It’s Time to Get Fired Up —DeWese

Welcome to class. I hope you all had a safe and sober Fourth of July. The campus here at Mañana University has been very quiet except for the unfortunate fireworks rocket attack on Dean Michelson's office. He is recovering nicely, and will have eyebrows and hair again in a few months.

Monique, you look as if your holiday was neither safe nor sober, and you need to wipe that barbecue sauce off your chin. You obviously fell asleep on the beach and got that magnificent sunburn that matches your auburn hair. Maybe you should brush some of the sand off your legs. The men are all staring, and I need their attention up here.

And, Monique, please keep your hands to yourself today; your groping is distracting to the other students. This is not a singles bar.

Okay, let's get started.

My wife of 48 years, Anne, is also known as Attila the Nun by my readers, friends and relatives. She can be brutal and she's devious. For example, Anne leaves magazine and newspaper articles that she wants me to read where I can't miss them, like on my bedside table or next to my toilet.

A recent article from Anne was a chronicle of the foremost leaders in the patriot movement and other radical militia people in America. These folks see federal government conspiracies everywhere, and they speechify, blogify and use their Websites to warn the rest of us to remain armed in case we have to fight off the U.S. Marines when they come to take us away to concentration camps.

Government Conspiracy

They warn, for example, that Washington, DC, has already constructed hundreds of concentration camps to house us if we smell the least bit liberal, are the wrong race or have the wrong sexual orientation. They say the camps are no secret. I guess I just missed hearing the secret. There were about 25 or 30 of these biographies in the article, and old, out-of-touch me had never heard of any of them.

This got me to thinking about conspiracies against the printing industry and, dammit, I found some. The Internet people, in cahoots with the laser and inkjet printer people, have conspired to eradicate letterhead and envelopes. When was the last time you received a nicely typed or handwritten letter on good stationery? No, you get plenty of e-mails, but no letters.

I receive more than 100 e-mails daily, and that doesn't even count all the male medication offers that I receive.

The same Internet people, in joint ventures with Twitter, My Space, LinkedIn, Facebook, game designers and porn sites, have conspired to eliminate WORK!

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is blushing over the reports that 33 employees were using their PCs six to seven hours daily for personal purposes. Purposes like downloading pornographic images, visiting porn sites and other nefarious Websites. I guess they should have been checking up on old Bernie Madoff, or Enron, or a multitude of other pyramid scams.They never catch any printers in scams. That's because you are all too busy putting out fires at the plant, begging for work and trying to beat checks to the bank.

Alas, however, I visit printing companies all the time, and I see CRTs in the sales and CSR departments that feature Solitaire, Mahjong and Poker. Pass back through the department an hour later, and the stuff is still up on the screens.

We need more work in this industry. We are good at working to produce jobs in beautiful dots, and on time, but are still lousy at working to actually get the work. But, then, that's why you are in this PhD class here at Mañana University.

Here's the worst conspiracy of all. The major networks, the cable people and the Internet people are conspiring to obliterate print. Otherwise, why are we down from 53,000 printing companies in 1987 to about 25,000 today? It ain't all the result of consolidation by mergers and acquisitions; it's also bankruptcies and liquidations.

Us Against TV, the Web

I say, let's mount our own conspiracy. We have to prove the value and validity of print. We have to build a case for the great role of print in the modern media mix. Dick Gorelick, the greatest marketing mind in our industry, publishes a bi-weekly newsletter where he documents, often with valid statistics, the value of print versus the other media—and it is dramatic. Gorelick's newsletter should go to every printing company in America, and it should be read by every owner, CEO, manager and salesperson. I don't read; I write. But I do read Dick's 10-page newsletter faithfully.

Let's all work together to start a conspiracy against TV and the Internet today!

Okay, subject number one: Company orientation and industry orientation. Actually, orientation just means knowledge and loyalty. You students, and all of you readers, won't get anywhere if you don't have a fire in your bellies for your companies and your industry. If you have children, you have a fire in your belly for your kids. You know a lot about them, and you love and are loyal to them. The same holds true for your spouse, your significant other, your family and your friends.

You gain company orientation for your employer when you know the company well and speak about it with passion. When there is passion, then a discussion about your company just flows beautifully. If there's no loyalty and no passion, then you should be working somewhere else.

If you are one of these negative, recalcitrant, pessimistic dolts, get out of my sight. These people are sour. They've got nothing good to say about anything. If that's the case, I don't want you. Get out of my company! If you come to work aiming to seek out fellow complainers in the coffee room, then don't bother to come to work. Too much time is wasted in our industry in bitch sessions. Either fall in love with the company you work for, and aim positively to make it better, or go beach comb. If you don't have a positive attitude, you are probably not a good salesperson anyway.

Industry orientation is the same thing. You need to be selling the merits and value of our industry. To do this you must know a lot about the overall print communications industry, and then the special segment that you occupy.

Maintain a fire in your belly for your company, as well as a fire in your tummy for our industry. Buyers will then look to you as being an expert. Remember that he or she who controls the information, controls. With all that passion, we can mount our own conspiracy, and start winning for a change.

Now, get your bazookas out there and sell something! Don't forget your homework. Next month I'm going to introduce a new and totally different method for learning from a magazine. That should help blow away those TV and Internet people. PI

—Harris DeWese

About the Author
Harris DeWese is the author of "Now Get Out There and Sell Something" and "The Mañana Man, Books II and III," available at www.piworld.com/bookstore. He is chairman of Compass Capital Partners and also authors the annual "Compass Report." DeWese has completed more than 150 printing company transactions and is viewed as the industry's preeminent deal maker. He can be reached via e-mail at HDeWese@CompassCapLtd.com.

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