A Buyer’s Perspective

The Quick Quote board has been busy with quote requests from new and returning buyers of promotional merchandise. For those of you who do not know, the Quick Quote service allows people to request quotes for promotional items from three leading UK suppliers at once by filling out a simple form. They then receive quotes directly from the suppliers, providing them with a range of prices without having spent their time searching.

As we submit every enquiry to three suppliers we were interested to find out what factors determined which supplier the enquirer would choose. We asked a number of recent Quick Quote posters a few questions about what they prioritised when choosing who to order from. As most of the respondents wished to remain anonymous I have substituted any names with their most recent Quick Quote request number. All of the respondents order promotional merchandise regularly with the majority stating that they order products approximately once a month.

The results were very much as expected with all the buyers citing cost and/or quality as the key factors in choosing a supplier. None of the buyers that we asked prioritised the supplier’s reputation or whether they are accredited over these factors. This bodes well for new and smaller distributors where their reputation is not yet established.

Interestingly, the response over what is expected in the way of mock ups and samples was more mixed. 49036 replied that they definitely require samples sent quickly and in good condition. 49094 replied that they would require an unbranded sample to go ahead with the order and then a branded sample to sign off. 49082 required a sample relatively close to the product they were looking for but it didn’t necessarily have to be branded. 49107 replied that they would be happy to receive an image rather than an actual sample. 49076, 49073 and 49009 would all require a sample sent to their office.

The good news for suppliers is that every respondent stated that the help and advice given by suppliers was either valuable or instrumental to their decision. They also stated that once they had a good experience when ordering from a particular supplier that they would go back to that supplier rather than shopping around. Only 49082 and 49073 said that they would still shop around whilst also including the supplier they had previously ordered from.

When asked if they took anything else into consideration the general consensus was the speed at which a supplier responds to their enquiry, their helpfulness and how well the suppliers listened to the requirements.

This demonstrates the importance of reacting quickly to enquiries. A Kellogg Study on Lead Response Management carried out in 2012 gave these statistics about response time: “The odds of connecting with a lead increases by 100 times if attempted within 5 minutes versus 30 minutes. The odds of converting a lead increases by 21 times if contacted within 5 minutes versus 30 minutes.”

I would like to thank the respondents for taking the time to answer my questions.

If you have any news or views you can send them to me by clicking here.

Lauren Cayless White,
Editor

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