Two Decades of Laughs with Substance --DeWese

This is my 20th anniversary column. I have written 220 columns. I don't have to write columns for the month of July because Printing Impressions always publishes a buyer's guide directory for that month. Otherwise, I would have written 240 columns.

After I wrote them, Printing Impressions actually published all 220 columns, no matter what I said.

For example, who can forget when, in December of 1984, I wrote, "Selling is probably the least important funkshun in the printing bidness. Somebody has to go out and pick up the orders." I added, "Salespeople are snakes and charlatans. Don't trust 'em. Just send 'em out to pick up your orders and let 'em hang out in their offices the rest of the time."

Remember that in 1984 there was no spell check on these computers, I was still writing with a Southern accent, Attila the Editor was only a rookie and he was afraid to correct my work.

Then in 1986 I wrote, "Don't worry about the price. Your commission is the most important thing. Mark up all your estimates by 100 percent. The customers don't care; they will pay it." I added, "And all this stuff about price, quality and service is a lot of hooey. The customers can't have a low price AND still expect good quality and fast service."

In 1987 I wrote, "Who are all these stupid consultants that keep harping on quality—stuff like dot gain and ghosting? And why is on-time delivery so damn important? Let the customers wait. They will appreciate the job more if they have to wait a couple of weeks."

Flashback to the '80s

Then March of 1988 rolled around, and I wrote about competition. "Your competitors are scum buckets. Don't worry about 'em. There's plenty of business to go around. Just get your share of the high-margin jobs and let sleaze balls take the rest." I ended the column by writing, "Printing companies never go broke. No matter how hard you try, you just can't kill a printing company because there's too much money in printing."

One month later, in April of 1988, I implored the printing industry to grow by writing, "We need more cylinders! If every company has just one more press, the industry will grow 25 percent by 1990. Heidelberg, MAN Roland, Komori and Miller have to step up and manufacture more presses. Maybe they could move more presses if they offered no down payment, no payments and no interest for a year. Some low-end furniture stores do it and it works great. Can't they see we're in a rock solid economy and printing jobs are going begging?"

In an earlier column in late 1984, I predicted, "There are about 55,000 printing companies in the United States now. With all the printing that's available and our ability to continually raise prices, I'll bet there will be 75,000 to 80,000 printing companies by 2004 and we will have doubled prices."

These profound statements were beginning to get me some notoriety by 1991, when all of a sudden the whole economy went in the tank and took the printing industry with it.

I decided to lay low until the economic storm passed, hoping the industry experts and you readers would forget what I had written. I concentrated on my diet and my garden, and tried to write "feel good" columns—you know, kinda rhetorical lullabies.

In fact one industry expert observed, "It seems like printing demand seems to improve when DeWese loses weight and decline when he gains weight."

The accompanying chart contrasts my weight loss and gain, tomato production and the economic ups and downs of the printing industry over the past 20 years. You will see how my weight and garden production drives print sales. Further testimony, I might add, to my profound importance in the printing industry.

In 1993 another very jealous industry expert talked about me in his hotshot keynote address during Graph Expo at some fancy event on the 82nd floor of some pricey hotel. My invitation to the event was lost in the mail, but I heard about it later. He said, "DeWese, the so-called Mañana Man, has written a garbage-can-full of fluff that can be condensed down to about a shot glass full of substance." The big shot speaker added, "Reading and paying attention to his columns can be dangerous to your health."

I bit my lip and never fired back at this guy. But now, I will: "Oh yeah, Mister, the substance of my 220 columns is at least a fifth and maybe even a quart bottle full."

Let's see if I can summarize all of those columns now.

Print salespeople probably won't be successful unless they work for successful printing companies. Successful printing companies are managed by owner/leaders who are actively engaged in all aspects of the business. And, they are MOST actively engaged with the customers and prospects. They are managers who listen to the customers and the salespeople. They are absolutely and totally dedicated to satisfying clients and to supporting the salespeople.

So, if you work for some dog company that is run by some guy who shows up hung-over at 10:30 a.m. in his 2004 luxury convertible, you are probably not going to be successful. Get it? Dog companies have old equipment run by discontented people who would rather be somewhere else. You should be somewhere else, too.

