I am a student at Clemson University and have had the opportunity to talk with some of the industry’s leaders in innovation that have embraced the strategy of becoming a marketing service provider. I offer the following three reasons for becoming a marketing service provider:
When it comes to print, I like the unexpected. Iggesund’s promotion for the Invercote sheet incorporates an ample dose of it. There are many reasons to love this piece—yummy textures, surprising pop-outs, images that appear to be 3D…all ideas you’ll want to steal.
I have spent much of my career hiring sales people. It used to be a pretty simple process. If I were a sales manager today, the process I used would be NOTHING like that old one.
This morning, I watched Jason Freid’s talk, titled “Why work doesn’t happen at work.” Everyone knows about the constant interruptions at work, and the lunacy of running from meeting to meeting without ever getting a chance to accomplish anything.
Early in my sales career, I made the grave error of badmouthing a purchasing agent. I was speaking to my key contact at that company and delivered the punch line just as the head of finance was walking by. Gulp!
This year’s elections have generated more than $500 million of added revenue for printing businesses nationwide. A chunk of that money is helping a struggling Wisconsin print industry. Between things like tickets for presidential visits, mailers and voter information flyers, Tom Schorr of Wells Print and Digital Services in Madison says he’s been busy this year.
“For the full year of 2012, we have seen an increase of by say 160-170 percent for election-based printing,” he says.
Schorr said many of his employees have been working 10-15 hours of overtime for the past two months to meet deadlines.
Want a competitive advantage? As NFL teams are discovering, there’s an app for that. Across the league, teams are trading in their 500-page printed playbooks for iPads. In the last year alone, NFL teams using the iPad have quadrupled from three to 12, representing more than one-third of all teams.
Those using PlayerLync report that it has revolutionized the way they push out film and significantly altered the way they communicate.
In addition to saving printing costs, digital playbooks are increasing effective, real-time communication by allowing coaches and quarterbacks to add and share plays with the click of a button.
When I pulled the report on all five of the employees in that department, both our jaws dropped. The software report confirmed that the one we “felt” had made the least amount of errors had actually made the most.
Printing companies can extol the technological virtues of their latest presses, prepress systems and workflows as part of their sales pitch, but how about finishing? Focusing on your finishing capabilities can truly set you apart from your competitors.
Do you have a sales rep you are thinking about letting go? Before you do, be sure to check out this week’s “Short Attention Span Webinar.”
