Alex Frelier, Progressive Window Fashions, Clover, SC
Over the years, I've gotten very little help from most suppliers in generating leads and closing sales for my business. Our industry is jammed full of shutter component suppliers who don't have the desire or the resources to support fabricators in the day-to-day sales and marketing process. Frankly, I don't think that many of them have the rubber-meets-the-road experience in retail marketing to provide me this help.

Let's face it, my sales and marketing efforts will drive the growth of my business. Sure, there are suppliers that have some basic brochures for distribution through their fabricators. But that's about the extent of the marketing support I'd get from most suppliers in this industry.

And I simply can't know everything there is to know about marketing - and then managing - a successful window coverings business on my own. The manufacturers of Thermalite^TM have shared with us a system for marketing shutters that has been both innovative and effective over their 30 years in business. Clearly, it's worked for them, so their methods are tried and tested over time. And they continue to develop 'private label' versions of their marketing tools that those of us in the TSFA (Thermalite Shutter Fabricators Association) can use in our own marketing efforts.