Connections
Use Options to Save Printing Costs
Money’s tight and your customers want to see some cost savings. So, how are you going to deliver the same high-quality printing services along with a few cost-cutting measures for your customers? The answer is options.
By providing your customer base with a few lower-priced options, you can save your clients – and your own company – money.
Offer a House Stock
Keep a house stock of paper. Buying in larger quantities will save you money and you can pass that on to your clients. Also, let your customers know that printing on standard stock and standard sizes are going to save them money.
Provide Ink Choices
You may want to offer greener printing choices, but if switching to “green” inks means raising your prices across the board, you may want to simply give your customers the option. They can choose “green” inks, but at a premium. Customers looking for environmentally-friendly printing options will appreciate the choice, as will those looking for cost savings.
Deeper Quantity Discounts
If you can afford it, cut some deeper quantity discounts. In this tight economy, you might encourage a few clients to dig deeper themselves for larger, more evergreen orders.
Submit a Quote with Options
I’ve got a friend who works for a printer that sends multiple quotes for the same job. They basically say this is how much it is with the embossed, glossy cover, but this is how much it will be with a plain, coated card stock cover.
So, instead of cutting themselves out of a bid by packing their quotes with high-end features, they offer a low-end option that gets them in the door. Guess what happens? A large portion of their clients end up choosing their higher-end options anyway.
Tell Your Customers How to Save
You’ve probably heard the term “value added” over and over, and are as sick of it as we are. But as overused as it is, this is where you can set yourself apart from your customers. Don’t just print whatever the client hands you, because they don’t always know what will be the most cost-effective, what problems they may have down the road, or whether they’ll even be happy with what they created. Give them some free consulting and add value to what you offer.
Send out a letter, give them a handout or put it in a newsletter, but tell your clients how they can save money on their print jobs. Give them tips about opting for standard sizes, planning ahead, choosing more “evergreen” designs or purchasing in bulk. Trust me, they’ll appreciate it and they may just repay your kindness with increased business.
Times are tough and we’re all having to fight a little harder for our sales, but by providing your print customers with cost savings options you’re setting yourself apart from the competition, especially in this economic climate.
Do You Analyze Your Print Shop’s Sales and Marketing Efforts
Making good print shop decisions is exactly like other business decision. It’s something that can be taught, studied and learned.
This happens every day. People are constantly making decisions on a good business venture, on day-to-day activities, on life. It’s the same in the printing business. Owners try to make the best decision and study the outcome so they can make new decisions. During these tough economic times, more people are studying everything, the business, income, productivity and outcome.
They’re paying hard attention to marketing and advertising, which in turn as an impact on us printers.
Right now, creativity is important to printers. Printing businesses have to be in order to be successful. Creativity plays a key role in keeping old customers and adding new ones. You will need a lot of creativity to resell the same product to the same customers. It’s something you have to do. That’s because – thanks to the Internet – customers have the luxury to look elsewhere for pricing and other things.
How is Buying a Car Like Making a Print Buying Decision?
An example of this is buying a used car. Usually, a customer goes to about three dealerships to find the car he or she wants. Ideally, if they have more time, they would go to every dealership and check out all the cars. They look at price, performance, durability, repair issues, and mileage (especially mileage). Once they find a car that meets their expectations in all these areas, they buy it.
You need these tiebreakers in these decisions. That’s how we do our business now. In the past, we would measure ourselves by the month. Now it’s daily.
It’s like a coach analyzing a football game. Did we execute? Did we do enough to win the game? Did our players make the plays, or did they make mistakes. If we can find our mistakes and avoid them, we’ll have good days. Put together enough good days and we have a good month.
You win quotes, you win customers. Also ask yourself many questions. Why didn’t we get the job? Was it our price? Too high or too low? Did we make enough phone calls? Were our quotes done in time?
This is no longer a quarterly, or even monthly, question to ask. We need to ask it daily. We have to move faster and see what we can do differently.
What kinds of questions are you asking yourself?
Fight the Big Box Stores Part 3
Specific Strategies
A few months ago, I was reading Print Professional magazine and they had an incredible article titled ‘David vs. Goliath’ (by Elise Hacking, Aug 2008 issue). In that article they featured several printing companies that are actively winning the commercial printing battle.
Dupli-Systems put their prepress manager in the same room as their sales people, therefore making sure jobs run smoother, faster and more efficiently for customers. J&A Printing in Iowa has carved a niche for itself by adding specialty equipment for direct-mail pieces and Thornhill Printing in Pennsylvania upgraded their equipment to meet specific customer needs.
These were all specific strategies designed to set them apart from the big box competition.
So, where can you carve a niche? How can you set your print shop business apart?
Will you:
- Invest in the technology to embed RFID and other chips into your printing?
- Specialize in large-scale banner printing?
- Fine-tune your direct mail services to offer more options?
- Add a contract designer to your roster to become full-service?
- Focus on niche items like tickets or security badges?
- Or come up with something totally new?
Let us know, comments or suggestions are welcome in the comments section.
Fight the Big Box Stores Part 2
Get Customized
Big box stores like Office Depot may be able to sell their color copies for a few cents less, but can their staff suggest new printing techniques? Can they offer advice on the best way to print or lay out that direct mail postcard? Can they bring design and printing experience to the table and directly apply it to the customer’s needs?
The answer is probably no. The printing clerk at Office Depot has about as much training as a cashier and their products are straight-forward and basic. So, as a smart print or sign shop owner you should be focusing on what you can do better… and that’s customized customer service.
Help Customers Get Customized
You could help a customer with a thousand plain copies or you could suggest products like postcard printing, which might be more effective and actually not that much more expensive once you get into the higher numbers.
The point is, you should constantly be trying to help your customer access products and services that only you can provide. It’s half upselling and half Read more
Fight the Big Box Stores Part 1
Focus on Business-to-Business Opportunities
You may not be able to beat the big box stores like Office Depot or Staples when it comes to advertising, promoting and marketing yourself to the mass public, but you can pin them to the mat on networking with other local businesses in your area.
Business to Business Will Save Your Business
By developing strong, personal relationships with other business owners in your area, you’re setting the foundation for future sales. For example, when my friend first started out in the print shop business, I told him to join his local business networking group and to do it quickly.
He attended meetings, he joined golf clubs and he even bought tickets to breakfast lectures and do you know what he got? Direct, face-to-face contact with all of his current best customers. The big box stores can’t compete with you on that, so you have to capitalize on it.
Make it Personal
A big-box printer may be able to charge a few cents less per copy, but they generally have an untrained kid behind the counter and Read more