April is traditionally the time when golf products suppliers promote their ranges in anticipation of the new season. It also the month when many companies’ new budgets kick in, so let’s take a look at what’s on offer:

I'm aware of some suppliers to the marketing industry who refuse point blank to trade with agencies. Others, meanwhile, do the vast bulk of their business via this route. Why the huge difference?

As an agency man I can recognise the ‘aggro’ factor. You spend serious time putting together a proposal for a client. He's bought the idea, your product, price and service. All you need is a disk with the logo on it and you can go ahead. At this point, he decides that his agency can earn some of their retainer by having some conceptual and design input, and then what happens? They horn in, throwing their weight about, demonstrating that printwear is wrong for the market, giving the client alternative quotes and ideas and generally screwing things up. Thanks mate. No sale!

This happens for several reasons. Firstly, the agency sees itself as the gate-keeper. Anyone wanting access to the client has to go via them. All others are trespassers to be taken by the slack of their trousers and summarily evicted. Second, the agency sees you as potentially stealing "their" budget and they're not getting a mark-up on a substantial lump of the client's spend. This not only affects their profitability, but the account director/manager involved can be fearful for his/her job – they're not doing it properly if they miss golden opportunities like this. Third, they may be right. They may have agreed upon a program with the client and your project runs totally contrary to it (clients do get sudden enthusiasms, especially the more senior people).

So what do you do? On the one hand, you want the agency kept at arms length (preferably Twizzle's arm); and on the other hand if they're not involved, the above scenario is just waiting to happen. It commonly happens early on when the client gets an interesting proposal from you and puts it in front of the agency at their weekly meeting. The agency picks it up, gives it a tweaking and then rows you out. They've effectively nicked your client.

Involve the agency

The sound solution has to be to establish early on whether or not an agency is going to get involved and then present the idea to them too, preferably with the client present. This may feel like inviting the fox into the henhouse, but it establishes a division of labour: you're good at what you do; they're good at what they do; and therefore each has a part to play. Remember that they do know that client's marketing plans better than you, so their input could actually improve upon your ideas.

Yes but it's about money isn't it? They won't get a mark-up, and you won't pay a commission because they haven't earned it, so they'll do their best to change that.Well not necessarily. Because you've involved them, the client may insist he sticks with you. Clients hate bickering between suppliers that they think should be working together and most aren't putty in their agency's hands. Equally, the agency – especially if it's a big one – may not be that concerned. As long as they know what's happening and feel like they're involved, they may be relaxed about getting only a design fee and no organisational aggro on the actual job.

So let's re-address selling into agencies. Recognise first the virtue of doing this. Whether you trade nationally or locally there aren't that many agencies. A small number of sales pitches reach a lot of prospective clients. What's more, they're clients with genuine marketing budgets to spend, otherwise they wouldn't have agencies.

But getting face time with them isn't easy. This is partly because some agencies are snobbish about printwear – "just bloody T-shirt floggers" – and partly because the industry probably does itself no favours in presenting a more professional image. As a consequence, they can't see why they should give you even 10 minutes. Their perception is that there's nothing that's news in printwear, they aren't looking at buying any just now, so send your brochure and they'll keep you on file (with the other 2,000).

Sell the concept

It's essential to recognise that selling-in to agencies is an extended task. From first contact to first quote/sample will be months unless you're lucky or a blindingly brilliant salesman. Recognise next that a sale to an agency should be built around selling the concept of printwear, not the cloth and ink.

Aim to give examples of marketing success stories and case studies that have used printwear. Develop your own case studies that could be used editorially, and later use your magazine cuttings or pdfs as examples of your success. Obviously it's better if you produced the garments but it's not essential – you're selling the concept. Demonstrate the flexibility, speed of reaction and good old costeffectiveness of your service and product. Quote statistics of appeal of printwear, growth of usage, perceived value, and point out the creative possibilities because all agencies sell themselves on their creativity.

Remember that agency staff want to see and hear one of two things: either something new, clever and different that they can use to wow their client, or a new professional and surprising take on an old carrot. It may be a technical issue like colour changing inks, but it's far likelier that you'll have a long-term success if you can plant the seed of the idea that printwear is a natural integrated part of a marketing campaign and a highly creative canvas begging to be painted on.

Powerful presentations

To make your presentation more professional do it in PowerPoint on a laptop or on a portable slide presenter. In other words, pitch like they pitch themselves. What you don't do – and I have actually seen this – is to wheel in the Del Boy suitcase and act like a street barker inviting the lucky people to check out the quality. Yes, you're going to have samples and examples but you sell the idea before you turn the boardroom table into a rummage sale.

But we get ahead of ourselves. You haven't even got the appointment yet. Here's the good news. You can use your product proposition as a door opener. Don't write them a letter, write them a personalised T-shirt. When you follow it up by phone your hearing will be good and you can spell out half the message you want to get home: printwear is universal, memorable, dramatic, inexpensive and creative. The proof, Mr. Prospect, is already on your desk. Agencies are fans of this sort of approach - they use it themselves.

So who are you targeting? By agency type I'd say promotions, advertising, design, PR, direct mail in that order, but I wouldn't get hung up on it. Many, perhaps most, agencies call themselves integrated or ‘full service’. In other words they do the lot. Picking the right person is another can of worms entirely.

I would suggest you aim at account manager level. In the first place, these are the people who are actually talking with the clients daily. They are also the people in most agencies who buy in product. A lot are women so they are more clothing aware. They're mid/late twenties and ambitious so anything that looks like a profitable success is interesting.

Most people more senior will tend to be less receptive: “Far too important to talk T-shirts dear boy.” You could find yourself dealing with an account executive who may well be extremely green and have little influence or buying power. Persevere. He or she will get promoted and you can sell through him/her to the account manager, who's only one notch up.

Depending on individual personalities and size of agency, you may get access to the creative director. Convince them of the creative possibilities and you've won a powerful ally, but it's likelier that you will never even meet this mythical beast.

Looking forward, you've won your first piece of business, despite all the aggro, lots of quotes and samples that all died before them.Was it all worth it? Yes indeed! The reason for cheering is that agencies have fashions both generally and internally. Your first live project is likely to be a success story because that's what agencies want more than anything. It justifies the next brief, so they try to ensure that every bit of a project works.

Consequently when the printwear element of a program is deemed a success, two things happen. The same client buys a repeat and it becomes a regular, even automatic, part of the agency's proposal to other clients.

The principle of "it worked for Smith, so it'll work for you Jones" is actually sound marketing. In agency speak it’s called a ‘tried and trusted method’. Add to that the fact you can wheel this success story around other agencies yourself and it doesn't take a genius to begin to see that the rollover business which can accrue could be very substantial.

You will then begin to congratulate yourself for your perseverance in the first place and come to regard working in conjunction with agencies not as unwanted aggro, but as a sound business opportunity.

Paul Clapham is a marketing consultant with over 25 years’ experience covering a broad range of business sectors and a full spread of marketing disciplines. He has run his own business since 1996, working with small, medium and large companies alike to increase their profitability through marketing.

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