I Know What Print Buyers Don’t Want

Last week, a printer emailed me asking if I had a handy list of what print buyers want. It got me thinking. Any list I compiled (or anyone compiled, for that matter) would have to be generalized. Print buyers don’t all think alike. They have individual styles, priorities, skills and buying practices.

While had I intended to create that list here today, I opted instead to turn it on its head and tell you what print buyers don’t want. Next time, I will tell you what they want.

22 things that print buyers don’t want...

• To be harassed by cold-calling print reps who have nothing exceptional to offer.

• To be contacted by print reps who haven’t done their homework on a particular buyer and her or his company/industry.

• To be surprised by an unexpected ANYTHING during the production process.

• To be kept in the dark when problems arise that will jeopardize the deadline, cost and/or quality of the printed piece.

• The runaround. They don’t want to have to chase down their sales or service rep when they call the plant looking for them.

• To be lied to—about capabilities, pricing, quality, delivery dates, paper spec’d, etc.

• To be the last one to hear that one of their printers has suddenly shut its doors.

• To wait for estimates.

• To get an invoice that doesn’t come close to the expected price.

• To be forced to work with a printing company chosen by someone else (i.e., their boss).

• To be spoken to condescendingly by a printer who doesn’t take the time to find out how much experience they have.

• To be intimidated by jargon-spouting print reps who don’t take the time to find out that a buyer is brand new in the field.

• To be treated like corporate stepchildren, while Creative & Editorial get all the glory.

• To be excluded from marketing strategy discussions.

• To have to pull teeth to get basic info from a printer when a job is in production; i.e., when will the proof be ready, when did the job ship, where one’s samples are.

• Printers to automatically assume that price is their #1 priority.

• To go through all sorts of hoops getting a simple job quoted and sent to a printer.

• To have to hunt all over a printer’s website looking for key information, like company contacts.

• To find out that the equipment list on a printer’s site doesn’t match what’s in the plant.

• To have a printer switch a spec’d sheet for something else—without conferring with them.

• To work with inefficient project management systems/software.

• To be undervalued as professionals.

Food for thought? These are my own reflections. Hope they inspire you—and your Comments are most welcome.