DeWese--Print Buyers Speak Their Minds

Wow! Am I totally excited!

I just participated in the most momentous printing event of this millennium!

Only 17 people were present: a court reporter, 15 print buyers and me. The print buyers work in the health care, education, financial services, advertising, automobile, consumer goods and agricultural industries. Collectively, the print buyers have more than 240 years of print purchasing experience for an average of more than 16 years each. As a group, they will purchase nearly $70 million in printing this year. If they bought all that printing from one company, it would rank 89th on Printing Impressions' Top 500 list.

There were no printers present in the room or within earshot. I was asked to facilitate this half-day focus group and lead them in a discussion of how they select their printers. The print buyers had agreed to have their answers and comments recorded by the court reporter.

Their answers were powerful!

I've attended dozens of industry top management conferences over the past 20 years. Sometimes, I've yawned while industry experts and highly paid (outside) speakers pontificated on everything from the future of the printing industry to strategic marketing for printing companies.

Never once at these industry functions have I heard a single print buyer tell us what they like and don't like about printers. Now I was in a room with 15 print buyers, and I wasn't going to blow the opportunity.

This focus group was a first-ever meeting of the Printing Industries of Michigan Customer Advisory Board. The meeting was in a conference room at the Skyline Club outside of Detroit. It could just as easily been at some executive club in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles or Birmingham, AL.

I was given only one question to ask the group and was told to spin my follow-up questions out of their responses to that question. The question was, "How do you select your print suppliers?"

One by one, around the table, the participants thoughtfully articulated the characteristics they seek and the criteria they apply to the printing companies they use. They didn't fumble for answers. They gave no incomplete answers. They gave in-depth answers and gave examples. They seemed to feed on one another.

This group of nine women and six men were obviously seasoned, veteran, print buyers who knew what they were doing. I would have to be at my best. They were smart. They had personalities. They took pride in their work. Several of the participants had worked for printing companies before becoming print buyers. Some had run presses. Others had worked in customer service, estimating and production.

None of them was holding back, so I asked them, "What things would disqualify a printer?"

Now the group was relaxed and into the process, and they began to respond spontaneously by raising their hands.

One by one, they opened up about their dislikes and the deadly mistakes a printer can make to lose their favor. They also talked about the sales behavior of sales reps during the prospecting process. These comments ranged from a salesperson's behavior on a first call to the voicemail sales pitches left by prospecting salespeople.

Notice that I'm not giving you any of the actual responses. I had to promise Nick Wagner, the president of the Printing Industries of Michigan, that I wouldn't divulge any of the content of the report (see box, page 75) that PIM will be selling to printers across the United States.

I will leak this. One of the print buyers, a woman who supervises 20 people in the print production department, said, "I'll tell you one thing that turns us off: It's a prospecting salesperson who has done no research on us. Salespeople who know nothing about us have not paid their dues. It's insulting when they call, because they know nothing about our company or what we print."

Of course, I'm never one to say, "I told you so." But, darn it, I have been telling readers of this column—for more than 15 years—to research prospects before you call on them. I guess I'm not credible. I guess you think I'm just old rhetoric breath trying to make work for you. Now you've heard it from a print buyer.

Furthermore, the other 14 print buyers echoed her sentiments about salespeople who haven't done their precall preparation, research and planning.

Soon, the group led me into a discussion of samples. They told some horror stories of salespeople who show problem samples with hickeys, ghosting and poor binding. Oops! I just leaked something else.

Now, I couldn't stop the group. Every round of responses led to another easy question for me.

They talked about technology; what they need and where they see it headed. They talked about the people in printing companies, including the president, pressmen, bindery workers, CSRs, the estimating department and the receptionist.

Many of the group's complaints seemed to be easy things to fix. It was clear to me that no one had ever asked these buyers how they felt about the level of service they receive and expect. I began to think, "These buyers are giving our industry dozens of ideas for improvement. I'll bet no one ever asked them these questions before."

At the beginning of the session, I asked them to introduce themselves, their companies and talk about the kinds of printing they buy. Most of them openly revealed their 1999 print budgets. Their printing needs ran the gamut from short-run DocuTech or digital printing, to short-to-medium-run sheetfed, to web run lengths in the millions. The quality ranged from one- to three-color work, to pleasing color, to high-end eight- and 10-color work with exotic finishing.

It was all I could do to adjourn the session. The group wanted to keep talking. I finally stopped them long enough to write the topics they wish to discuss at meeting No. 2 in April 2000.

Even after I adjourned the meeting, the group stayed on talking to one another. They were excited about finally being heard. The customer had spoken, and the customer was energized.

Every owner, sales manager, manager and salesperson in America should read this report. In fact, I would encourage companies to get the report and study it together. I would use it like the old quality circles and divvy up the parts that relate to the pressroom, the parts that relate to the sales department and so on.

This was the finest printing industry meeting I've ever attended: Period. I can say that with a clear conscience. I facilitated the meeting for nothing more than Nick Wagner's thanks, and I will earn nothing from the sale of the report.

I ordered and will pay for 100 copies to send my clients as Christmas and Hanukkah gifts. It will be much more valuable than those mittens I sent last year.

Now, while you're waiting for your copy of the report to arrive, get out there, listen to your prospects and accounts, and maybe, just maybe, you'll sell them something.

—Harris DeWese

About the Author
Harris DeWese is the author of "Now Get Out There and Sell Something!" published by Nonpareil Books. DeWese is a principal at Compass Capital Partners Ltd. DeWese specializes in investment banking, mergers and acquisitions, sales, marketing, planning and management services to printing companies. He is one of the authors of the annual "Compass Report," the definitive source of information regarding printing industry merger and acquisition activity.