The following is contributed by Ryan T. Sauers, President and Owner of Sauers Consulting Strategies The entire sales process is often looked down on by many due to pushy, gimmicky, and unethical salespersons who create a bad name for the overall and traditional sales profession. Most salespersons I know, however, have a great passion for their endeavor and try to perform it as honestly and ethically as possible. You see, ethical sales = great communications. Our communications must provide the 5 Cs of effective communications: Clarity, Consistency, Content, Connection and Creativity. If our communications are not clear, lack content, are inconsistent, do not provide connections, and lack creativity, we are not getting the job done. Sales is all about two-way communications—with an “s” —and a two-way dialogue, not one-way communication (singular) and a monologue. Success in sales/communications is not about how much you talk, but about how much you listen. It’s not about how many times you share how great your company is, but how many problems and headaches you can solve.  Sales/communications (plural) is about relationships and integrity. It’s about solving root issues by asking intelligent “why” questions. This Everyone is in Sales mindset is about being a strong overall communicator and adapting one’s communications style to best meet the needs of the other person. In short, Everyone Is in Sales because we all have information that we desire to share with other people. We want to be understood, right? Are you sold yet? Ryan T. Sauers is President and Owner of Sauers Consulting Strategies. Before launching the independent consulting firm, Ryan spent nearly 20 years leading graphics, MSP, and visual communications companies. The company consults with graphics related organizations across the United States. He is the author of Everyone Is in Sales, available at the Printing Industries of America bookstore. For more info, visit...

As many of you know, postal reform has been slow moving in Congress this summer. Accordingly, Printing Industries of America’s Government Affairs team has been busy on Capitol Hill, trying to encourage lawmakers to stop the political messaging and pass H.R. 2309, the Postal Reform Act of 2011.  The Senate has done its part and passed its bill, but postal reform cannot become law until the House acts. A bill is ready to go, but election-year politics are making it very unlikely that the House will bring postal reform legislation to a floor vote this summer. As a result, we have voiced our concerns regarding the disastrous consequences this delay would pose to the printing and graphic communications industry—and to the overall future viability of the U.S. Postal Service. Now it’s time for you to tell lawmakers to pass postal reform now! The month of August is a crucial time to reach out to lawmakers and staff while they are “back home.” That’s why we’re launching a multi-level August campaign to tell Congress that “Postal Reform = Jobs.” The goal of the campaign is to urge the House to bring H.R. 2309 to a vote as soon as possible when they get back to Washington in September. To help you get involved, we are launching the campaign with the webinar Printing Industry Call to Action: The August Campaign for Postal Reform, on Tuesday, August 7, at 2:00 EST. There is no cost for member companies to participate. Join us for a brief legislative update and gain access to the August campaign grassroots toolkit. Learn easy, step-by-step tactics to mobilize your employees, customers, and community, to create the groundswell needed to push postal reform over the goal line in 2012. Don’t let inaction derail the vital need to pass meaningful postal reform. Let your voice be heard and make it count by registering for this important industry webinar. Together, we can urge Congress to pass postal reform...

Does this sound familiar? “We knew we weren’t as efficient as we could be. We were experiencing long makereadies and jobs were being rejected because the color consistency across processes and devices was non-existent. We had the best of intentions to make improvements, however between difficulties in finding time and not knowing how to get our arms around the issues, we procrastinated. It wasn’t until we risked losing our biggest client that we were forced to reach out for help. With outside support, we turned it around! Our client relationship was saved, finally we have consistent color, faster makereadies, and less waste in time and materials. If only we had done this sooner! Times are too challenging not be deadly serious about becoming a smarter, better-run company.” — CEO, XYZ Printing This is a common sentiment. Companies know they need to improve and search for solutions for better color management, but they falter when the time comes to put solutions in place that will make a long-term difference. In the end, after months of stalled efforts, no ground has been gained, and they are left wondering if anyone else has similar struggles they could learn from? The answer is yes! The majority of problems are not unique; others have gone through the same challenges. So, rather than wasting any more time, money, and resources, find someone you can trust to provide help! Someone who can identify the root cause of vexing problems, recommend solutions, provide implementation support, and get you on your way to efficiency and profitability. Whether through staff training, use of new technology, developing procedures, or doing that strategic planning you keep putting off, the right consultant can provide a fresh perspective that will guide you to solutions that are tough to see from the trenches. In what ways can our trained consultants help your company improve? Providing independent, unbiased assessments and working with you to solve your issues. Focusing on improvements that will strengthen your competitive advantage. Benchmarking your improvements. Developing new skills in your employees. Implementing new technology. Efficiency + Quality + Productivity = Profitability! Avoid the “If only I had called for help sooner” syndrome and proactively seek training and consulting that will impact employee performance and ultimately the company’s profitability! You’ll be glad you did, and so will your bottom line! For more information or to take advantage of Printing Industries of America’s Center for Technology and Research consultation services, contact Karen J. Keller, Senior Training/Consulting Specialist at 412-259-1711, or kkeller@printing.org. If you are searching for training on enhancing your color management or digital production, we have educational resources for you as well: Optimizing Color for Your Digital Press WorkshopSeptember 25–26, 2012 Extreme...

