This blog is adapted from the article “The Future of the Print Industry” by Joseph Puopolo, CEO, Printchomp, and featured speaker at the 2014 Print Leadership Summit, June 2–3, Dallas, TX. What’s one word to sum up the future of print? Adaptation. Yes, what seems to be the law of nature also holds true for the print industry, along with many others. Those who adapt and effectively use new technologies will survive, while those who don’t … well, let’s say that it pays to listen to experts. But deciding which technology to invest in can be a major challenge for many print companies.  Here, one expert, Joseph Puopolo, CEO and Founder of Printchomp, a 15-year leader in the tech industry, offers insights into trending technologies and how printers can use them to their advantage. When Puopolo set out to find the most effective solutions for both printers and customers, he came to a realization. He noticed that, among the thousands of printers he’s worked with, four major trends stand out that are critical to future success. The future belongs to those who adapt to these changes in technology. Trend #1: Automation If you want to significantly reduce inefficiencies in your print shop, workflow automation is a must. This is a growing trend in both work and order flow. Automation has shown to be the most effective way to increase turnaround time and lower waste. Sales are rising too, thanks to the latest automated systems. While traditional sales methods still hold their importance, printers are building more intuitive automated lead-generation engines to help fill the new customer deficit. Learn more about automation as Poupolo presents “Automating the Flow of Data In and Out of Your Organization” at Printing Industries of America’s innovative 2014 Print Leadership Summit, June 2–3, Dallas, TX. Trend #2: Specialization A customer goes to a customized printer and gets a price quote. Then that customer takes the same job to a generalized printer and gets an entirely different quote! If your print shop has ever had to deal with a situation like this, you know why product specialization is growing. It allows for efficient product delivery at a reasonable price to the target customer. Specialized printers’ margins are often better than the generalized Jack-of-all-trades printers who may offer a wide range of products, but are often forced to rely more heavily on trade printers for most of their fulfillment. Trend #3: Integration In an on-demand world, customers don’t want to use multiple systems or go through multiple people to get what they need. Go through any fast food drive-through, and it’s clear—people just expect things to happen. Printers need to integrate their clients with their operation to...

This article is adapted from the article “Differentiation Is Back!” by Paul V. Reilly, Partner, New Direction Partners, published in the 2014 FORECAST Part 1: Trends and Tactics. Reilly is a featured presenter at the 2014 Print Leadership Summit, June 2–3. Technology can be like a double-edged sword. We use technology to increase print quality and differentiate our company. Then, as competitors eventually acquire these same technologies, differentiation decreases, and we’re left right back where we began. You could say that technology is so good, it’s bad! So the question is: How can printers today distinguish their company when they’re using the same technology that is available and comparable to their competitors’?  The solution is customization. You may have heard of Proprietary Customer Interface Technology (PCIT). Our industry has developed this new customization tool to solve the technical differentiation problem. Here Paul V. Reilly of New Direction Partners explains how adopting PCIT can help you multiply your sales. What is PCIT? PCIT is a computer application that facilitates the interaction between the printer and customer—what some might refer to it as “Web-to-print on steroids.” But PCIT is much more than Web-to-print, providing a high level of customization for each customer’s individual needs. PCIT is usually a combination of acquired and custom code, but it always includes custom code. This allows a company to differentiate itself from a competitor who has similar software. PCIT fully integrates the flow of data between the printer and customer, whether data is stored on the customer’s or printer’s servers. PCIT, similar to all solution sales, transfers risk held by a customer in a transactional sale to the printer. Examples include delivery time and accuracy, versions, proofing, etc. The image shows a schematic of how PCIT works.   How can PCIT help increase profits? When commercial printers achieve 50% or more in sales processed through PCIT (often referred to as “programmed sales”), overall top-line growth becomes positive. This is pure mathematics. Programmed sales grow 10–15% per year, and such growth overcomes traditional transactional commercial sales, which are decreasing 5–10% per year. Firms with a majority of their sales as programmed sales have approx­imately 2% of employment dedicated to customer development, and their most recent hires are programmers (not factory personnel). Such a level of commitment is required to write software code for customer “on boarding” (the process of writing code for new customers) and to manage continual customer requests for enhancements. What effect does PCIT have on retaining customers? Most advanced users of PCIT are fully integrated in the back end of production and accounting. The success in utilizing PCIT derives from enjoying a high level of customer “stickiness.” This printer/customer integration makes it difficult...

