Business Management - Marketing/Sales

Here's an idea for a marketing activity so obvious, it's easy to overlook. So basic, it works for all kinds of graphic arts operations. Most companies define their programs as the sum of their marketing activities. Asked about programs, more than a few marketing and sales executives respond with a list: a company brochure, several mailed pieces, a Web site, a newsletter, lead generation activities and an annual open house—programs found at many companies. Do these add up to a marketing program? Maybe so, maybe not. It's not the items on the list that determine whether the activities constitute a program. The activities are tactics. What

To feed or divert a discontented populace, the ancient Romans offered bread and circuses. And, to a certain extent, they met with success. Their idea lingers in today's world of graphic arts sales compensation; some printers pay straight salaries to their sales forces, while other printers add various incentives and bonuses. Despite what many consider to be the intrinsic nature of motivation, incentive plans can help boost individual performance in certain situations. In this second of two installments (see March issue, page 56), Printing Impressions reviews incentive plans and other issues relative to commercial printing sales compensation. Various industry players share their thoughts and

A familiar declaration, usually delivered in emphatic tones: Advertising doesn't work for commercial printing companies! Heard that before? I have. Often. It's a truism—a seemingly self-evident statement likely to be called into question only by rookie marketers. No one likes to be a novice, wet behind the ears, unaware of what works and what doesn't, not really knowing how to do the things that matter. And so, in many printing companies, advertising is an unexamined option, seldom considered by marketing and sales executives. The belief that advertising holds no benefit for commercial printers is so strong that a surprising number of specialty printers, with highly focused

One of my partners here at Compass Capital Partners, Steve Marcus, says that I can't say no. He says that I have a "mother-hen complex" and, because of this malady, I am compelled to solve the problems of others. I guess you could say that I'm "can't-say-no impaired." Years ago, when I was a big-shot executive, one of my secretaries, the lovely Miss Pam Stewart, made a needlepoint decoration and framed it for my office. It read, "No, Nein, Negatory, Non, Hell No!" She had observed the same weakness that Steve Marcus has discovered in me. I keep Pam's needlepoint near my office phone

According to Plutarch, Julius Caesar, passing through a poor village in the Alps, remarked, "I would rather be the first man here than the second in Rome." Now we all know that Julius was a very ambitious man. He possessed many of the qualities—like ambition—that printing company owners might like to see in sales personnel.

It's Super Bowl Sunday, the game is on the tiny TV here in my office, Brett Favre has just thrown a touchdown pass to Antonio Freeman—and here I sit writing this column. Boy, am I a loser. Seems like I should have been invited to at least one Super Bowl party. I think someone should have asked me over to see the game on a big-screen TV. Wow, Terrell Davis just ran one in to tie the score. I think I'll try to finish this column before the game ends. I'll watch the game with my left eye and write with my right

My pal, Warren "Jaydee" Thornton, and I were having lunch at Little Bit's Barbecue just north of Sheffield, AL, back in November. I'd gone down for the grand opening of the new North Alabama Manauqua Casino, the newest of the Indian reservation casinos to open. Jaydee, you will recall, is the proud owner and president of Jaydee's Lithographic Printing. He's partial to Little Bit's chopped pork, and I could die for the all-you-can-eat dinner of fried catfish. I was about two bites away from a powerful need for seven Tums when Jaydee brought up his latest salesperson disaster. You regular readers will recall that Jaydee was