We are excited to announce SAGE and PPAI have formed a strategic relationship with Promotional Product Professionals of Canada (PPPC) to bring together three of the strongest organizations in the promotional products industry. PPPC members will receive the industry’s leading technology solutions, as well as access to trade shows, education, networking opportunities, business savings benefits, and legislative initiatives.
We sat down with president and CEO of PPPC, Jonathan Strauss, to pick his brain about what this new relationship could bring to the industry.
Q: Why is this new relationship so important to your membership?
A: We’re excited to have this new partnership with SAGE to give our members the technology solutions they’ve been telling us they need. Our supplier and distributor members are going to get the essential tools required to better run their business and to help them grow, and that’ll help us grow the industry in Canada. At the same time, we’re excited to formalize our partnership with PPAI. We can learn a lot from the success that PPAI has had, and we’re looking to grow our programs and services in Canada and to learn from the best of the best.
Q: What inspired this partnership?
A: We’re a member-driven association and listening to our members is our #1 job. We’ve heard what they’ve been asking for and technology was a crucial part of their business that they were missing. Our mission has been to enhance the value of a PPPC membership. And this partnership brings that value in the form of technology solutions by SAGE that really work – it’s proven, and it’s been used by many of us here already. We also get to leverage opportunities through PPAI in terms of education, access to tradeshows, research, and industry information that’s critical to our Canadian promotional products industry.
Q: What benefits will your members receive?
A: For distributors, they get a SAGE Total Access subscription plus an additional user license with their PPPC membership. SAGE Total Access is a full business management solution, which allows them to run their whole business. Distributors can also expect all the research and industry news from a PPAI Membership. And on the supplier side, they receive a SAGE Advantage Membership which gives them more access to all PPPC and PPAI members.
Q: How will this relationship transform your members’ business?
A: For distributors, SAGE Total Access is going to transform the way they do their business because of their access to a variety of tools. They don’t just get a product research tool, but they have a whole suite of business management solutions at their fingertips including order management, customer relationship management (CRM), pre-designed email campaigns, and so much more! And for suppliers, they can reach over 45,000 distributor users including all PPAI and PPPC members in one database. They can serve their customers through a simple and easy-to-use system that allows them to keep their information up-to-date.
Q: What does this relationship mean for the distributors and suppliers in this industry?
A: I think it’s really the future of how you’re seeing non-profit organizations collaborating and working with for-profit companies that bring the best products and services to the industry. This is representative of how both organizations are looking ahead to what their members in the industry will not only need today but what they also need going forward.
Here at SAGE, we’re very excited to see the promotional product market expand across all North America through this new business relationship. Check out our Canadian page to learn more about the alliance between SAGE, PPAI, and PPPC!
