this:

• You spend several months developing a product

• You receive sort of conditional approval and go ahead

• You reject that conditional approval and ask for either a firm approval

• Client asks you how more time and money would further development cost

• You provide the figures

• Client decides to go ahead with the products as it is and gives you the firm approval and signs the contract

• You go ahead

• When first (big) lot is ready to load into containers and ready to ship you send a batch of samples to client for their promotions preparation work

• And then bang … Client say stop everything, we do not want this “rubbish”, no matter that that “rubbish” is exactly what they have approved and the best the money they are willing to spend can buy

The problem as we found out was that the bosses of the person who gave the approval did not like what they saw. Unfortunately, they only saw the product for the first time after big part of the production was already completed or semi ready …

Very scary situation. Luckily a solution workable to both parties has been found and the project has been re-started without major wounds. Thanks to all the parties involved willing to work it out and go the extra mile.

It ain’t over yet, but at least I can sleep better now.

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These are not the easiest times to do business. The world economy is slowing down, some markets are even slipping into the recession. So the last thing one wants to do is to increase to prices to make life for customers even harder than it already is. Unfortunately Murphy’s Laws rule the business and so when we are in a global economic slowdown times we also face cost increases higher then ever. What to do ?

One factor is the relationship with the customer and nature of his business. If you have a very open relationship with your client based on mutual trust than you can talk openly with your customer and find the solution together and everybody is fine.

It gets more difficult if there is even a slight mistrust or caution between supplier and customer. Client may not believe all you say, even if you are completely honest. Or you may not be willing to disclose all the information to customer worrying client may take an advantage from the extra knowledge.

So how to handle it ?

There are surely many in-between solutions to these market conditions but to generalize there are 2 approaches:

1. To absorb all or as much as possible of the cost increase and keep prices unchanged for clients until the moment clients have chance to revise their price lists.
2. To always copy the cost increases and pass them all on to clients as they occur

What is the better way? Hard to tell. Perhaps considering the cons of these 2 approaches is the way to go.

• If you keep absorbing the cost increases or squeeze your suppliers down to absorb part of it, you are being nice to your client. You are however reducing your margins to unhealthy levels and client often does not even know about that and therefore can’t appreciate it. Then a point comes where the prices have to be brought to reality. When customer sees the new price list, he freaks out and you get all the yelling and shouting for being crazy. That is often the reward for being nice to your client for as long as you can afford it …

• The other option is not much better. You may be asking for less increase (but more often) but you are still bringing bad news. So all you can expect are bad reactions. However this time you bring the bad news more than once so you get that yelling and shouting more often. There is a light at the end of the tunnel here however. One day you get used to that yelling and shouting and one day your client gets used to the regular price increases. None of you gets to like it, but both will get used to it.

Make your pick, I made mine already.

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The nature of BizGift business means there is always some sort of trouble on horizon. It is pretty much impossible to have things going smooth. What is possible however is to lower the likelihood of disaster.

First of all - do not be suicidal and do not promise impossible to your customers. It is very tempting to say OK to every request from client in order to secure the deal. But this may and will came to haunt you. Yes, most of the things can be done, but not all can be done within the time and budget constrains of a BizGift project. You will not get paid for your promises for the goods delivered. If you promise and do not deliver, you end up paying !

Make sure you select a reliable supplier. Get references from people you know, use suppliers that you had good experience with previously. If you still do not know, choose a market leader in your area, there is always a reason for someone to become a market leader. Take the pricing into consideration, but do not make your choice solely based on price. At the end, you often get what you are paying for …

Once you select your supplier, make sure you brief them well. Not every supplier can read your mind.

Then when you secure the order remember that is when the real trouble starts. This also when you have no way to back off anymore …

“Murphy’s law is an adage in Western culture that broadly states that things will go wrong in any given situation, if you give them a chance. If there’s more than one possible outcome of a job or task, and one of those outcomes will result in disaster or an undesirable consequence, then somebody will do it that way.” - from Wikipedia

So here are few examples of possible problems:

• While you were closing the deal with your client, someone else beat you and occupied your supplier’s production facility. There is no chance you will make the order on time.

• The moment you place the order, your suppliers apologizes (in the better case) to you for making mistake in calculation and gives you nicely (in the better case) two options - higher price or no production.

• Due to time or technical constrains you concluded the deal with your client without having the final product ready and approved. While fine tuning the product in the preproduction stages of the order you and your supplier realize, that what was ordered actually can’t be done …

• After you place the order your supplier changes the payment terms, take it or leave it. The new conditions are either impossible for you to comply with due to your cash flow or simply too risky to accept.

• You loose your cool during a routine meeting with your supplier, and the supplier simply walks away. You get dumped …

• You conclude the deal, you are ready to place the order with your supplier. Then you find out the supplier closed down the business.

This is in no way exhausting list of possible trouble. The closest you get to the complete list would be by checking out the Murphy’s laws. So watch out, do not let Murphy to mess with your BizGift project.

Photo: www.murphys-laws.com

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Today was a pretty good day. For past few months we worked hard to win a project that, to describe it mildly, is huge. I mean huge huge. And today was the day we learned we have won it. Sounds like a reason for celebration, time to get out and down several cold ones. So what the hell am I doing here, writing this post ?

Well, one thing I have learned is, that it simply ain’t over ’til it’s over. The moment client gives you the order is where everything begins, not where everything ends. Trying to win the order is a game. It is serious game but still only a game. You do not win it, you loose nothing, except maybe your pride. But once you win the order you are in trouble ! And if the order is big, you are in trouble for next several months. The more you are aware of this, the better for you.

So when it will be over? I always tell my staff, that we can only consider any project to be successfully over when all the goods are in customers’ hands on time, in good condition, money is in our account and after that another 4 months have passed and we have no claims for any refunds. Then it is over and we may be right to mentally move on.

If all goes wrong you loose much more than what you would gain if all goes right. That is a simple math. Maximum you can make (in financial terms) is the profit margin you work with. But there is no maximum to what you can loose …

It is important that all parties involved in the project understand this. One of the reasons we ran into troubles in the past was, that our suppliers considered things done the moment they received the order from us …

How I know this ? Well, I was on the loosing end several times. Luckily the crisis management every time managed to limit the damages to bearable levels and more importantly, I was lucky to be dealing with customers who were part of the solution and not part of the problem. But that may not always be the case.

So, today the troubles began

P.S. I am not the only one who says It Ain’t Over ‘Til It’s Over, here is the other fella, Lenny Kravitz. But he has totally different reason (video inside the article)

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