This article is adapted from the article “Differentiation Is Back!” by Paul V. Reilly, Partner, New Direction Partners, published in the 2014 FORECAST Part 1: Trends and Tactics. Reilly is a featured presenter at the 2014 Print Leadership Summit, June 2–3. Technology can be like a double-edged sword. We use technology to increase print quality and differentiate our company. Then, as competitors eventually acquire these same technologies, differentiation decreases, and we’re left right back where we began. You could say that technology is so good, it’s bad! So the question is: How can printers today distinguish their company when they’re using the same technology that is available and comparable to their competitors’?  The solution is customization. You may have heard of Proprietary Customer Interface Technology (PCIT). Our industry has developed this new customization tool to solve the technical differentiation problem. Here Paul V. Reilly of New Direction Partners explains how adopting PCIT can help you multiply your sales. What is PCIT? PCIT is a computer application that facilitates the interaction between the printer and customer—what some might refer to it as “Web-to-print on steroids.” But PCIT is much more than Web-to-print, providing a high level of customization for each customer’s individual needs. PCIT is usually a combination of acquired and custom code, but it always includes custom code. This allows a company to differentiate itself from a competitor who has similar software. PCIT fully integrates the flow of data between the printer and customer, whether data is stored on the customer’s or printer’s servers. PCIT, similar to all solution sales, transfers risk held by a customer in a transactional sale to the printer. Examples include delivery time and accuracy, versions, proofing, etc. The image shows a schematic of how PCIT works.   How can PCIT help increase profits? When commercial printers achieve 50% or more in sales processed through PCIT (often referred to as “programmed sales”), overall top-line growth becomes positive. This is pure mathematics. Programmed sales grow 10–15% per year, and such growth overcomes traditional transactional commercial sales, which are decreasing 5–10% per year. Firms with a majority of their sales as programmed sales have approx­imately 2% of employment dedicated to customer development, and their most recent hires are programmers (not factory personnel). Such a level of commitment is required to write software code for customer “on boarding” (the process of writing code for new customers) and to manage continual customer requests for enhancements. What effect does PCIT have on retaining customers? Most advanced users of PCIT are fully integrated in the back end of production and accounting. The success in utilizing PCIT derives from enjoying a high level of customer “stickiness.” This printer/customer integration makes it difficult...

This blog is contributed by Jeff Crilley, Author, Free Publicity, and featured presenter at the 2014 Print Leadership Summit. With more than two decades of news experience and hard-earned PR expertise, Crilley shows you how to use fundamental promotion strategies to put your business in the spotlight. Do you have a great idea to market your business but no clue how to get noticed by customers? If you’re tired of spending your resources but just not seeing the ROI, I can relate. After 25 years of beating the street as a TV reporter and now as President & CEO of Real News Public Relations, I have learned what it really takes to get your great ideas in front of your audience. And I have a scoop for you: to get noticed, you need to sell your brand story like reporters sell the front page story. Whether it comes from the newsroom or the pressroom, fundamentally getting attention is all about having the right message at the right time in the right place. So, here are five fundamental elements that can increase the success of marketing your business from some of the top PR pros in the industry: 1) Be Unusual Have you ever seen a promotion that was so different and creative that it made you stop in your tracks? Doing something “outside the box” can be intimidating, but just as the news doesn’t cover what’s normal, the usual promotion won’t get you the head-turning results that can drive more sales. You can say that the old adage about “man bites dog” still holds true—uniqueness sells. For example, PR whiz Carolyn Alvey knew this when she was trying to raise money for a charity several years ago. Instead of holding a garage sale, she sent out a press release announcing a “Celebrity Garage Sale.” Everything from Bob Hope’s old golf clubs to Roger Staubach’s long-neglected neckties was for sale. By making an ordinary garage sale unique, the media was instantly sold on the story. How can you apply this idea to your business? Try creating a direct mail piece your customer can’t help but open like this one from Sappi Fine Paper. 2) Be Visual Reporters tell stories with pictures. Brands tell stories as well—through content marketing, social media, print media, and any other communication vehicles. It’s having a visible personality for your company by engaging and connecting with customers on an emotional level. In the printing and graphic arts industry, a great way to connect is to host tours or open houses for clients and graphic arts students. Then post tour photos on a company Facebook page. Create a company blog and share case studies of satisfied customers....

