Evolution of Print: Become Solutions Providers

By a show of hands, how many people know what an XML file is?

For many years, I have been posing this opening question to printing industry owners, senior executives and salespeople prior to starting a meeting, training or talk on the subject of how printers and print professionals need to evolve to survive in the new communication age and, more importantly, to thrive and take a prominent position as the key solutions provider for their customer’s communications needs.

Sadly, the number of hands that have gone up has been sparse and, for those who raised their hands, a brief exploration of their knowledge on the subject or why it is relevant to them and their customers quickly unravels.

Even more concerning is the answer to the follow-up question: “How many of your customers are discussing XML files with you?” The answer is invariably none. Every client is using (or needs help in using) XML files as the common language for their multi-channel communication in mobile, Web, social media, outdoor, in-store, packaging, broadcast, direct mail, publishing and all forms of print. The fact that our key clients are not discussing this with their printer (mainly their sales rep) means that they already view the printer as irrelevant in their overall communications strategy, or that the printer’s direct client contact is out of the loop in their own company as well.

The purpose of this article is not to define or discuss XML. However, if you raised your hand as you read this, and if you recognize that an XML file is one of the key “missing links” to completing the printer’s evolutionary path from providing a low-margin commodity to becoming a high-margin solutions provider, now the fun can begin.

After all, Gutenberg didn’t just invent movable type and print; he revolutionized communications. So can we. We have a great legacy of printers revolutionizing the way the world communicates to build on and live up to. Multiple studies show print, used effectively, is still the key component in today’s multi-channel communications. When removed from a customer’s communication chain, it also has the greatest negative impact on their ROI compared to any other channel.

It is time for printers to see themselves as the publishing and marketing communication experts that they are. Why? Because our customers are underprepared for and unsure how to deal with all of the changes in the way their readers and consumers want to receive and respond to information. They are searching for the best way to have the most personal relationship with customers, and to get the greatest ROI from their communication channel, advertising investments and options. Printers are uniquely positioned to be their consultative solution and process execution partners.

Want proof? Just go online and download the recent IBM C-suite study about chief marketing officers (CMOs). The study, in which more than 1,700 global CMOs participated, references a “digital ocean” in which up to 71 percent of the respondents describe themselves as underprepared, struggling to keep their head above water in key areas, such as data explosion, the growth of channel and device choices, and shifting consumer demographics. Who can help these people? We can! And I bet they will pay us a lot of money for helping them find dry land.

It is time for us to stop talking about this and start taking charge of our shared destinies. The industry or organization that can create the integrated communications engine and dashboard for multi-channel marketers will revolutionize the effectiveness and efficiency of communications.

The software industry has the means and technology to do it, but with so many fractured solutions, no one has stepped up to find or agree on the ultimate integration path from creative concept through marketing analytics. What about the agencies? They’re great on creative branding concepts but traditionally weak in production execution, an area where their margins continue to be commoditized. They will be the CMO’s branding partner, but we should take our rightful place as the CMO’s multi-channel communications execution partner. If we don’t provide the solution, someone else will. That is an evolutionary fact.

A source of great encouragement is that there are a number of “printers” on the evolutionary path, realizing great rewards in revenue and margin growth that defy the sinking industry averages. In addition, there is a new brand of “print” C-level leader emerging—people of all ages from non-traditional backgrounds, such as software, engineering and data analytics, who are bringing their considerable skills (and lack of fear and aversion to change) to transform traditional print shops into client communications solutions companies.

In addition, long-time industry institutions of higher learning, like Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) and others, are developing a new breed of industry talent, trained with all of the skills necessary to lead the next wave of industry advancement. The old mindset of making them trainees for an extended period of time must change. Put them to work on critical new solutions initiatives right away, and you will profit from it. However, currently these successes are exceptions and not the norm, and no one has yet developed a set of solutions or platforms that is scalable enough to benefit an entire industry.

What does print (and printer) evolution look like? Here is an overview highlighting some key solutions components, distinguishing between communications solutions for publishers and consumer marketers. Even though many printers, content and other communication solutions providers service the needs for both customer types, the ROI models for each are so unique that clear distinction is important.

A complete, end-to-end solution for a publisher can include image, topic and article management workflows, composition, editorial, translation, analog-to-digital file conversion workflows, a communications delivery portal, multi-channel communications output (including multiple forms of publishing, solicitation and print-on-demand), and enriched content solutions for mobile and online communication outputs (which allows the reader to explore greater detail or advertising related to tagged content).

