Marketing and Sales

Frank Abagnale Jr., the reformed confidence trickster whose crimes inspired Steven Spielberg’s 2002 film “Catch Me If You Can,” believes that if you make it easy for people to steal from you, they will. And he should know. From checks and diplomas to transcripts, there hasn’t been a document Abagnale couldn’t forge...

Josh Goodman is the founder and CEO of PourMyBeer, a next-generation self-pour beverage system. Goodman discusses the many stages his business went through in order to solve a huge issue in the nightlife industry — crowded bars. He also provides valuable advice on how, with the right mindset, a simple frustration can lead to fortune...

Being in the B2B space, keeping up with technology and marketing trends is essential for distributors. For starters, most of their customers (if not all) have adopted these technologies and expect their providers to do the same. However, distributors are notoriously slow to adopt new technology...

When life gives you lemons, they say, make lemonade. But they never tell you what to do if staff shortages at a transportation company leave your lemons trapped on a truck 300 miles away with no one available to drive them to you on time for your event. That’s the situation Raining Rose Inc., the promo supplier based in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, found itself in just before this year’s PPAI Expo...

Billy Bosch turned his vision for the perfect snack into reality through starting his own company, Iconic Protein. His products are now sold in over 8,000 retail stores and he has raised over $14 million in capital. Tune in to hear valuable advice on starting and scaling a company, working with business partners, and living an iconic life...

E-commerce and online stores have been growing for a while, but they exploded starting in 2020. Customers are looking to cash in on the branded merchandise market or get promo items to recipients who might be missing out on in-person trade shows or working remotely. And distributors have figured out ways to deliver...

Proforma, Cleveland, is preparing for the launch of its proprietary ProSuccess insights module. ProSuccess was developed within Proforma’s proprietary business management system, ProVision, to help its owners leverage their key sales performance metrics...

As part of Print+Promo Marketing’s ongoing feature, Executive Perspectives, we get to know leading professionals in the print and promotional industry. This month, we interviewed Cathy Armstrong, CEO of RBO, St. Louis. Here, she reflects on the career highlights that earned her a C-suite role, shares her pandemic takeaways and previews her long-term business strategy...

One of the most frequent questions distributors ask about social media is what to post. Most tend to have product-centric posts, because with so many resources available to them, it’s a lot easier to find ready-to-go graphics. While there is nothing wrong with that approach per se—after all, you sell products—social media is an invaluable tool to...

Bill Farquharson remembers one email exchange that resulted in receiving a check in the mail. It wasn’t a business email, per se—it was actually to get reimbursed after a carpet cleaner accidentally put holes in his family’s rugs. Even though the company didn’t want to pay what he felt he was owed at first, Farquharson didn’t have to argue much...