From setting up meaningful partnerships to negotiating the best prices for print projects, printers have the opportunity to help print buyers save their organizations hundreds of thousands of dollars at each stage of the buying process. To find out how much money buying companies are saving, we conducted a Quick Poll in October that asked our major print buyers, “In the past year, how much money do you believe you saved your organization on its print projects?”  

Of the 50 survey participants, 26% of print buyers said their organizations had saved $250,000 in the last year alone.  Here is the breakdown across the board:

· 6% of print buyers said — At least $5,000
· 12% of print buyers said — $6,000 to $25,000
· 22% of print buyers said — $26,000 to $74,000
· 18% of print buyers said — $75,000 to $124,000
· 16% of print buyers said — $125,000 to $249,000
· 26% of print buyers said — Over $250,000

As director Harvey Halperin noted, "At $40 million total volume, if I did not save 8-10%, I feel as if I have not done my job.”

We delved deeper to learn how money on print projects was being saved. Many print buyers realized their greatest savings through careful strategizing, such as using versioning and variable data. Others claimed forecasting was the secret to their success.

One print buyer said, "In the direct mail arena, testing discipline often requires production managers to be more diligent in getting cost-saving measures implemented. Most, if not all, changes of any kind must be tested first to determine impact on response.”

Others make every effort to match jobs with vendor capabilities — and work with their suppliers to fine tune their print order quantities.  Hal Garstein, director, manufacturing and distribution at The Deal, LLC, believes the more printers can do inhouse or inline, the greater cost-per-unit savings that will be realized. “Soliciting multiple bids from vendors with similar capabilities is our most effective means of keeping costs down without sacrificing quality,” he said.

But what happens when a buyer/supplier team is too good at cutting costs? David Mitchell, a former senior print production manager, cut his costs so much that he was no longer needed. "I started as the senior print buyer and by suggesting innovative ideas about changing sizes, I was able to reduce our postage by $3 million. I was promoted to a commodity manager position, but wonder — is this a good problem to have when a person works themselves out of job?"
 
How have you helped print buyers save money for their organizations?  And has this generated client loyalty? Share you experiences by posting a comment below.