Cup-a-Joe

Everyone is talking about social media.  John Foley, the guru of social media, has been on the bandwagon for years – and John understands its power better than many.  But the question remains is it really right for your business?

Just because you create a Facebook page or have a Twitter account doesn’t automatically make you “cool” in your customer’s eyes.  The question remains, why are you doing it?  In a conversation I had the other night with marketing consultant Ryan Sauers, it’s clear that many in our industry are just following along because the guy down the street is doing it.  It reminds me of the days when the first six color 40” was installed in town.  All of a sudden everyone had to have one – regardless of whether it brought value or not to their customers – or made financial sense for their company.

One has to remember that Social Media is a channel of communication – it’s a mean to an end.  As Sauers suggested, it’s crucial for management to develop a solid marketing plan (and remember sales is not marketing) and determine if Social Media should be part of it (it’s just one of many channels).  If Social Media is to be part of the channel, get some help (contact your local trade association).  Just because your estimator or CSR loves to use Twitter or Facebook, doesn’t mean they’re the person to execute your SM strategy.

OK, we’re upset by the latest pronouncements from Washington D.C.  Our customers have less loyalty.  Our employees are overworked and getting stressed.  We don’t like click charges and having the digital equipment guy knowing everyone by first name. And we no longer just have the guy across the street competing with us.  Get over it.  It’s time to get moving.

Too many companies are waiting to see if November’s election is going to solve their problems, or if Benny Landa has developed the silver bullet. The result is a bunch of folks looking like the proverbial deer in the middle of I-35.  So, let them stay in the road and become a buzzard’s next meal, while you scamper across and find that rich field of corn.  In today’s market, the companies who are strategically planning their moves – and moving – rather than waiting around are going to be the winners.

Here’s a few ideas to kick around with your management team.  What is it we do well?  What is our company’s weaknesses?  What’s the message we want to send to our customers and potential customers?  How do we integrate technology (mobile, social media, websites) to help us spread the message?  How do we train our sales/support teams to think of ourselves as solution providers rather than job shop order takers.  Once you’ve done this, put a plan together and stick to it!  Oh, and you can’t use the phrases service, quality or price. The majority of buyers have heard that before, and you become just another black cat yowling in the alley at midnight.

So, what are you waiting for?  Get over it and get out there and kick some butt.

This week EPA administrator for Region 6, Al Armendariz, resigned.  For many in the regulated community, seeing Mr. Armendariz leave is good news. Although that is not the opinion of the Sierra Club and other environmental groups in Texas, who saw Armendariz as a savior.  “He brought a breath of fresh air — literally and figuratively — to Texas in his vigorous enforcement of the federal Clean Air Act,” was a comment made by Ken Kramer, executive director of the Sierra Club.

Needless to say, those of us on the other side of the fence saw an individual who was extremely aggressive in attempting to interpret regulations which often did not have solid science behind them and often created solutions which were detrimental to the state’s economy and everyone involved with regulations – including the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

Armendariz grew up in El Paso in neighborhoods which were environmentally unprotected; thus his passion for the environment.  And if you’ve seen those neighborhoods (or parts of West Dallas), you can understand his passion.  Yet, as an appointed official he should have been finding ways to use that passion to make meaningful changes.  Issuing statements such as, “Find people who are not complying with the law and you hit them as hard as you can and make examples of them,” or making an analogy to how Romans once conquered villages, “They’d find the first five guys they saw, and they’d crucify them,” is not a way to build bridges.

Personally, I don’t want to see an individual who is in the back pocket of the regulated community.  That is not good for us, or our children.  I hope that Mr. Armendariz’s replacement will have the same passion for the environment, but be willing to find ways to have the regulated community participate in improving the environment.  Crucifixion is not an option.

I’m now getting hate mail from sales reps and CSRs.  OK.  I understand the concerns – but I used to get hate mail from typographers and strippers when I suggested that their days were numbered.  I’m not saying sales reps and CSRs are going to go away – I’m suggesting that we need to do things differently.  With today’s workflow and movement of files, do we really need sales reps holding a customer’s hand?  Do CSRs really need to be running all over the plant chasing down jobs?  If you look at our industry’s more sophisticated operations, they’ve integrated their MIS systems with their production workflow.  So, why aren’t more companies doing so?  As always it gets down to money – and vision.

The software technology exists to truly have a Management Information System and an integrated production workflow.  But it takes a capital investment in “non-production” equipment AND re-training our team to work differently.  And if you think about it, our front offices still operate very similar to how they did 15-20 years ago.  Not true for our production folks.

Do I have an answer? NO, each company is different, but the need to squeeze costs out of our traditional workflow in the front office is necessity for all companies.

Here are some thoughts to consider: Does your sales and CSR team still operate the way it did 10 years ago?  What have you done to reduce the touch points between the estimating process and order entry?  Are you estimating from a price list?  Why not?  Are you still having production meetings every day?  Why?  What can you do so that these meetings are not necessary?  What can (must) be done to simplify the process?  It’s not going to be easy and it’s going to be painful.  So put on your Big Boy/Girl pants, and get after it!

The WSJ reported this past weekend that print advertising sales in magazines were down.  As was reported in the article, we are not seeing a reduced size of pie being spent on advertising,  we are seeing our slice get smaller.  This is problematic for many in our industry who are seeing continued downward pressure on pricing being driven down by online print providers and print management firms.

So, does that mean we need to stop being a printer, as many gurus suggest?  Let’s be honest with ourselves, many in our industry don’t have the genes to be Marketing Service Providers (whatever that means), and there are still a lot of clients who just want to deal with a printer.  Yet, to survive as a print provider and achieve respectable profits (9-12%), a company must develop a unique niche or continue to drive costs out of their operation.  Let’s talk about costs.

Firms have production equipment which make ready in minutes and runs at blazing speeds, but we still have a horse and buggy paperwork process.  Pre-manufacturing workflow (sales, estimating, order entry, production management) is an area which has cost reduction opportunities.  The least amount of touch points we have in our workflow, the higher the probability to reduce variable operating costs and speed up the process.  To quote Peter Drucker, “There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.”

Yet, this is not a simple solution.  It requires extremely IT centric thinking and a different mindset regarding capital expenditures, along with re-thinking how we go about selling work.  The company who embarks on this journey will need to totally re-work the traditional sales/customer service model.  It has to look different.  More thoughts to come.

A recent GreensheetBiz newsletter was focused on packaging  with articles focused on equipment and market opportunities, and it got me thinking.  Since this is the only part of the printing industry which will not face major attrition over the next five to ten years, the focus on this sector makes sense.  Yet, success is not as simple as perform the right market research or buy the right equipment, which is the focus of articles by Sid Chadwick and Aaron Kiel.

Over the past several years, the packaging industry’s profit margins have been eroding because of competition and it’s a market which tends to be dominated by very large players and companies who understand the intricacies of packaging.  It’s not just about printing.

For most general commercial printers, the path to success in packaging is strewn with major obstacles many are not equipped to handle.  And I’m not talking about equipment or market research.  It’s commitment to process control and documentation.  Playing in the packaging world also requires a different mindset in sales and customer service and more importantly pricing.  I don’t disagree with Sid that there are opportunities, but it’s not as easy as “build it and they will come,” which too often is the mindset of many in the general commercial printing world.

Row 11A at 37,000 feet.  It’s a beautiful spring day and I’m off to another meeting.  And thinking.  Forty-one years ago when I first started working for a living, the world was very similar, yet very different. You could travel across the U.S. in hours on a jet aircraft – but the experience was a bit different; the ability to fax a document existed but it took multi-thousand dollar equipment – and six minutes per page; we were still fascinated with autos, but gasoline was about $0.30 a gallon and there were no such vehicles as SUVs with built in GPS and Bluetooth.  Closest vehicle to a SUV was a VW Transporter – and you were more than likely a Hippie and had “turned-on and dropped-out.”  What’s really changed is telecommunications – or should I say mobile communications?

The ability to instantly communicate with anyone at anytime and anywhere in the world is amazing when you think about it.  We are seeing a communication revolution which is similar to what happened when Johann Guttenberg developed print in Europe.  The tsunami of ideas which engulfed the world over the following 150 years was due to an invention which easily allowed ideas to flow to anyone who wanted them.  With today’s mobile media, we are just scratching the surface of possibilities.  Some are fascinating.  Some are down right scary.  Yet, it is truly remarkable how many of us “boomers” have easily made the transition to this new world.  I don’t think I want to go back to the ‘70s, but I’m really curious as to what communication will be like in about 10-15 years.  And yes, print will still be around.  Beam me up Scotty.

Well the first round is over regarding the Affordable Health Care Act.  To the surprise of many (including the author), there is now a possibility that the whole Act could be overturned.  And I might have to agree with some of the justices on this one.  There are so many moving parts to the Act that hang off of each other that by deleting mandated health insurance the Act doesn’t create the necessary funding.  Yet, I’m a bit concerned about the legal precedence that action would create, which could really open a can of worms for many other existing and future laws/regulations.

Personally, I didn’t have a problem with mandated insurance – that’s the only way we can make a “capitalistic” health system work.  It’s similar to the German and Canadian model.  The issue I had with the Affordable Health Care Act is the first word – affordable.  The public was being told (implied) that health care costs would go down with this law.  That’s just crazy talk.  I don’t think that a universal health care plan is a bad idea, but I don’t think AHCA was the right approach.

Well, that might all be moot in a few months.  I just can’t wait!

Tell someone in our industry that you are a print broker, and for many that’s tantamount to saying you’re a sociopath with a contagious disease.  Yet, InnerWorkings, a print management firm (broker on steroids) was just listed by Forbes as one o the top 100 trustworthy firms.  What does this tell us about the our industry’s sales model?

Whether we like it or not, or whether there’s a question if it’s ethical or not; engaging and informing our elected officials involves money.  And with all the “reform” we’ve had over the past 15 years, the methods of influence are not as transparent as we would like to think.  And if we refuse to play; our voice will NEVER be heard; thus the dilemma for many.

Printing Industries of America has always played in this arena – and per many of its members, it’s one of the most valued roles of the Association. Over the many decades of advocacy, Printing Industries of America has been very influential in either modifying or changing laws detrimental to the industry.  Although the Association can only be successful if its message is heard – and that means there has to be a way to help elect/re-elect representatives in Congress who understand and are willing to listen to small business issues.  And that means money.

Trade associations (and other similar organizations) are constrained in using “corporate” dollars to engage legislators. Thus, if an organization wants to help a legislator who is friendly to the industry, it requires PAC (political action committee) money.   Our industry has a PAC.  It’s called PrintPAC.

PrintPAC’s role is to help ensure that legislators who understand small business issues are supported – regardless of which side of the political fence they sit upon.  And these funds are strictly used (and governed) for that use only.  Funding for the Association’s legislative team comes from the Association’s operating budget.

Thus, nationwide a campaign has begun to help fund PrintPAC.  We’re not asking for much.  $50.00; $100; and if someone is generous, we’ll take $500.  That’s not a lot of money when one considers the importance of having our voice heard in Washington.

If each owner or manager of a company could provide a minimum of $1.00 per employee for PrintPAC on an annual basis, the result would be legendary.  Since the average size of a company is 28 employees, we’re not talking big dollars – but we need more than just a handful of companies (less than 200 individuals support PrintPAC) to support PrintPAC.

With the many issues Congress is facing – from health care issues to USPS issues, our industry will be affected; thus, it’s critically important that have a say in the legislation, not just hope things will go our way.  It’s important to remember the old adage – if you’re not at the dinner table, you become dinner.