Print Solutions Magazine

Ask company owners how they plan to boost profits, and you might hear “sell more” or “work harder” or “cut expenses.” But the right answer most often is “smart planning.”

Craig Sheer and Ken Lerman, co-founders of printing company Litho Partners, New York City, believe the smartest route to increased profits is efficient use of technology.

Sheer has worked in the printing industry for the last 26 years in positions ranging from sales manager to backup press manager. He also has a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering. “Because of that background, I always wanted the best computers, to focus on efficiency and to keep payroll expenses down,” he says.

In recent years, Sheer wanted to break away from offset printing and find another way to boost profits for his customers and his business. “I wasn’t happy in an offset world, but didn’t want to leave a successful business,” he says.

He knew digital technology was playing an increasingly critical role in printing. Three years ago, Sheer dabbled in research on variable data printing. He was convinced that digital printing enables increased opportunities for companies who understand the benefits of customized, targeted marketing. In November 2004, Sheer launched a state-of-the-art digital printing company, while Lerman concentrated on Litho Partners’ business.

In April, Sheer and Lerman launched LP Digital Inc. in Manhattan. The company offers variable printing, data management, direct mail, finishing and binding, digital imaging, mailing, and design and internet services. The facility houses the company’s first digital press, a Xerox iGen3. Sheer chose the iGen3 because it offers high-quality color images and speed, handles large paper sizes and large quantities of personalization, and is compatible with other variable data software in the market, he says. LP Digital’s finishing department features foil stamping, die cutting, embossing, and Wire-O® binding.

“I did not expect that we were going to buy a press and start making money,” Sheer says. Part of the reason is that customers need to be educated about variable data printing’s benefits. Sheer created a knowledge and teaching center where once a month he invites clients and prospects to learn how to produce one-on-one marketing pieces. “Our objective is to shift the momentum from how we print a job digitally to how we substantially increase the customers’ return on investment for their printing dollars,” he says.

Sheer says it’s equally important to invest in software that matches customers’ needs. “Without great processes, you’re a digital printer in an offset world,” he says.

LP Digital partnered with software company DeskNet Inc., Jersey City, N.J., and uses DeskNet software specifically for clients in the financial services industry—a hot target for LP Digital. Sheer says the software is ideal for working with complex data that financial institutions usually store in numerous types of databases. The software helps LP Digital generate a variety of communications campaigns such as personalized wealth management kits, institutional reports, fund fact sheets, and highly personalized educational materials and regulatory reports.

The company also partnered with software provider Printable Technologies, Solana Beach, Calif. It offers web-to-print and variable data printing solutions to commercial and digital print providers, ad agencies and direct marketing companies. LP Digital uses the software to offer online ordering, job submission, file transfer, instant proofing, inventory control and real-time statistics.

Sheer says business is picking up steadily. “Every month, we’re substantially doing more business,” he says. “We hope to get higher revenues, see more growth and better customer retention.” This year, LP Digital is sponsoring trade events to market to a wider audience. “Plus, good work gains more customers,” he says, adding that it’s often difficult for customers to make the transition to variable printing. “The biggest resistance [from them] is because they don’t know how to get started.”

To make the transition smoother, Sheer shows customers the potential of variable printing through results. “In traditional printing, a customer can mail 40,000 brochures and get a response rate of, say, 2 percent,” he says. “With variable data, I suggest that the customer print only 10,000 brochures and target them to a specific audience, and they may see a response rate of more than 20 percent. Once you lay it out like that, they begin to see it differently.”

Nancy Medinger sells printing to three of the country’s top 50 convenience store chains. The sales representative for Crescent Printing, Onalaska, Wis., started by providing design services, promotional materials and direct mail capabilities. Recently, she added product identification graphics to the company’s repertoire, a niche that has solidified her relationship with clients and boosted profits.

Product identification graphics include nameplates, decals, tags, signs, panels and overlays. Manufacturers incorporate metal or plastic substrates, using a variety of printing methods such as lithography, flexography, silkscreening, and digital offset and laser printing. Designed for durability and longevity, these products are suitable for applications that traditional ink-on-paper products don’t fulfill. “It’s really a hardcore niche product,” says Medinger. “You’ve got to get the right customer that needs it.”

The first ID graphic Medinger supplied was a several-feet-long magnet that attached to refrigerator doors in the stores’ frozen foods section. Since then, she has sold plastic sign holders inserted between roller grills and printed plastic panels that slip into the front of cappuccino-dispensing machines. “I’ve already done the artwork [for the marketing collateral],” Medinger says. “So it’s just being put into other applications and other places.” Supplying these products not only increases revenue from the account, it makes it easier to penetrate additional accounts. “If you get into one convenience store, you can do another,” she says. “We work with a lot of food distributors and convenience stores. It’s a niche for us, so selling additional pieces is wonderful.”

The retail market isn’t the only one in which distributors have an opportunity to sell identification graphics. Tom Barry, president of Yeuell Nameplate & Label, Woburn, Mass., says his company has manufactured identification graphics for a range of industries, from furniture and copy machine manufacturers to telecommunications providers. “A lot of it is dictated by consumer trends,” Barry says. “Other times it’s more business and industry driven. We adapt to whatever comes.” He says one reason identity graphics are profitable is their potential for repeat orders: “The nameplate will last as long as the [end user’s] product is available.”

Identification products are all around us, says Keith Rosenthal, vice president at La Crosse, Wis.-based manufacturer Mcloone. “Do you have a natural gas meter outside your home, with the little dials on it? There you go. Look at your air conditioner—the compressor that sits outside your home—there’s a label on it. That’s what we make,” he says. “In hospitals you’ll see wall plug-ins for life support systems. They might say ‘Oxygen,’ or ‘Nitrogen.’ We make that metal nameplate or that metal panel.” Mcloone also provides Medinger with identification graphics for her retail clients.

