How to Drive Results: Optimism and Positivity
When your leadership team demonstrates optimism and positivity on a regular basis it lays the foundation for and reinforces a culture that breeds results. Optimism and positivity are the underlying goals of many corporate cultures.
How to Stay Informed in a Remote World
Someday we will reflect on how the world changed in 2020 with perspective. Right now, as businesses continue to adapt to new ways of engaging employees and customers, the single focus is how to get the work done.
They Are Not Buying Print
Many sales teams are challenged in the current business environment to connect with customers and prospects. New sales are harder to find and harder to close. When I ask sales teams about who they plan to contact for referrals [always ask for referrals], often they speak about customers who buy specific types of print jobs.
Referrals: Successful Salespeople Always Ask
Salespeople regularly complain that they don’t get enough leads. Most salespeople expect their company to engage in marketing activities to generate sales leads. This seems like a reasonable expectation. Yet effective marketing strategies have shifted to multi-touch nurture programs that take planning a strategic content approach before they hand off marketing qualified leads to sales.
In-Plants do Your Customers Know you are Open?
In-plants are often the unsung heroes for their companies. They often operate in a basement or a remote facility without too many visitors. Their internal customers are the many departments and lines of business, like marketing, legal, compliance, customer service and HR that create communications for customers and employees. In many cases, the departments they serve have no idea what the print department actually does or how they do it.
Maintain Now or Pay Later
Inkjet presses from many equipment manufacturers (OEMs) have delivered on the promise of lower cost, higher throughput, and better uptime. Many in-plant print operations attribute part of their success to their inkjet adoption strategy. Performing regular preventative maintenance is the key to drive uptime and excellent image quality.
Is There Discipline in Your Sales Process?
Many sales cycles are stalled. Whether your team is selling print, services, direct mail, software, equipment, or products, the current situation has many sales cycles stuck and delayed. Your sales team may be hearing from customers that decisions are on hold or postponed. Or they may be hearing nothing as prospects do not respond to emails and phone calls.
Cross Training is Beneficial to Business Success, Especially Now
In printing, mailing, and direct marketing companies, most production work is highly functional with distinct departments. There are separate units for data processing, creative design, pre-press, printing, finishing, mailing, and shipping.
Can In-Plants Change Workflow without Change Management?
As in-plant operations install larger and faster inkjet solutions to replace toner, offset and cut sheet printers, most would benefit from a revamp of their end-to-end workflow to achieve cost reductions and gain throughput efficiencies. Many struggle to change older processes that should have been retired with older equipment.
How’s Your Printing Company's Contingency Plan Working?
Companies of all sizes across all vertical markets are now in an uncertain and uncharted situation due to COVID-19. Many of you may have recently pulled out and used parts of your business continuity and contingency plans. And many of you have found gaps as staff have shifted to working from home.
Are You Moving the Ball Forward?
The excitement and agony of college basketball and March Madness are almost here. I’m reminded of the many conversations with my sport-loving husband about his favorite teams and their strategies for success. Many discussions center around the ability to move the ball forward in basketball and football, or moving the runner along in baseball.
In-Plants: Educate your Customers
Do your customers know everything you can do for them? This is a question I ask at the beginning of consulting engagements. The answer is usually some variation of, “No, most customers don’t really understand everything we can do.”
Defining a Strategic Plan: Are You Reaching Your Goals?
Are you reaching your strategic goals? Strategic planning comes in many flavors and there are many methodologies to create a successful plan to guide companies to achieve their substantial goals.
In-Plants, Inkjet and Paper Costing Philosophy
Inkjet technologies have enabled in-plants and service providers to print more, faster, and at a lower cost. The big buckets for cost considerations when migrating to inkjet include assessing the capital requirements, changes in operating costs for inks and service plans, power consumption, and changes in labor and finishing.
What A Dog Trainer Taught Me About Business
My husband and I recently adopted a dog. Champ is a beautiful, smart, boxer, who my sister’s family rescued a year ago. In eight months, Champ bit two other dogs and he was uncontrollable around other dogs, doorbells and strangers coming into the house. He needed a new home and a new environment where he was safe, loved and not a threat to other dogs. So, Champ came to live with us.
Inkjet the USPS and Getting Ready for 2020
It’s November. Six weeks until 2020. Many organizations have completed their annual strategic and budget planning process with insight from events and situations that have had positive and negative impacts on their business in 2019 and anticipation of changes for 2020.
The Value of Print: An Omnichannel Strategy for a Multi-Channel World
Common phrases heard from marketing professionals: “We do all our marketing by email, so we don’t need to direct mail,” and “We have a website, so I don’t need to print, and we use social media, so we don’t need to do direct mail.”
New Inkjet Applications and Efficiencies for In-Plants
There has been widespread adoption of inkjet platforms replacing digital toner and offset printers in the last five years. Many in-plants justified investment in inkjet platforms based on three criteria: reduced cost of running inkjet over older print devices, increased speed, throughput, and the elimination of pre-printed shells.
Learning from Each Other: The Benefits of User Groups
As budgets for travel and attending conferences and trade shows continue to be reduced or eliminated, there are more events, conferences and shows to choose from.
Never Stop Learning
A critical element of professional growth is continuing growth through education – formal and informal. Talking with other industry leaders, there are some consistent elements that are key to success.