Business Management - Marketing/Sales

This is a printing salesperson psychotherapy column. I have to write these every so often because I get bagfuls of letters, gigabytes of e-mails and memory-filling voice mails from distraught and depressed print salespeople. You've got hard jobs, and some of you have stupid bosses and even stupider competitors. These conditions can create considerable anxiety for even the strongest of psyches. The stock market tanked. Mr. Greenspan waited too long to reduce interest rates. The economy has been headed in the wrong direction. The presidential election results in Florida had to be counted, recounted and litigated, and all of the TV coverage sickened

CHAMBERSBURG, PA—Some established GPO vendors maintained their place in the latest list of the GPO's Top 50 volume producers. Keeping the top spot was Montebello, CA-based Monarch Litho, which saw a 27 percent increase in its winnings to nearly $33 million. News Printing of Claysburg, PA, also increased its GPO volume and ranks again as the second-largest producer of printing for the federal government. While familiar faces to this list are prevalent from top to bottom, there are always some new faces. Two examples: Colonial Press International, a commercial sheetfed printer in Miami, and Larco International, a laser imaging and mail house located in

All the debates on television between the Republican and Democrat spin masters during the presidential debates and then, subsequently, their endless debates about the debatable election results got me to thinking how far down we Americans have fallen in the graceful and gentle art of conversation. We Americans have become lousy conversationalists. Even Gore and Bush seemed challenged by this most basic form of human communication. You would think the two presidential candidates that represent the two major political parties of the greatest country in the world would be master conversationalists—good at attentively listening to an opponent and then responding. Shouldn't they also be our most

It's the time of the year when, no matter what your beliefs, we seem to do our best self-examination. I know that I do and lots of times I don't like what I examine about myself. I sure hope that your year-end introspection enables you to count many accomplishments in your careers, a great sense of company satisfaction, real pride in your industry and, most of all, a variety of contributions that you've made to the community and world that you occupy.

This column is number 176. It marks the beginning of my 17th year writing for Printing Impressions. I've written 11 columns per year for 16 years. (The PI columnists get every July off.) My columns contain about 1,250 words and the average word is about six letters. Oh, once in awhile I'll use a 14-letter word or some 12-letter words, but then I'm more of a four- to six-letter word writer. Six-letter words are about 1⁄2˝, so when you throw in the spaces between words, all the words in all of my columns would stretch about two miles. Or, another perspective is that

Last month I wrote that about 35 percent of all printing salespeople are laggards—underachieving slackers and no-account dawdlers who feed at the trough of their employers. Most of these folks arrive late, leave early, sell only on price, make no new account calls and blame their failures on the plant. At the risk of getting sued, I'm going to name some names in this column. I'm going to give you the facts on two members of my all-time Rogues Gallery of Print Saleslackers in the hope that it may convince them to resign or it may help some other borderline malingerers to get on

This column will celebrate the outstanding performance of America's print salespeople or at least most of America's 100,000-plus print salespeople. About 20 percent of the 100,000 are mediocre underachievers who, while possessing some sales ability, never seem to realize their potential. Another 15 percent are woeful laggards who, like the infamous Marvelle Stump, never earn their draws—but never fail to cash their payroll checks. In one sense, the under-performing 35 percent are good for the achievers, because their failure to sell creates extra sales and commissions for the achievers. The slackers also serve a useful purpose by making the contributors look even better. I decided to

Another one of my stupid birthdays happened, as it does every year, on June 30th. It was my 58th birthday! The good news is that, at 58, I am healthy enough to have passed a physical to buy another $2 million in life insurance. The agent has already delivered the policy and I've paid the first year's premium. I'm kind of an insurance junky. I'm insured for everything. Insurance agents hear my name and they drool. The bad news is that I wrote my first Printing Impressions column 16 years ago when I was 42 and still had a flat belly. Sixteen years writing

This column is too important to read alone in your office or in the bar where you've gone for lunch or by the pool where you're sipping a few Wacky Wackies or in that field of daisies where, in slow motion, you've gone to contemplate your navel. Please don't attempt to read this while you are driving. This is my most important column yet and you should take it home and gather your loved ones, if you have any. They need to hear the column because it affects your future and theirs. If you work for a printing company, an equipment manufacturer, a

This is the column where I announce the winners in the sales letter contest that I announced in my January column. But first, 'scuse me while I do my old man aerobics exercises. I'm trying to burn off some calories. I've put this fat old body on a 1,500 calorie-per-day diet and I'm going to keep losing weight until you all: