LETTERS to the editor
Commentary Draws Fire
Dear Editor:
In Erik Cagle’s Bits and Pieces column (August 2007 issue), he states that he was floored when every printer at his table said if they found the sales rep to be reprehensible, they would not do a deal with that rep.
He was floored?
This is a revelation?
Look, a reprehensible (his word) rep means a reprehensible deal, reprehensible follow-through, reprehensible service and an overall reprehensible experience.
Where’s the good business sense in that? When the sales guy is a jerk, you don’t ask yourself why a company would allow a jerk to represent it in the market? You don’t ask why they can’t afford or keep a non-jerk as a rep?
I do. Every time. To me a good deal with a lousy rep probably just ain’t the good deal it looks like.
Trust me; in the bread-and- butter world of commercial print sales, paper sales and, yes, equipment sales, it’s the rep’s ability to maintain a customer relationship that clinches the deal every time.
And if the reps come and go, then there’s a problem with the rep, or with the vendor the rep works for.
Pete Brown
VP, Sales and Estimating
Oddi Atlantic
Easton, MD
Dear Editor:
With due respect, I am surprised to read the comments by Erik Cagle on the role of sales representatives in the purchase of equipment by printing companies. In the printing industry, as in every business, the relationship is what matters. People will buy from people they like, and will find every reason possible to not buy from people they don’t like.
In a world where there is so little differentiation within product line and price (no matter what the business), the only real differentiator is the person you are working with, the relationship you have with them, the communication that takes place (in both directions) and the service they provide.
Selling is a relationship business, pure and simple. It always has been and likely always will be!
Larry T. Cook
Regional Vice President, Sales
Cenveo
Stamford, CT
Winning Ways With Websites
Dear Editor:
Thanks to PI columnist Harris DeWese for naming Cohber Press (September 2007 issue) as the Grand Prize winner of his Website contest.
Cohber works hard to stay on the bleeding edge of technology, and we pass that technology on so that our clients reap the benefit.
Paul F. Galligan
VP/Managing Director
Cohber Digital Marketing Solutions
Rochester, NY
Printing Impressions encourages feedback from its readers. Write to Mark Michelson, Editor-in-Chief, Printing Impressions, 1500 Spring Garden St., 12th Floor, Philadelphia, PA 19130; e-mail mmichelson@napco.com. Some letters published are edited due to space constraints.
