Print Solutions Magazine

Print Solutions July 2006

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Mailbag

Editor’s note: The following letter was part of a discussion among distributors and manufacturers that took place on DMIA’s members-only broadcast email system. The discussion centered on Dick Gorelick’s May column in Print Solutions magazine, “Where’s the Evidence?”

Your Customers Can Make Great Sales Reps

In May’s DMIA magazine, I made special note of Dick Gorelick’s statement in his column that all too often we never ask our satisfied customers for referrals. I recently produced a very high-end business card at a per card price that was (over $1 per card) for a company that is a very high-end, web-design firm for whom business cards are the only printed material they buy from us. The business card is so unique and striking that their clients asked about it when they receive it. They have started referring business to us and this morning I received an encouraging email from the COO. I wanted to share this is in order to solidify Dick’s comments:

Steve,

I’m meeting with the president and VP of Marketing on Monday. When I give them my card I can guarantee they will want to know where we got it, so I will tell them what a great job you did for us and I will give them your card. Can you tell I’ve been doing this since we received the cards? Anyway, we’re getting a lot of great feedback on the cards. We actually have companies that want us to design their print work based on the design and production of the cards, so it’s opening up other doors for us as well, which will open doors for you (and these are high-end, quality-conscious doors). Thanks for your help and patience with all of our changes to the cards —it will be well worth it in the long run.

Steve Antkowiak

Greensboro, N.C.

Editor’s note: The following letters were part of a discussion among distributors and manufacturers that took place on DMIA’s members-only broadcast email system. The discussion centered on indirect costs associated with vendor orders.

What Are the Indirect Costs of Orders?

We’re trying to quantify the indirect costs associated with placing an order with a vendor. Many moons ago I read somewhere that it costs $100-plus for an order to be placed (picking the vendor, making the call, follow-up, tracking, etc.), thus helping justify the use of just one known vendor instead of a variety of vendors for orders under $150 and so on. We can put a pencil to it, but it lacks authentication unless we can quote a reliable or respectable source. I’ve been on the web, but it’s like looking for a needle in a haystack. Does anyone have or know where this information can be found?

Dean Demick

Royal Oak, Mich.

It’s All about Transactional And Product Cost

You may be referring to a research study done by Infotrends (formerly CAP Ventures), which is a marketing research/consulting firm in Massachusetts. Their website is www.info trends-rgi.com.

The studies performed to date focus on end users’ costs associated with initiating and completing transactions in the graphics industry. Most of the time, end users seem to focus only on “product” costs and don’t delve deeper into the processing or transactional costs that are associated with obtaining products or services.

We use this analysis of transactional cost savings, coupled with product cost savings, as well as ensuring image management and streamlining supply chain economics when proposing online electronic ordering solutions for a company’s identity and stationery programs. When educating your customers about the “under the waterline” savings they can achieve by automating the ordering process and not just basing purchasing decisions on the “above” the waterline savings in product costs, you provide the incremental value that end users can appreciate when using the distributor channel.

Mark Cupach

Cleveland

Note: The July edition of the quarterly Print Education & Research Foundation (PERF) Print Report looks at the “processes involved in talking an order” and how manufacturers and distributors can improve them. The report discusses which parts of the process can be eliminated quickly and which will take time to automate. The report also discusses how manufacturers price variable data printing (VDP) jobs.