Selling More with Garment Graphics Cutters

Don’t miss these sales ideas and hot markets for generating more profits with your cutter.
May 1, 2008

Hospital gift shops are a great niche to tap with a garment graphics printer. Merchandise can be easily customized to the hospital, and it’s quick and easy to provide a variety of designs without requiring the customer order minimum amounts of one design.(Photo courtesy of Imprintables Warehouse, Masontown, Pa.)

By Josh Ellsworth, Contributing Writer

Once you’ve purchased a garment graphics cutter, you’ll quickly discover how easy it is to turn out low-quantity — and profitable — custom orders: everything from lettering and mascots on jackets to numbers and names on team uniforms. However, all of the decorating prowess in the world won’t do you much good if your customers aren’t aware of your shop’s abilities. That’s why it’s important to understand how to translate your cutter’s unique strengths into talking points that you can convey to customers — and turn into profits for your shop.

Great Results
Generally, customers aren’t too interested in the behind-the-scenes particulars of a decorating process. For instance, they’re probably not as enthusiastic as you are about the fact that cutters can trim around preprinted images, or cut self-adhesive sign vinyl. What they do care about, however, are the results of the decorating process. Show customers the great hand, or feel, that you can provide; let them see the rich, vibrant colors; and tell them about the excellent durability.

Customers appreciate, and will pay handsomely for, the ability to get their order exactly how they want it, so definitely play up the personalization aspect. Let them know that you can add special effects like glitter, for instance, on lettering that spells out their name — and that if they like the design, they can order another one with a different name at the same cost.

Design Options
Also let your customer know about the multimedia possibilities you can provide. For instance, if the order’s quantity makes sense for it, you might suggest screen printing the front design and using name drops on the back — a popular option for teams.

If your customer is especially imaginative, he might even want fashionable multimedia looks like rhinestones and glitter to be added to a name or shape.

In any case, the point is that you want to make the customer fully aware of the design possibilities he can choose from. A sample is worth a thousand words, so show customers examples of these numerous design options. If you have a showroom, put them on display; if not, keep some clean, wrinkle-free samples handy (not crumpled in a box) so you can show them at a moment’s notice when the conversation turns to design possibilities.

Cost Considerations
Money talks too, so pitch the lower price you can offer over embroidery, as well as the smaller (read: more affordable) quantities you can offer over screen printing. Of course, if you offer these other services too, you don’t want to disparage them in the name of selling garments created with cutters. Still, depending on your customer’s particular needs, it definitely makes sense to appeal to his pocketbook.

To make things easy for the customer to grasp, you could create a simple chart that shows the quantities at which screen printing starts to make sense, and where using a cutter makes sense. At a quantity of nine single-color designs, it might cost $2.78 to screen print and only 67 cents to create the design using a cutter, while at a quantity of 144, it might cost 17 cents to screen print and still 67 cents to use the cutter, for example. (See Cost Illustration.)
 
Many Markets
The markets for selling garment graphics made using cutters are about as wide and diverse as the decorations you can create. Team sports is perhaps the most visible, obvious market, with countless teams at the local level purchasing uniforms with numbers and lettering. Every year, more and more participants join teams, making the market an ever-growing one full of profit potential.

Spiritwear and dance markets also are good options, especially for selling fashionable, multimedia designs like rhinestones and glitter. Related markets include items for sports fans, such as T-shirts with a favorite team’s logo—popular options for fund-raising activities. School groups, such as bands and chess clubs, also are ideal customers, as they need smaller orders and have constantly changing memberships — meaning they constantly need more garments. 

Local businesses also make good customers for cutter garment graphics, including car dealerships, fire departments, garages, restaurants — any business that has a relatively small number of employees. Less obvious markets include hospital gift shops, local marathons, and bridal and bachelorette parties, the latter of whom might want designs with big rhinestones and glitter, for example.

Often, you’ll want to tailor the graphic offering to the market. For instance, if you’re pitching fire departments, show them examples of the various reflective materials you can apply. If you’re approaching a hospital, show them scrubs emblazoned with names made from films.

Also, don’t just walk in with a box full of samples and say, “We can make T-shirts for you.” Instead, create a program tailored specifically to the market. For instance, show the band members how you can let them pick their own instrument and apply them to the garments; and tell the band instructor that you’ll handle the entire ordering and fulfillment process, and his group will get a share of the revenue. Or you might approach a nursing home and offer to apply discrete numbers, initials, or last name to all of their residents’ clothing to help with identification.

The point is to first think creatively about the market options, then to think practically about the best way to set up a business program for the organization — one that gives its members the designs they want while making it a simple, practically hands-off process to collect orders and payments, distribute garments, etc.

Additional Considerations
If your shop doesn’t have a retail or display area for your cutter garment graphics, don’t despair: Just partner with businesses who do have walk-in traffic and a display area. For instance, you might work with a local tanning bed business, or a flower shop, or dry-cleaners, and offer to share revenue in exchange for an area where you can display decorated apparel.

Again, the key here is to make things simple: Provide easy-to-use order forms that the business can offer its customers and then give to you for fulfillment. And, of course, provide a revenue share that’s generous enough to entice the business to partner with you.

Despite the importance of showing samples, it still makes sense to create a few brochures or fliers that you can share with customer prospects. You don’t need anything too fancy — just something to explain what you offer, what it costs, and how to order it. These fliers will come in handy as you network with customers, business prospects, the local Chamber of Commerce at various business functions, and so on.

Clearly there are countless ways and places to show samples and distribute marketing materials. The key is to sketch out a marketing plan for the year. You don’t have to get too fancy with it—just map out which businesses you’ll target, and how and when you’ll approach them. Think about the timing that works best for each customer. For instance, you might want to hit tanning salons in early fall so that you have the decorating program in place for their busy winter season, and you might want to have your baseball programs ready to go by February. Your marketing activities calendar could include key dates for functions like fairs, open houses and other business opportunities. It also could include a few notes about the type of pricing that works best for each group.

A cutter is an exciting business tool that affords you countless business opportunities. The key is understanding how to convey the benefits to customers, and then determining the best markets to pursue — and how to approach them. This practical, targeted approach will ensure that your cutter is a worthwhile investment that generates profits for your business year-round.

Josh Ellsworth has been in the garment decoration industry for eight years, working for the past six years as an account representative for Imprintables Warehouse. He manages his own blog at joshellsworth.com, entitled Heat Press Yourself. His Web site offers weekly articles, tutorials and videos that explore that art of T-shirt decoration with a heat press.

Click here to view the entire Cutters series.

Off the Cuff: Selling to Religious Organizations: Part 1 of 2
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