Greetings Today, September/October 2025 — Diary of a Sales Agent | Dave Langdon
“Dave Langdon at East Anglian Sales reports on a damp Home & Gift, and considers what makes a successful Christmas card range.”
“The key to Christmas card success is to build your range around a strong chat box.”
“It's well being an agent that does really offer strength across so it's important to target all potential customers walking through your doors.”
This instalment of Diary of a Sales Agent appears in the September/October 2025 issue of Greetings Today from Lema Publishing.
Writing after a damp Home & Gift, Dave looks ahead to Christmas ranges and what separates a good card wall from a great one: cover the funny and cool cards, contemporary art, blank cards, trendy AB and even small sizes — have you covered all bases?
He is proud to work with Museums & Galleries’ large and very successful range year after year, with artist Angela Harding’s designs extending into gift bags, gift wrap and more. Paper Salad’s Christmas collection, he writes, is “the equivalent of adding a scoop of gold leaf to an already gorgeous greeting card ice cream.”
Year highlights on the road include connecting a principal with a national account, surviving the M25 in paint-flecked workwear, and the everyday joy of building relationships — understanding what makes customers tick, and ordering it before the other shop in town claims exclusivity.
His takeaway for retailers: never underestimate a strong Christmas card supplier, check you have covered newer lifestyle greeting card buyers, and — tongue firmly in cheek — try not to leave too much paint in your car boot.