How to Avoid Time, Space, and Cost Hassles
Let’s continue our discussion of promotional kitting. In my last post, I started out by talking about what promotional kitting means. At the end, I promised today I would share a few tips on how to make promotional kitting easy. In that post, I shared that an experienced partner makes all the difference in your promotional kitting. Choosing the right partner, makes promotional kitting much easier in three major ways.
Space Limitations Can Limit Efficiency
Does your company have lots of extra space to dedicate to a promotional kitting effort? Remember, you’ll have to make room for the individual items that go into the kit. You’ll need to buy many of them in quantity (more on that below) and make sure they are ready to go.
You’ll also need space to assemble the kits, which can require several workers operating in the same space. And don’t forget the assembled kits must be stored somewhere until they are ready for distribution. That can mean a few days when a mass shipment is planned. Or it could mean almost indefinitely if you use them to follow up web or trade show contacts that happen over time.
A promotional kitting and fulfillment partner already has the space allocated to store kit materials and perform the assembly operation. A partner with fulfillment capabilities can also store the completed kits and handle all fulfillment. Your company never has to handle any part of the process. But your recipient will never know that. It’s invaluable and invisible.
Time Is Not On Your Side in “DIY” Kitting
Obviously, I’m a big believer in the impact of promotional kitting. But you need to go into it with your eyes wide open and consider the time it will take. That’s especially true if you plan to try it in-house. First, you or your employees have to source, order, and take delivery on all component items for the kit. Then, hire or “deputize” a significant number of employees to do the assembly, taking them away from their normal duties.
Once kits are assembled, figuring out shipping logistics, and getting the kits mailed out accurately, and in a timely manner. That will tax your shipping department (if you even have one) or any employees that inherit that duty.
A promotional kitting and fulfillment partner knows all those details. After all, the partner’s business model is built around doing all those things as efficiently as possible. Why waste all that time reinventing a wheel that probably won’t roll smoothly, anyway?
Cost Is Key to Effective Kitting
Promotional kitting is a wonderful sales tool, but only if it can be done at a cost that makes economic sense. You can easily envision the damage you might do to your own productivity by “borrowing” employees to do the sourcing, inventory management, assembly and shipping. You avoid that risk by streamlining the process, especially at a partner’s facility.
But there are other, very tangible cost advantages you might not immediately think about when engaging a promotional kitting and fulfillment partner. You will probably enjoy savings due to economies of scale as the partner gets the best rates on ordering products from multiple suppliers. The same is true of acquiring packaging, either standard or specially designed to hold your kit. You will probably even save substantially on mailing and shipping rates because of the volume discounts that partner enjoys.
One Promotional Kitting Partner is an Easy Choice
If you would like to get the maximum benefit of promotional kitting, I’d like to suggest Superior Business Solutions as your partner. For starters, you will enjoy all the benefits mentioned above. But at the risk of sounding like those late-night commercials…there’s more.
Our ISO certification is especially relevant to the intricacy of efficient kitting. The second straight Best of Print and Digital award we recently earned is extra proof of customer service. And we’ve been in business for nearly 100 years? I think that’s a pretty important factor in the trust department.
Contact us today for all your promotional kitting needs. With all those things we offer, we can put together quite a package for you.
