After over three decades in the sales and marketing trenches, I often look back on my early days in technical corporate sales and remember the principles that lit my path. Tom Peters was my north star, guiding me toward the pinnacle of success I hoped to reach. His words showed me how to captivate clients and close deals with passion and flair. Though the years have passed, I still channel his inspirational approach in everything I do. My journey has been long, but the lessons I learned at the start from masters like Peters will stay with me until the very end.

One of his dominant themes and quotes for success was this: “Under promise and overdeliver…”

Over the many years in the promotional products vendors you learn, usually the hard way, which vendors deliver great products, pricing and services and then the vendors that DON’T!  I came to understand that BIC, as a HEWG conglomerate, was probably only good for my customers with their extensive calendar collection; but, even some of those early days the orders got screwed up. Because my customers trust me 100% as a professional to “under promise and overdeliver”, I could no longer afford to use them as a vendor.

A few years ago you could not help but notice BIC went through a re-branding and now calling themselves The Koozie Group.  Not a fan of the new name and I tried to ignore them for many years until I was in need of doing an inexpensive give-away 2024 calendar.  And, at the time I placed an order for the calendars I noticed they were doing a special on their new “Stickie Note” product line, so I ordered some and recommended my customer also order some notes…

Why the test, you might ask?  It turns out the stickie notes I had ordered were not really sticky.  And, my customer’s order, was the same, and he actually uses these extensively for the numerous folders on his desk for his own style of information management.  UGH.

With the upcoming PPAI Expo in Las Vegas, I brought a sample of my pads to compare with the Koozie Group pads that I knew would be at the show.  Both pad samples had identical “stickiness” factors, and it was not acceptable.

Here is the good news….once the Manufacturing Managers got wind of my dissatisfaction with the product, I received several phone calls and emails and commitment to sending me updated product for testing.  This is the NEW AND IMPROVED Corporate culture at Koozie Group, and I am no longer running the other direction.

Even though in my video test, it looks like both notes were equal, at the end of the day I would trust the 3M product more and recommend that over the Koozie group version but, I appreciate and applaud Koozie Group’s commitment and follow up to make the order right.

Call us today for YOUR POST-IT Notes!