# [SELLING PRINTING SERVICES] Need help selling my DTG printing services locally



## beachhut (Nov 6, 2011)

Can someone Give me some Help Please
I have be reading t shirt forms for a while, And love how you all help each other, Thank You
I have been a salesman all my life, And I became disabled, with neuropathy pain. I want to still work and make some money, I not looking to get rich, just make a living. I ONLY NEED 2000.00 A MONTH TO PAY MY BILLS. Thats only 60.00 a day profit, is that asking to much. 
I went out and bought A brother gt 541, and I am pertty good with corell x4. I am having a hard time selling t shirts to business or to anyone else. I went out to over 200 business in my area and did no good, I only sold 6 t shirts, Thats not good.
I talk to all of them and gave them all my flyers.
I am selling t shirts with small front logo for 3.99 and front and back for 7.99 and no design charge, is that to high. I am trying to stay positive, but this is not helping me at all. This is not as easy as you would think, It should be a no brianer for companys to want advertising on shirts. Its cheap advertising for them. 
I am still working on web site and its looking great, but nothing there yet. What else can i do, I do have a nice camera, I live in myrtle beach sc, would piciture on them somewhere in a busy place do any good. Can someone Help me to find the right path I should be on. Well sorry for the bad writing, Im not a writer, if you didnt know, lmao
I am working to hard and not smart, But dont no how
Thx to all for all the positive post I have seen, It really helps us newbys
Thx
Bobby
Beach Hut Treasures


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## Enrique (Apr 27, 2011)

*Re: Need help selling*

Seeing that a blank shirt alone is $2-3, charging $4 for a t-shirt is ridiculously low, especially if you're doing one at a time? That part wasn't clear, like when you said you sold 6 shirts, do you mean literally 6 shirts or 6 different kinds of shirts? Are you doing transfers or silkscreen or DTG? Even if you're doing dozens of prints, $4 is low, the only time I've gone that low is on orders of over 500 of one kind of shirt.

What kinds of businesses are you reaching out to? There are some that get nothing out of getting custom t-shirts, like a legal office. If you aren't already, narrow your focus to businesses who have a clear advantage in using custom t-shirts, like restaurants or stores.

Plus nowadays, sending out flyers isn't nearly enough. With everyone clinging tight to their money, you have to meet them face to face and pitch them on why they NEED custom t-shirts, what they would get out of having them, why they're a good investment. If they already get their shirts somewhere else, ask them if there's anything they don't like about their current vendor, figure out some way you can one-up their vendor, aside from charging less (especially if they really LIKE their current vendor, charging less won't get you the sale).


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## Pvasquez (Feb 19, 2011)

You have a GT-541 printer and you want to get some work fast go out and introduce yourself to the local screen printers that do not have DTG capabilities. Do not start for that low of a number figure your ink costs and time and make some profit they get requests all the time for short run and don't want to deal with it at times but if you offer your services for now you will get some return while you grow your own custom printing etc. and at the same time when you get an order out of your capabilities you can farm out the work to them. Selling for 4$ is too low your losing money you need to take all the other factors into account art time, maintenance, space, and future parts and supplies etc. How and why did you spend 20K without a plan? Not criticizing but there must have been some potential you saw when you decided to jump in the garment decorating business right? Go back to the foundation of your reasons that made you move forward retrace your steps and fix what went wrong. Good luck and hope it goes well for you.


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## SweetExpression (Apr 22, 2009)

*Re: Need help selling*

I hope you are charging 3.99 and 7.99 plus the retail price of the shirt at least. I do not have a DTG machine like yourself. I can do heat transfers, sublimation, and vinyl on shirts and I have never charged less than $12 for a custom shirt. Like the previous posters have said, find a niche where you can capitalize on the customization capabilities of the Brother. If you only make $1 profit per shirt, it will take you 20,000+ shirts just to pay off the machine, not including inks and other consumables. Profit is not a dirty word, even though Occupy people may have you think otherwise. You have a definite advantage over many in this forum, because you have been a salesman your whole life. In Myrtle Beach, you should have opportunities with tourism that many do not have. I would figure out your costs, and at least double it to come up with a base for retail price. Some have the mentality of competing with screen printers, but screen printers will rarely, if ever, print one shirt. With a DTG machine, you can do what screen printers are not wanting to do.

Hope this helps.