This blog is contributed by Jeff Crilley, Author, Free Publicity, and featured presenter at the 2014 Print Leadership Summit. With more than two decades of news experience and hard-earned PR expertise, Crilley shows you how to use fundamental promotion strategies to put your business in the spotlight. Do you have a great idea to market your business but no clue how to get noticed by customers? If you’re tired of spending your resources but just not seeing the ROI, I can relate. After 25 years of beating the street as a TV reporter and now as President & CEO of Real News Public Relations, I have learned what it really takes to get your great ideas in front of your audience. And I have a scoop for you: to get noticed, you need to sell your brand story like reporters sell the front page story. Whether it comes from the newsroom or the pressroom, fundamentally getting attention is all about having the right message at the right time in the right place. So, here are five fundamental elements that can increase the success of marketing your business from some of the top PR pros in the industry: 1) Be Unusual Have you ever seen a promotion that was so different and creative that it made you stop in your tracks? Doing something “outside the box” can be intimidating, but just as the news doesn’t cover what’s normal, the usual promotion won’t get you the head-turning results that can drive more sales. You can say that the old adage about “man bites dog” still holds true—uniqueness sells. For example, PR whiz Carolyn Alvey knew this when she was trying to raise money for a charity several years ago. Instead of holding a garage sale, she sent out a press release announcing a “Celebrity Garage Sale.” Everything from Bob Hope’s old golf clubs to Roger Staubach’s long-neglected neckties was for sale. By making an ordinary garage sale unique, the media was instantly sold on the story. How can you apply this idea to your business? Try creating a direct mail piece your customer can’t help but open like this one from Sappi Fine Paper. 2) Be Visual Reporters tell stories with pictures. Brands tell stories as well—through content marketing, social media, print media, and any other communication vehicles. It’s having a visible personality for your company by engaging and connecting with customers on an emotional level. In the printing and graphic arts industry, a great way to connect is to host tours or open houses for clients and graphic arts students. Then post tour photos on a company Facebook page. Create a company blog and share case studies of satisfied customers....

This article was submitted by T.J. Tedesco, founder and president of Grow Sales, Inc., and keynote speaker at the 2014 Print Leadership Summit. In 2012, would you have predicted that a book manufacturer would increase its sales 50% in 2013? Or that a postpress equipment manufacturer would grow sales more than 15%?  “Whoa there, T.J.,” you might be thinking. “Are these significant companies?” Absolutely. Both have been around for decades, and both crossed into the eight-figured sales level last year. The book manufacturer client has reached heights that would’ve been unthinkable five years ago. The equipment manufacturer client may have been larger once, but that was nearly two decades ago. How did they achieve this growth? Better operations execution? Better marketing? Better selling? Together these activities might boost sales and profitability a smidge. But double-digit, sustainable growth? Keep dreaming. In this industry, better execution alone isn’t enough. Change the Game These companies grew because they moved their markets. They’ve both tapped into our industry’s growing on-demand segment. Not by simply subbing in digital for offset, but by completely re-orienting their approaches to their production workflows, their customers, and their businesses in general. It’s not enough to keep moving the chains. You have to change where the game’s being played. Leadership discussions at your business should begin with this question: Where should we play ball?  Stay Competitive Bill Gates had an awesome quote about twenty years ago: “We always overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and underestimate the change that will occur in the next ten.”  All printing company leaders would do well to keep this thought in mind today. Let’s not panic and forget to block and tackle. Doing the fundamentals well will keep us competitive for the next two years. But if we don’t reimagine our companies, industry, and competitive landscape within the next ten years, we’ll likely be out of business. T.J. Tedesco will deliver a keynote presentation, Gloom or Bloom—Setting the Course For the Future, at the 2014 Print Leadership Summit, June 2–3 at the Fairmont Hotel in Dallas, TX. T.J. is founder and president of Grow Sales, Inc., an outsourced sales growth services company serving the graphic arts industries since 1996. Grow Sales, Inc. has helped many dozens of companies grow their top and bottom lines by carefully guiding their sales, marketing, public relations and graphic and web design efforts. T.J. is the author of eight books, three on marketing and sales. T.J. can be reached at (301)...