The second order

A quote describes one order. For an institution that will need merchandise again next year, and the year after, the more useful thing to evaluate is what working together will look like by the second order and the fifth. That shows up early: in the first conversation, before any price is on the table.

Addiss Enterprises has been doing this work since 1973. What follows is what that time has taught us about telling a good fit from a poor one, including when the right answer is someone other than us.

How do I choose a merchandise partner?

Pay attention to what they ask before they quote. A partner worth keeping wants to know what the object is for, who will receive it, what the date is and what depends on it, and who has to approve it. A price that arrives before any of those questions only tells you what an object costs.

Those questions aren’t small talk. The purpose decides the object: a gift for a major donor and a giveaway at a family day need different things, even on the same budget. The recipient decides the presentation. The date decides what’s realistic, and the approval chain decides whether the date survives, as we’ve written about in why the date you were given is not the date. Someone who skips these questions is either assuming the answers or doesn’t think they matter. Neither is a good sign.

Look, too, for someone who brings ideas you didn’t ask for and explains the reasoning behind them. A partner who only ever shows you what you requested is filling an order. The value of experience is in the suggestion you wouldn’t have thought to make.

What should I look out for in a merchandise vendor?

A few warning signs show up early: a delivery date with no conditions attached, a per-piece price with no mention of what the whole program will cost, suggestions that could have gone to any organization, and never hearing the word no. Each one means the hard parts of the job will land on you later.

A date with nothing attached to it is a promise nobody can fully keep. Honest dates come with conditions: this holds if the artwork is approved by a certain day and the quantity doesn’t change.

A per-piece price is one number inside a larger one. When gifts go to individual addresses, the handling, packaging and postage can outweigh the difference between two items, as we covered in sending one thing to one person. Someone who quotes only the item is leaving the rest for you to discover.

Generic suggestions are the quietest warning. If the ideas you’re shown would suit a bank, a dental practice and a botanical garden equally well, nobody has thought about your institution yet. A gift has to be worth wanting, and part of what makes it worth wanting is that it could only have come from you.

Be wary, too, of never being told no. Some requests are a poor idea: a color that won’t reproduce on the chosen material, a timeline with no room for a proof, a gift that will look cheap next to the event it’s meant for. A partner who agrees to everything is either not looking closely or not willing to say what they see.

Do I need a long-term partner, or just this order?

Only if you’ll order again. A one-time need, such as an event that won’t recur or a production with a fixed run, calls for one order done well, and that is a complete job in itself. If you’ll be back next year, continuity starts to pay, because what’s learned on the first order makes every later one easier.

We take one-off orders as seriously as recurring ones. A single order still gets the questions above, the same proofing and the same attention to the date, and our pricing and timing are competitive. Nobody should have to promise a second order to get a good first one.

It doesn’t matter where you’re starting from, either. You can come to us with a one-off, with something that recurs every year, or with no plan at all, just a question about whether merchandise makes sense for what you’re trying to do. Sometimes it doesn’t, and we’ll tell you that too.

If you do order again, what builds up is mostly unglamorous. Colors get matched once and stay matched. The approval path becomes known, including who actually signs off. There’s a record of what sold in the store and what sat, and of which donor gifts people still mention. None of it appears on a quote, and all of it makes the next order faster and better.

Fit matters as much as continuity. If the lowest possible price per piece matters most, and quality and timing come second, we’re probably not the right partner, and we’ll say so. Some companies do exactly that well, and we’re glad to point people toward them. That is a better outcome for everyone than a relationship that ends after one disappointing order.

What changes when a partner knows the whole institution?

The work improves when the store and the development office are part of the same conversation. They often need related things at different times of year, and a partner who sees both can plan across them. In the long relationships we’ve seen, that connection usually happened, often by accident at first.

A store buys for visitors on a retail calendar. A development office buys for donors and members on a calendar set by galas and campaigns. In many institutions the two plan separately, which makes sense given how they’re organized. The overlap is real, though. An object designed well for the store can become a member premium, and a donor gift can earn a place on the shelf. A single design effort can serve both, and everyone who receives something from the institution gets a more consistent picture of it.

Whoever you choose, the first conversation will tell you most of what you need to know about the fifth.