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## ryan barker (Jul 21, 2011)

*Re: Need help selling*

i'm just winging my response, so take it for what it's worth.

you live in one of the top tourist destinations on the east coast. selling to tourists should be a gimme, right? what does that entail, though? obviously, that means an actual physical presence, so either have your own storefront/kiosk or strike up a deal with some tourist shops to have your shirts in their store. of course, especially in a tourist area the competition will be strong for those sales. 

targeting businesses should be, as mentioned, a face-to-face exchange. personally, after six years of being in business (not screenprinting, that part is a new addition for us), i don't even look at flyers, it's just more unsolicited junk to me.


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

*Re: Need help selling*

Maybe you could start out by sharing some of the objections you've been hearing when you went out to those businesses?


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## ryan barker (Jul 21, 2011)

good point. honest feedback is worth its weight in gold. consider that major and expensive alterations to $200M movies are made based on test audience results and perhaps conclude that reactions are important? 

as business owners, i'm sure we all get *tons* of junk mail and unsolicited sellers coming up to us. i wish i had the time (i need to start making some) to approach businesses (i'll eventually start having to), but the few that i've done over the years i've done pretty well from. bear in mind this was for our trophy part of the business, but the rules imo are the same. it's about making contact with someone that's able to make a purchasing decision, showing them what you can do for them, the benefits of that to them, and asking them for their business. image the kind of questions that you would ask were you in their position and be prepared to answer those. if you can't beat someone's price, be sure to let them know that you are stronger in other areas, e.g. turnaround time or quality guarantees. perhaps there's a hidden advantage you have over, say, them ordering online (for example, perhaps the shirt prices are lower, but what about shipping costs? point out that once you factor that in those shirts aren't as cheap as they may seem. or drop your set-up fees after the first order if the artwork doesn't dramatically change). obvioiusly, since you have a DTG machine, you would taut unlimited colours and a soft hand of the shirt as selling points. you're the sales expert between the two of us, i'm sure you have a few tricks up your sleeve. indeed, you should be telling *us* how it's done! lol. you say you actually talking to all of these people and only got six sales? i agree, that's not good. now, if all you did was send flyers out, then, yes, i would say that 3% return on 200 flyers is average more or less for this kind of direct marketing.

imo, there's no trumping personal contact when it comes to sales. 

is $2000 a month in profit asking too much? for a person without a store front or website i would say it is. even if you sold ten shirts at ten bucks to each of those 200 businesses, that's only 20 grand a year in sales, or $1666/mo. gross. 

that's not too rosy. then again, you're a salesman, not a graphic designer, so it would seem that dropping some serious coin and getting a spot at boardwalk on the beach or barefoot landing isn't up your alley? that's too bad, too, because if you can't sell a t-shirt at those places, maybe selling t-shirts isn't your bag, lol. 

were it me, i would switch gears in terms of how i thought about what i offer. i wouldn't think of it as some business buying my shirt for purposes of advertisement, although i might mention that as a side benefit. rather i would concentrate on making work shirt for those businesses, plenty of whom have behind-the-scenes staff that doesn't require a nice embroidered polo shirt or something, but yet probably has their busboys and such wear t-shirts with company names on them. speaking of embroidery, find someone to outsource that to if your main goal is to cater to businesses.

i think most of us would loooove a DTG printer. couple that with myrtle beach and, shoo, what a dream position to be in! you're selling yourself short, though, and, imo, missing out on opportunities. sure, being positive is essential, but i think what you need is some confidence to match, my friend. chicks and customers respond to confidence ~ it's got nothing to do with being a nice guy. the salesman that thinks that being a nice guy is key to something is just a sucker. that's not saying you need to be a jerk, lol, it's just saying that of the two, confidence and niceness, the confident guy will always beat the hell out of jugheads every time. i'm just sayin' is all....

i'll be the jerk that asks what i think we're all thinking: if you've been in sales all your life, how did you perform so poorly in selling your product in *200* people you had contact with? was it your pitch, your price, the quality, your service?


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## POSITIVEPUSHNYC (Aug 10, 2012)

I need some shirts printed


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## gorilladiver (Oct 25, 2011)

I think Myrtle Beach would be a very high competition area. Seems like every street corner has a shop with tshirts for sale, screen printed shirts and tons of heat transfers. There must already be a bunch of established printers to supply that kind of demand. I've been there at the end the summer tourist season where many shops have a large supply of overstock marked down to just a $1 or $2 per shirt to get rid of them. I was there last June, I didn't notice any of the tourist shops with DTG printers. Maybe offer to partner with one of them to offer custom printed shirts on location, Or work with screen printers, sign shops, marketing firms that may need small quantities for their customers.


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