HAMILTON, BERMUDA—VistaPrint, an online printer that supplies small businesses and consumers with customized printed products, has entered the marketing services business with two new offerings: mailing and creative services. According to VistaPrint, the services will allow small business clients to market their companies in a quicker, easier and cost-effective manner.Mailing services allows customers to design,…
In my former life, I was first a print buyer and then later became a sales rep for a printing company. I remember one seminar that my sales manager sent me to that taught that print sales is really a numbers game. If you cold call “X” number of companies per day, you’ll get “X” number of jobs to quote on and that will turn into “X” number of sales per month. The theory was that the most important thing that you could do as a sales rep was to cold call as many buying companies as possible. The higher the number, the more
If there’s one topic that riles print buyers, it’s asking them if it’s okay for printing sales reps to “drop by” to see them without an appointment. We asked that question in last week’s Print Buyers Online.com’s Print Buyer Quick Poll. Out of the 133 print buyer respondents, 71% said “No, it’s almost never okay – even with print suppliers that I often use. This really irritates me.”
Check out the full results of the survey, plus buyer commentary here: http://www.printbuyersonline.com/content.asp?id=3533 . Also, check out what printers said about this same topic in our Print Supplier Quick Poll: http://www.printbuyersonline.com/content.asp?id=3534
While most sales reps respectfully refrain
Last November, I was invited to China by PrintBestBuy, a print management company that represents large Chinese printing companies. I toured about eight printing companies and met with many more printers during conferences held in three cities. I learned a lot. China is on the super-fast track in capitalism. The printing plants I toured were extremely impressive in plant size, tremendous amounts of affordable labor, cutting-edge technology and excellent print quality. Most of these companies have specialized in err, well, specialty printing – hand work, holograms, complex foil stamping, etc. They’ve got it goin’ on in many ways.
Perhaps the fact that I’m even mentioning
In February, I talked a bit about how print service providers could use their color expertise as a marketing tool. Although I am not a color expert or a graphic designer, I do love the way colors work with each (or, hate it when they don’t). In my spare time, when I am not writing columns for Printing Impressions, I am also a fiber artist, weaving, spinning and doing needlework. So, because of my dual interest in the craft of printing and the craft of fiber arts, I like to keep my eye on the latest color trends. You would think that with all of
On the last day of this month, I will be 65. And, dammit, I’m still not grown up. I still don’t know what I wannabe when I grow up.
This is sad. I ask myself: “How am I defined?”
Ever wonder how you are defined? It’s scary to think about.
When I finish this column, I will have written 251 “DeWese on Sales” columns for PRINTING IMPRESSIONS magazine. Does that define me as a columnist?
I owned the Marple Crawdads semi-pro baseball team, coached more than 1,000 baseball games and won nearly 80 percent of the games. That’s better than the win percentages of Connie Mack
AUGUSTA, ME—05/22/07—As part of their continuing commitment to excellence, J.S. McCarthy Printers in Augusta, ME has transferred all of its electricity purchases to 100% wind-generated power. This move is part of an ongoing environmental initiative aimed at reducing the company’s carbon footprint. J.S. McCarthy now purchases renewable energy credits (REC’s) through NativeEnergy. This company certifies that the power purchased by J.S. McCarthy comes from 100% wind generation and also recognizes the power as Green-e renewable energy. Green-e is an organization with a mission to expand the demand for, and raise awareness about, renewable energy generation. This is J.S. McCarthy’s latest undertaking aimed at offering their
HAMILTON, BERMUDA—May 16, 2007 —VistaPrint, an online supplier of high-quality graphic design services and customized printed products to small businesses and consumers, today announced the availability of new printed T-Shirts. VistaPrint continues to build on its already robust manufacturing processes by investing to standardize and automate the T-Shirt printing process from design all the way through to production. Available in five sizes, VistaPrint T-Shirts are easy to design and order with prices starting at just $9.49 for one T-Shirt. “While we have traditionally focused on printed products such as business cards and postcards, offering a new type of product is exciting for us because
The one question that I keep hearing from printers is whether or not someone with the title of “print buyer” is really the person the printing company should be targeting. Some printers ask, “Shouldn’t I just go over the buyer’s head and talk to the real decision maker—someone in marketing?” I feel that many people in the printing industry want one, “correct” answer to the question of, “Is it the print buyer or the marketing manager?”
The answer is that it depends! By comparison, purchasing agents have long gotten a bad rap as only being interested in price. Now, the same darts are being thrown
William “The Refrigerator” Perry, a retired Chicago Bears football player known for his considerable size (6-foot-2 and 370 pounds), was enlisted to help promote the new very- large-format capabilities of North Bergen, NJ-based Edison Litho & Printing at the annual GlobalShop Show (held in Las Vegas in March). Perry appeared at Edison’s booth to sign autographs and have his picture taken with show-goers. “We wanted to stand out at the show, and what better way to promote our large-format capability, but to have a celebrity football player at our booth,” says Joe Ostreicher, Edison Litho’s vice president. “We chose William ‘The Refrigerator’ Perry because he