A complete, end-to-end solution for a consumer marketer can include image management workflows, spatial and basic composition, translation, target client profiling, versioning and line extensions, e-commerce platform, multi-channel communication outputs (including traditional and digital printing for promotional, direct mail, packaging, store and outdoor graphics), fulfillment and marketing data analytics for channel use and campaign targeting ROI. A key aspect to success here is to be a partner that is seen as an extension of your customer’s marketing team—involved in campaign development and strategy from concept through analytics.

A common obstacle to selling these end-to-end solutions may be a client’s aversion to outsourcing some of the services. Over and over again I have experienced that, presented in the right way, to the right champion, at the right time, the client will arrive at the conclusion that the cost and time benefits gained from outsourcing the technical or repetitive aspects of these services makes them a hero. The value and morale of their internal employees doing this work will also increase exponentially as they refocus their efforts on core strategic or creative initiatives.

Let’s refute some top myths that many printing executives believe about implementing evolutionary change in their organizations:

1. It will be difficult and expensive. The key to cost effectively and seamlessly adding a suite of services like those listed above is more about who you know than what you know. What you need to know is what services to provide based on the needs of a cross-section of your key clients or an enabling client. Every service outlined above is being provided today by someone, just not in an integrated fashion.

Your ability to pick the right partners to integrate the solutions together will cost you very little in upfront costs and give you tremendous return. This can then lead to acquiring the services and talents you will need as profit builds.

2. It will cannibalize or negatively impact my traditional print offerings. Years ago, as the leader of a print sales organization, I was given this bit of strategic advice by a peer: “Only talk about digital solutions with prospects and not with customers because we don’t want our existing clients to stop their traditional printing.”

As strange as this might sound, it does represent a form of denial that exists about the fact that our customers’ printing needs have irreversibly changed and there is nothing we can do to stop or change it. Those “printers” I mentioned earlier who have embraced their role as a communications partner are now enjoying not only a high margin from the added services but are driving significant and sustainable new print growth.

3. I can just hire techies to implement new offerings and it will be successful. This initiative needs to be led from the top. Tech-savvy people are critical for solution scoping and implementation, but providing the vision for the customers and the organization behind transitioning to a new suite of solutions rests with leadership.

If you are not tech savvy, include someone in your leadership team who can act as the translator of your vision to those who are and channel appropriate communication to you in return.

4. Customers will not listen to or consider using a printer as their multi-channel communications partner. CMOs will listen to anyone who can help them form a more intimate bond with their customers, which results in profitable topline growth and ROI. Besides ad agency executives, no one has greater access to the CMOs than printers do. Several times, I have experienced my team getting direct access to the CMO, regardless of whether they were an existing print client or not, based simply on the questions we asked and the solutions we suggested. Many times, print was not discussed until after multiple discovery sessions. But, when it was, it became a foregone conclusion that we would be printing a lot of work as a logical outgrowth of providing a full solution.

Business process outsourcing organizations have proven that the cost side of the corporate C-suite can be won over with a fresh approach to procurement. This is the printer’s chance to win over the revenue side of the C-suite in a whole new way.

5. My existing print sales force can sell this. In my 30-plus years in the industry, I have been and have managed literally thousands of commissioned print salespeople—some of the best of the best—and I can say with no hesitation that this belief is false.

Traditional printing industry salespeople cannot sell these new solutions—not on their own. Even if you change the commission structure to incent a new behavior, it is almost impossible to break them from the habit of first contacting the print buyer (or if the relationship is already established at that level, to successfully navigate through it), then getting a print quote, and now the commodity print game begins.

From my experience, the secret to success in selling these solutions initially begins with a defined, targeted approach to CMOs at a few key enabling clients only. The approach is well-thought-out and executed by a team that includes a significant senior C-level leader for strategy and peer-to-peer C-level contact, the sales rep, and a selected team of technical and marketing people who are good at asking questions and scoping solutions.

The rush to provide pricing should be avoided at all costs until clear and defined client benefits and targets are established. Once a few wins are established, then a go-to-market approach to carefully targeted prospects can start. PI 

About the Author
Gary Pawlaczyk is a C-level executive senior business advisor with Epicomm, a not-for-profit business management association for companies in the graphic communications industry. A 1983 graduate of the Rochester Institute of Technology School of Printing, he has enjoyed a long and successful career as a sales, marketing and operations senior executive with some of the industry’s largest and most prestigious companies. Pawlaczyk can be reached at (201) 956-7429 or via email at gpawlaczyk@epicomm.org