Business Management - Marketing/Sales

Achieving greatness requires three things: practice, coaching and concentration. These three “Greatness Drivers” are hard. I’m not giving you some magic elixir.

It's understandable that evolved printing firms want to meet with marketing. Problems arise when they approach marketing directly, but are still seen as printers. Marketing execs may bounce them over to the print buying team, which may react as I did years ago — ticked off. Hopes for that printer are dashed.

Print-on-demand (POD) technology allows for the printing of books as they are ordered, without warehousing, storage or startup costs. Books are printed with the same quality and professionalism that you would see in any traditionally published book. Instead of having hundreds (perhaps even thousands) of copies stored in a warehouse, POD printers can provide books more efficiently with less waste. 

In this webinar, you will hear how two users, Conceptual Product Development and UBR Services, are leveraging digital technology to both grow their business and deliver books. They will share with you how they are doing it and why it's just smart business.  

Click here to view this webinar today!

As the sales landscape has fundamentally changed, the role of sales management, the attributes of sales representatives, the mindset of suppliers, and the role of competitive differentiation have changed — or have needed to change. It is rare that the needs of any two customers are identical.

The survivors will have the best salespeople, not necessarily the best equipment. Oh, they will have good machinery, good software, good management and good (low) costs but, above all, they will have dynamite salespeople working within and propelled by a superb marketing program.

Joe Stoeckle, senior buyer at R.L. Polk & Co., will go out of his way to maintain good working relationships with his print providers. The products and services that he purchases are important to his employer's business—and the job he does at purchasing them is critical in his position as a buyer.

Many commercial printers sell promotional products to supplement their other product and service offerings. Relative to the balance of a printer's capabilities menu, promo products are uncomplicated.

As we skate into the fourth
 quarter of what has been a  very difficult year, it is none too soon to be thinking about strategies for 2010. With that in mind, I have put together a Top 10 "must do" list for 2010.

Is this how a printer in 2009 thinks he can impress a prospect? Not only did he mumble, making me strain to understand the company name as well as his own, but then he did something so lame that I almost felt sorry for the guy.

Back in 1984 I was working for Pitney Bowes in Cairns in Far North Queensland.  If you’ve never been there, it’s hot.  In summer... it’s very hot.  My company car was the reject Toyota Hiace from the warehouse with vinyl seats and no air-conditioning. I couldn’t afford a proper car because I was making no commission.

On a typical day I’d drive an hour to an outlying town.  First I’d have to change my shirt because the one I was wearing during the drive was now stuck to my back.  Then I would spend the next 2 – 4 hours walking up and down each street in the town... cold prospecting.  For someone with low self-esteem, this was not fun.  I was also not very good at it.  After my first 9 months I was on about 50% of target and barely surviving.