As a promotional products distributor, spreading your revenue across more customers is essential for sustainable growth and long-term stability, especially in 2025.
Whether you want to focus on mitigating risk, driving sales, growing with existing clients or tapping into underutilized revenue streams, you need to start thinking about how you can offer value to a larger, more diverse customer base. Here are some practical strategies to do just that:
Tap Into Niche Markets
Many people focus heavily on corporate clients, sometimes creating unnecessary risk by allowing one big customer to dominate their time and their revenue stream. However, there are also opportunities in smaller local businesses.
Every market has unique needs and often requires tailored promotional products to meet them. By homing in on one or two segments, you can provide highly specialized products that speak directly to your customers’ goals. This doesn’t have to mean focusing on one industry, either. A distributor that specializes in sustainable promotional items, for example, can appeal to eco-conscious brands across a variety of industries.
The key is to identify emerging trends and new markets that may be underserved by larger, more generalized companies.
Consider Strategic Partnerships
We talk a lot about forming strong relationships with your suppliers, but we don’t often talk about forming strong relationships with companies in adjacent fields that offer complementary products and services. For instance, collaborating with an event planning company could allow you to offer a complete branding experience for your clients’ event, or aligning with a supply company may allow you to become part of a company’s annual office investment.
Lindsey Davis, MAS
Director of Sales & Professional Development, PPAI
If you want to explore this idea but don’t know where to start, consider reaching out to marketing agencies that handle digital advertising or social media to collaborate and offer referrals to new clients. These agencies often need promotional products to complete their campaigns, and building strategic relationships with them can open doors to a steady flow of orders and strong, long-term partnerships that are mutually beneficial.
Explore New Services
Diversification doesn’t always have to mean acquiring entirely new customers. A significant portion of your revenue can come from enhancing your offerings to existing clients.
By introducing value-added services like personalized marketing consultations, inventory management or warehousing solutions, you position yourself as a trusted partner. These services can increase client satisfaction and improve long term retention, ensuring a steady stream of income while also aligning with resources you may already have.
For example, offering graphic design services or a custom online store for clients can make your services more attractive, deepen your understanding of their needs and build loyalty.
Existing Clients
Last, and definitely least (effort-wise that is), make sure to always educate your clients about the full range of your offerings.
So many salespeople focus on a limited selection of products because they’re comfortable with what they know or forget to ask more questions about needs when processing an easy re-order. By introducing clients to new ideas, like new products or seasonal offerings, you create an opportunity to upsell and increase your revenue from each client.
Regularly updating clients on the latest trends and offering insights into effective promotional strategies positions you as a knowledgeable partner. This approach helps clients see the value of diversifying their own promotional product choices and ensures you don’t become their go-to for (insert product here) only.
In an industry with heavy competition, finding ways to diversify your revenue stream is critical. These strategies are just a few ways to help mitigate that risk.
Davis is PPAI’s director of sales and professional development.
