Business Management - Marketing/Sales

There is some considerable confusion over the pronunciation of Mañana Man. The "Man" part is easy. It's the "Mañana" that befuddles many of you readers. Many people rhyme their pronunciation with "banana," the long yellow fruit grown in the tropics that we peel before we eat. That pronunciation is incorrect. I will help correct your pronunciation with a phonetic explanation. Follow along with this exercise. First, say "mawn" and pronounce it with a Jamaican accent so it comes out as in "Hey Mon, let's have some rum when we've beaten our sales objectives by 20 percent." Got it? First syllable is "Mawn." Next syllable. It's "yah." As

Valentine's Day just passed. I'm a hopeless romantic and I went a little nuts with gifts for all the women in my life; one wife, three daughters and four granddaughters. Some people have said that I'm a "man's man." But, I'm confessin' that as I grow older, I'm getting more and more in touch with what some experts refer to as my "feminine side." It's got something to do with men's testosterone leaking out or evaporating or something. Whew! I'm glad to get that little tidbit off my chest. I have to be careful with the rest of this so as not to be

BY MARK SMITH Technology Editor It's hard to fault any conventional print sales rep for being hesitant to embrace digital services, be they static or variable data production capabilities. Change is never easy, and digital printing presents a different selling proposition. Static jobs are almost by definition shorter runs done on-demand. This means a lot more effort is required to reach sales volumes comparable to offset work. Variable data work can bring larger volumes, albeit generally produced in smaller lots, and it tends to support higher margins. The problem is, additional expertise is required to sell and produce personalized marketing programs. Also, sell cycles

In my December 2003 column, I offered to send you readers "400 Sales Tips for Printing Sales Professionals." I concocted this offer at 3 a.m. on the morning of Attila the Editor's stupid deadline whilst I was stoned on a caffeine high. Coffee is about all I have left now that I'm on this stupid South Beach diet and working out with a personal trainer. So far, my 61-year-old biceps are up to 18˝, I'm begging my neighbors to let me redecorate their homes and I can bench press about twice my IQ. The 400 tips idea was a gratuitous, self-serving act. I

The worst may be over. According to data in "Print Buying 2003: Demographic Analysis of Print End-User Markets," published annually by C. Barnes & Co., U.S. demand for print, which minimally grew from 2001 to 2002 (just over 1 percent), grew to $92.5 billion in 2003 (nearly 4 percent). But the bigger story for printers is in the regional and industry segment demand changes. "Print Buying 2003" ranks the U.S. print demand by state and metropolitan area, giving printers the detailed regional information they need to project their future success. By state, the largest states take the top three spots. California ranks number one

What was I thinking when I offered to send you readers my list of the Top 400 Sales Tips? I didn't think anyone would take me seriously. But hundreds of you e-mailed me to request the list! This forced me to write 400 sales tips. I'm pretty sure I missed Christmas and New Years. I typed until I wore through these silly mittens that they make me wear. I actually thought about announcing my retirement and heading for Key West. My business partner, Gabe Nagy, announced his retirement this past December. That's Gabe Nagy, Esquire of Princeton, Cum Laude 1959 and Harvard Law School 1964.

Thinking is hard for me. It tires my brain and then I have to take a nap. I got to thinking the other day about how important it is to be "normal." I had just finished a phone conversation with a good pal who is president of a $100 million-plus printing company. My buddy is very "normal." I'm talkin' head-screwed-on-straight rational, without any peccadilloes. There's nary an eccentric bone in his body. Conversations with this guy are fun and refreshing because he's "normal" and, of course, I am "normal." All this thinking about being "normal" prompted me to do some high-level, in-depth research and here's what I

By Erik Cagle Senior Editor Early on it was apparent to LAgraphico that, when it came to the creative and conceptual link in the print production chain, burning the midnight oil was best left to Midnight Oil Creative. The Burbank, CA-based sheetfed printer, with roots tracing back 25 years to L.A. Filmco and A&L Graphico, was founded by Al Shapiro—who started out as a print broker—and his wife Liz. He migrated into color separation services and gradually added sheetfed presses to service the needs of the entertainment, advertising and promotional businesses. "We do a lot of work for Hollywood movie studios," states Peter Szillies,

Boy am I worried. The editor-in-chief of this magazine and the publisher are taking me to dinner next week. We are going to a very private, out-of-the-way, quiet and exclusive restaurant. I'm scared that it's going to be one of those mob hit dinners where I take a Louisville Slugger to the back of my head just as I'm slurping my first spoonful of hemlock soup. After all, this is Philadelphia, the home of creative mob rubouts. Or, maybe they're gonna strip all the buttons off my jacket and drum me out of their writers' corp. I can see myself limping out of the

I don't understand why one day is a great day and the next day has to be a disaster. This happened to me on September 13th and 14th. It's tough on my psyche to go from euphoria to—boom—the pits in the space of 24 hours. Saturday, the 13th, was perfect. There was a great sale at K-Mart. I now have 24 large cans of Maxwell House French Roast coffee, 108 rolls of Viva paper towels and 108 rolls of Scott toilet tissue. As you know, these are some of my favorite brands. It's not the bargains that thrilled me; it's the stockpiling I'm after. I