Lettering can be an important profit center for your business. These tips from Carleen Gray may have been written 25 years ago, but they still hold true today.
Here is the final installment of “Display Your Specialty to Spark Lettering Sales” an article that was originally published in Impressions Magazine in 1989, written by our own Carleen Gray. You can read Part 1 here, and Part 2 here. Here’s part 3:
If You’ve Got It, Flaunt It
In reaching your goal of becoming known as a lettering specialist, be persistent and thorough. In order to know which display ideas have worked well and which ones haven’t, it’s a good idea to keep a filing system of some kind in your store that will help you keep a record of the promotions you’ve done. By noting which ones are more successful, you’ll be able to plan more efficiently for the future. Make sure your employees are completely aware of what you are planning to develop–more sales of garments through the idea of selling
Here are some ideas to try when making up sample shirts.
personalized garments. Use your display garments and gimmicks as much as you can and make sure they’re visible. (I’ll leave out the part about the Yellow Pages ad). The more often you let people know you do lettering, the more apt they will be to remember you when they are thinking of buying that birthday gift, the going away present for someone at the office, the bridge club shirts, whatever. In a very short time, you will become known for your service and ability to please the customer no matter what the size of the job. In an era where specialized service is becoming a thing of the past, use your lettering department to show customers that personalized service is your specialty–literally!
Top Lettering Display or Sample Garment Tips:
- A “garment banner” is an easy, eye catching display idea
- Try letters that run vertically instead of horizontally.
- Overlapping letters in a diagonal pattern
- Arc large letters across the chest
- Let the middle letter overlap the other two letters
- Try smaller letters overlapping one large letter
- Wrap 2-inch letters around the sleeves and bottom of a plain T
- Combine large letters with a transfer
- Try school names in scrip over block letters
I hope you all enjoyed this trip down marketing memory lane…things have indeed changed quite a bit in the way people sell, from the rise of the internet to the availability of lettering materials and the changeover from cotton t-shirts and sweat shirts to high-tech performance wear, digital prints and full color graphics. But one thing that will never change–if you want to be successful in selling custom printed garments, you need to show and TELL people what you do. It was true when Carleen wrote about it 25 years ago and it’s still true today. So if there’s one thing you take away from this series, hopefully it’s the realization that you must consistently find ways to let people know you do lettering. Don’t be afraid of repetition. You might get tired of hearing your boss or your spouse talking about lettering but there are always new customers out there that have no idea what you do–unless you tell them!