The decision to buy identification graphics has shifted from purchasing departments to marketing departments at many companies. Instead of viewing these products as commodities, marketing departments consider them integral to maintaining corporate identity. Distributors who provide marketing departments with a range of goods stand a good chance to capture this business as well.

“You look at the nameplate industry as being a buying department responsibility,” Medinger says. “I think some of that’s going away because it’s so much more intricate and more colorful. Everything has to match. It has to be branded.” She also emphasizes the importance of convenience to her customers: “They don’t want to take the time to research it, find the people and all of that, when we’ve already got a connection with them. They say, ‘Hey, take care of it.’”

Distributors who do sell identification graphics should avoid a one-size-fits-all approach. “The most important factor in determining what to make is where it’s going to be used,” Barry says. Before the product can be specified, salespeople must find out if it will be used indoors or outdoors, and whether it will be exposed to extreme temperatures and chemicals. For instance, the panels Medinger ordered from Mcloone for the cappuccino machines were backlit by a light bulb. The manufacturer guided her to the best substrate so that the panels wouldn’t melt.

End users increasingly expect to work with one source for their printing needs, creating an opportunity for distributors who offer a diverse product line. Identification graphics is one more category distributors can offer to increase their value to a customer and ultimately boost profits.

The unemployment rate in Springfield, Mo., is less than 3 percent, limiting the pool of qualified prospects for Edward J. Rice Co. Chris Rice, the distributorship’s CEO, knows company principals who have found successful salespeople and customer service representatives in malls, restaurants and other retail outlets. But the best way for his firm to identify new hires is to use an employee-recruiting agency, he says.

“They do the screening, and the candidates we interview are usually better qualified than what we’ve found elsewhere,” Rice says, adding that he doesn’t want to sift through stacks of resumes that would arrive if he placed an advertisement in the classified section of a newspaper or posted a job opening online.

Hiring the wrong people to work at your company affects your bottom line, says Tony Smith of Rockford, Ill.-based Performance Management, a consultancy that advises small businesses on hiring practices. “There is a very high cost to a hiring mistake, and that cost manifests itself in many different ways.” In addition to the money and time lost on salaries, benefits and training the wrong people, Smith also points to indirect costs, such as how much more your company could have increased revenue by hiring the right people from the start.

Many business owners wait until they need to replace someone before they begin the recruitment process, but it should be ongoing, Smith says. Newspaper and internet advertising to locate potential hires is unreliable, especially if the business is rushed to fill the position.

Owners and current employees should always be on the lookout for good candidates. A best-case scenario results in current employees recommending your company to candidates. Smith even suggests considering an incentive program, where employees are rewarded for successful referrals. “If you make people your first priority, it takes care of all the little problems that come down the road,” he says.

Not wanting to deal with those problems is what led Rice to choose the employment-recruiting agency. Once the agency identifies a candidate, Edward J. Rice Co. gives the prospective new hire a personality test from Caliper, an employee-selection and performance-review firm based in Princeton, N.J. (DMIA members receive special rates for testing and evaluation through Caliper.) Rice looks for Caliper results that indicate a candidate’s strong work ethic, friendliness and intellect. “We don’t want to fit a square peg into a round hole,” he says. “We want CSRs who can multitask, and not everyone can do that very well. When you find a great CSR, you’ve found a well-balanced, special person who is somewhat on the perfectionist side but not too much.”

Candidates who pass muster on the Caliper test are interviewed one-on-one by Edward J. Rice Co.’s three CSRs and its other employees. “Candidates have a chance to get a feel for the other people working in our organization and determine if they’d be comfortable working with them,” Rice says. “If our staff isn’t unanimous, we probably won’t hire the person.”

Smith says business owners tend to make two key mistakes during the interview stage: “They don’t do enough listening, and they don’t do a long enough interview.” Interviews are an opportunity to discover characteristics and traits that aren’t easily communicated through candidates’ resumes and cover letters. During the interview, the candidate should spend 80 percent of the time talking. Smith also recommends conducting at least a2-hour interview. “You want to spend some good quality time with someone,” he says. “You may learn something in the second hour that affects your decision to hire the person.” Although it seems like a loss of valuable time to some owners, the consequences of hiring the wrong person is even more lost time.

“You can hire the right people, but if you don’t do the right things, you’re going to have a turnover problem,” Smith says. “The real hard work is making sure you create a culture and environment that puts them in a position to be successful.” He coaches his clients on creating 100-day plans for new employees. “That first 100 days, you set the tone for everything,” he says. Employees decide within the first 100 days whether they want to stay in a position for the short or long term, so it’s important that they feel supported and fully understand their responsibilities. “You should have a success plan that you develop for all the people that report to you. Everyone should know what’s expected of them,” Smith says.

Edward J. Rice Co. pays a premium to the employment-recruiting agency if the new hire is still employed after 90 days. (Rice didn’t specify the amount, but most agencies charge 5-20 percent of the new hire’s annual salary.) If the employee doesn’t work out, the agency offers a guarantee that it will help to replace that person at no additional cost. “I’ve used that guarantee before, so my tip is to get references about an agency before using one. Try to work with one person who knows what they’re doing,” Rice says. “It’s more challenging to train a new employee, but finding someone with the right attitude and intelligence is the key.”

Andrew Brown and Preeti Vasishtha are assistant editors at Print Solutions. Darin Painter is managing editor. Send email to editors@printsolutionsmag.com.