If you are a self-centered, egocentric whiner, you are not going to succeed in print sales either. A whiner has low self-esteem and print buyers can smell it before you even open your mouth.

Printing is a tough, competitive business, and only people with strong likability factors and magnificent listening skills who are keenly interested in other people versus themselves will succeed. Get it? Selfish whiners are losers. Selfless listeners are winners.

Winners also work long hours. When it's daylight, they see customers face-to-face. When it's dark, they write up their orders and plan the next day. When winners write up orders and write specs, they don't make mistakes that screw up the plant.

Winners are supremely responsive. No customer phone call or e-mail goes unanswered for more than 15 minutes. I know it's hard, but that's why winners get the big bucks.

Printing is a highly complex and changing technology. Winners know what they are selling. Whether it's gravure, flexo, sheetfed offset, web offset or old-time letterpress, winners know their prepress, press and finishing capabilities cold.

Winners also intimately know their markets, whether by product or industry. They can name the major and most minor players in their target markets, and can tell you a lot about each company. They are also students of their customers and priority prospects. They know the human beings who buy printing and they know the organizations that employ those humans.

Winners spend at least one third of their time prospecting for new business. They know that nothing is forever and they must keep the pipeline full. They know that account concentration is a dangerous thing, and that many salespeople and printing companies have found themselves in bankruptcy because they had too many bottles of milk in one wet paper bag.

Winners have an inbred sense of service to others (both in print sales and with humanity in general). They know how to serve and do it with pride. Losers somehow feel that serving others is demeaning.

Know How to Ask

Winners always ask for the order. They know a thousand ways to ask for the order and usually pick the right way to ask, with the right customer, at the right time.

Well, that probably sums it up for 20 years worth of columns. That was at least a quart of substance.

Now it's time to thank all you readers for stopping by. I'm not retiring 'cause I've still got another shot glass full of substance. Your letters, e-mails and phone calls inspire me to try harder and I'm grateful for all your kind words.

My thanks to Mr. Irv Borowsky, the founder of North American Publishing, for first giving me the chance to write this column 20 years ago. Mr. Irv told me, "Harris, I'm going to make you more famous than Harris Margolis." Mr. Irv, I have at least become more infamous than Harris Margolis, the famous accountant to the printing industry. And thanks to Mr. Ned Borowsky, Mr. Irv's son and company president, for keeping me on.

I also want to thank Mark Michelson, my main boss editor, for 20 years of encouragement, support and patience with the Mañana Man's excuses. I've used everything from the dog eating my paper in 1985 to the dog peeing on my hard drive in 2003. Can I say that? Can I say the dog urinated on my PC?

I also wish to thank the industry and my clients who inspire what I write. Special thanks to my buddies Ronnie Bray, Dave Jurist, Roy Grossman and Kitty St. Sauveur for their encouragement and ideas.

I promised my personal trainer, Tommie Batgos, I would mention his name in my column. He has motivated me and given me enormous energy and new stamina. He has not only muscled me up, but his sessions are entertaining and fun.

Finally, thanks to my wife of 42 years, Anne—Attila the Nun—for reading these columns aloud and laughing at my self-deprecation, which she knows to be true. And thanks to two of my best friends, my daughter Susanna, the battling defense attorney, and my son Andrew, the up-and-coming investment banker, for reading these columns before submission.

Finally, finally thanks to my long-time Compass Capital Partners colleagues Kathy Shoenfelt and Peter Schaefer for putting up with me.

Now, you people need to get out there and sell something before I write any more words!

—Harris DeWese

About the Author

Harris DeWese is the author of Now Get Out There and Sell Something, available through NAPL or PIA/GATF. He is chairman and CEO at Compass Capital Partners and is an author of the annual "Compass Report," the definitive source of information regarding printing industry M&A activity. DeWese has completed more than 100 printing company transactions and is viewed as the preeminent deal maker in the printing industry. He specializes in investment banking, mergers and acquisitions, sales, marketing, planning and management services to printing companies. He can be reached via e-mail at DeWeseH@ComCapLtd.com.