We are going to change the blog’s format a bit and give each “Print Confessions” blogger the option to be a ghost (anonymous) or a guest (name displayed). Several people stepped up to offer to write an occasional blog.
A printer’s online presence is more critical now than ever, and it’s going to stay that way. It’s my experience that professional print customers check out a printer’s website very carefully as part of their due diligence process.
Eric Pearson of Technaprint in Portland received a poor survey alert last week. He called the customer immediately and after listening to the person vent, Eric patiently explained that he had never done a label order for the buyer.
Ah, song parodies. I grew up listening to Weird Al Yankovic sing songs like “Eat It” and “Like a Surgeon.” Following my last post, I got a message from a printer who has jumped on the song parody train with great success.
“Nobody needs business cards anymore.” At least that’s what I’ve heard from several printers lately. But there it was…in one of the least expected places! With that instantly recognizable little blue bird, “it” was a Twitter business card.
I constantly hear from print buyers about how annoying it is to get 50-60 voice mails a day from sales people like my clients. What if you set up office hours similar to what professors do in college? Every month you set aside two hours to meet with new sales people and hear their pitches.
Recently, I have been hired by corporations to review, analyze, and comment on the performance of a multitude of integrated cross-media marketing programs. I have discovered a lack of post-program review and assessment, particularly from the print end of the business.
A frequent objection I hear is: “It takes too long to do a checklist, so I would expect a diminishing return on the time I’ve invested!” Over the years, our reports have PROVEN that using quality-control systems is NOT a diminishing return on investment; rather, the time and money saved is astounding, and some other benefits have been priceless!
Some of your best sales opportunities might be right in your backyard. Even a small share-of-customer increase among your top customers can lead to a significant jump in sales. And it’s much easier selling repeat business because the hard job of qualifying the lead is already done.
For the last six months, we have paraded a variety of ghost bloggers in front of you. At this point, however, the well is dry. We have no backlog of material awaiting its turn to be published.