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has asked Printing Industries of America to assist with revising their national annual hazardous air pollutant (HAP) emission factor, which is used to estimate HAP emissions and to determine the need for further regulation of the printing industry. HAP emissions occur from the use of specific chemicals and chemical categories classified as toxic air pollutants, some of which are used in printing. Recently, Printing Industries assisted EPA with revising the national annual volatile organic compound (VOC) emission factor. Due to this success, EPA has requested that the printing industry provide emission information on HAP emissions, so that the nationwide HAP emission factor can also be updated. EPA revised their national annual VOC emission factor for the printing industry from 1,482 pounds/employee to 201 pounds/employee. This revision was in part due to a survey of printers in the Salt Lake City area, which received a high response rate. In order to respond to EPA’s request, the Environmental, Health, and Safety Department is conducting a similar survey asking printing companies to share their VOC and HAP emission information by completing this spreadsheet and submitting it by June 30, 2012. For more information or to submit a spreadsheet, please contact Caitlin Seiler at cseiler@printing.org or 1-800-910-4283 x779. To learn more, please click here....

The quality of print-centric websites is just getting more creative and technically advanced. They are able to provide customers with an extraordinary product. Just take a look at The John Roberts Company, Mimeo, and Wells and Drew. These companies happen to be winners of our web2award. This is the only award of its kind that honors the best websites in the print/marketing service provider industry. Winning one means that your company receives benefits like prestige, publicity, and, not to mention, an applause-worthy statue!  You could say that winning a web2award is like winning an Oscar but even better for a print service provider like you. That’s why we created this video series—featuring some excited “winners”—to showcase some of the award categories you can enter this year. Print Service Provider’s Business Website Category (E-Commerce) If your company developed its own print-centric e-commerce solution (there is also a No E-CommerceComponent category)or built, hosted, or branded one for a customer, how would you like 10,000 print buyers and marketing professionals to know about this capability? You can shout it from the rooftops when you enter and win the 2012 web2awards. View this video to learn more about the E-commerce Component category and discover the benefits of winning, which include:     Social Commerce Category As you know, Facebook, Twitter, and other social media platforms are a great way to engage customers and increase traffic to your website. As a result of the explosion of social media, we have added a new category to the 2012 web2awards competition—Social Commerce. Awards in this category will be for sites that directly sell print and related products through Facebook (F-commerce), Twitter (T-commerce), or other social media platforms that allow users to buy directly through the social site. Learn more about this new category in this video, which features a very “social” award winner. She is so excited about her win that she literally has to be dragged off the stage.     Social Media/Cross Media/Promotional Case Study CategoryAwards in this category will be for sites that can best demonstrate how a company’s print-centric social media efforts, cross-media campaign, and/or promotional website have met or exceeded company objectives, with quantifiable results. Please provide details on all components of the campaign in the details section of this entry form. Speaking of magic, take a moment to view this video and see how performing magic for your customers can win you a web2award. “Prepare to be amazed!” by our own Sam Shea     As a winner, you receive benefits including: Press release announcing winners—distributed to industry-related publications Listing on the Digital Printing Council website with links to winner’s website A YouTube video, included in Printing Industries of America’s...

The Call for Papers for the 65th Annual Technical Conference has begun, and papers for both Technical Papers and the NEW Technical Innovations Papers. The conference will be held February 3-6, 2013, in Portland, Oregon. John Seymour of the TAGA Technical Program Committee and TAGA Technical Paper contributor shares the success he has achieved through TAGA. I work in the research group for QuadTech. Our company develops and sells control systems for printing presses. My own work has largely been the measurement and control of color online (that is, on the printing press). I have also been involved in other products that we develop, including register control and web inspection. The majority of my work has to do with advanced research for new product development.   I have been attending TAGA since 1993, and have presented eleven papers and given two tutorials for this conference. TAGA is the one conference that I try to attend every year. Why is this conference important to me to attend? It is worth my time because of the high quality of technical papers and the diversity of topics and of disciplines. The TAGA technical papers committee is very diligent about screening out presentations that are largely commercials for products. Because of this, TAGA is the place to go where you can hear good, solid technical presentations without marketing hype. The technical papers committee actively solicits experts in the industry to present, so the papers are assured of having content that is both reliable and relevant. TAGA has diversity in academics versus industry involvement. Currently, about 60% of the papers are from academic institutions and organizations. Roughly 20% of the papers are from industry. The remaining 20% of the papers represent collaborations between these two groups. TAGA fosters this collaboration, to the benefit of both groups. The other diversity that TAGA provides is the diversity of topics. I look forward to presentations about topics that I know very little about. Often, they turn out to be topics that I should know something about! Why is the TAGA conference an important venue for me to present? There is a certain amount of good karma involved here. If I am receiving, I should be prepared to give. But this is hard to sell to my boss! It is much easier for me to get permission based on the fact that TAGA attracts the technical movers and shakers in this industry. Speaking at TAGA is an opportunity for my company to influence the people who are most influential in the industry. Sometimes that message is simply that my company is doing new and innovative things. Sometimes the message is a bit more of a sales pitch –...