Kathy Ahluwahlia of BeachTrend.com talks Promotional Products…

Promtional Items or Advertising Specialties - Kathy Ahluwahlia

Promtional Items or Advertising Specialties – Kathy Ahluwahlia

Kathy Ahluwahlia of BeachTrend.com talks Promotional Products and how she can help you get and keep new clients using them.

Kathy Ahluwalia/Owner
Beach Trends
714-593-1113
Huntington Beach, CA 92646
www.beachtrend.com

Kathy: Hi, I’m Kathy Ahluwahlia with Beach Trends. My business is promoting your business. I’ve been helping businesses get noticed with business gifts such as embroidered shirts for the office, signs and displays, pens and bags, coffee mugs, tool and portfolios. I love to create. I love to see the results of my efforts in profits rolling in for you. My clients send me pictures and thank you cards. They tell me their problem is the bottom line, and I can help. I’ll cater a program just for you with gifts to market yourself and your company, show appreciation to your clients and benefactors, get your foot in the door, and increase traffic through a trade show booth.

I’ve been selling promotional gifts since 1990. It was very rewarding so, in 1993, I opened up my own business with just one account, Huntington Beach Hospital. My girlfriend was a nurse at the hospital, and she got permission to order some bags for a class she was teaching. Then came Nurse’s Appreciation Week, and I got to supply nurse’s gifts. Pretty soon, the hospital administrator wanted to meet me. I was very nervous like I get every time I do a speech. But it went pretty well because soon I was doing all their events. I would visit on Friday, and take their orders and fill them. Then one day, I went in on Friday and the new owners of the hospital said that everything had to be bought from their main office in Ohio. Well, that is not necessarily true, but I was crushed just the same. Knowing what I do now, most managers have the authority to hire you for your skills or your products. You just have to put them at ease. One of the ways to do this is with a Beach Trends gift.

The other day I was in the bank, asking questions, taking notes. The banker asked me what I did for a living, and I said, “I sell promotional gifts and I would like to sell you some to give to your customers at the bank.” And guess what he said? He said, “Contact the main office.” I said, “As soon as I finish taking these notes,” I was asking him important questions, “I’m going to give you this nice Beach Trends pen. It’s a stylus, too. It will work on your smartphone.” Pretty soon he was giving me the manager’s card. That’s pretty much all I did to become a vendor in the first place. Your logo on a pen, a calculator, a cup, or a golf ball is much more powerful than a business card. Pens are very good. Everyone uses them. A good place to give them out is a trade show.

Trade shows are a very good place to meet new customers. Like Fox Rent-A-Car Sales, I was the only one prepared for the show. I got all the travel business with my computer calendars, my coffee cups, my pens, and we put Fox Rent-A-Car napkins in the meeting area. Another customer says, “Thank you for suggesting bags. It was a sea of yellow at the show, and we were a total success!” And one client said he got a multi million dollar account, and that’s per month by the way, with six pack coolers. I brought some today. You can help yourself. He was also armed with calculators, clocks, duffel bags, and golf tees. A trade show is a great place to meet new customers. Are you prepared? Today, you can sign up to have your logo on a bag for our trade show, and you can see me for pens, cups, or sticky notes. Be the one who says, “I made a $10,000 sale with this coffee cup!”, or “I sold a million dollar house with this magnet,” 10 cent magnet. Call Beach Trends today. You’ll be glad you did. That’s KathyAhluwahlia@BeachTrend.com. Thank you!

Male: Don’t forget the letter openers!

Kathy: Well, I was…yes, don’t forget your letter openers because you’re going to need them to open up all your checks that come in. Are there any questions? Dennis.

Dennis: Why did you have to go to the bank? You already have a business. You already have a vendor. What were you doing there?

Kathy: Well, my phone wasn’t exactly ringing off the hook. Just because you’re a vendor that only means that you’re approved, that you do good quality work. That they’re allowed to buy from you, but that doesn’t mean they will. You still have to market yourself. You still have to make your presence known, and you still have to get out there and meet the people and get the job done.

Dennis: Okay, then. Thank you.

Kathy: Val?

Val: Yes, what are the costs involved in the stylus pens and the quantity breakdown or something like that. I’d like about 300 of them. And I know that you also sell sticky notes, and the bags that you stopped using in Huntington Beach, but I hear we’re going back statewide. I don’t know. We keep going back and forth, so anyway…

Kathy: Three great items right there and…

Val: Oh, and keychains, too!

Kathy: Oh, well, let’s see that’s four. I’m only allowed to do three today. Don tried to tell me I can only do three items, that I do too many items. So bags, we’re going to give out a bag at our trade show, and you can sign up to put your logo on it. And it will be given out, and whatever is not distributed then they will be distributed back to those who have their logo on it. That will be about $130 each for the advertising to promote your business on it or you can get 300 bags for about $350 plus tax and shipping. It would have your own big logo on it. And stylus pens are about 60 cents each. Three hundred is the minimum. You can get 300 for $180 plus tax and shipping. And sticky notes have never been cheaper than now. They’re around $200 for 500 of them, and that’s your logo, 500 x 25, 2,500, something like that. I don’t know. I’m not that great at math. So any more questions? Be sure to visit my booth and pick up a flashlight and a pen, and see what the other customers are saying about me. Thank you very much.